Financial institutions operate in a very complex and intricate network of competition, regulations, and a very dynamic market.

With recent technological advancements, some companies may be struggling to keep up with ever-changing demands, as well as mitigating rising costs. Such issues can be overcome through financial automation, which is achieved by implementing a financial management solution such as Acumatica Financials.

Start by standardising

The first step in achieving financial automation is through the standardisation of overall financial and reporting procedures and processes. It is very common for some companies to be plagued with over the top protocols which may easily be remnants of past procedures and policies. By regularly standardising overall processes, companies can get a better overview of where their time is being wasted.

In addition to saving time and money, standardisation also benefits the reconciliation process, which ensures more accuracy of loan accounting. In turn, this also enables the company to easily provide auditors with the correct documentation when required.

Optimise your transactions

The amount of transactions and associated paperwork should come as no surprise to anyone that has ever dealt with a financial institution. The sheer amount of reconciliations, transfers, and transactions can take up a lot of precious time on a regular basis, which detracts from other important work such as customer satisfaction and business development.

Optimising transactions can save countless hours of manual work every month. This is possible with Acumatica Financials, which can also interface outward payments with other payment services such as SEPA. In addition to this, Acumatica can integrate with other internal banking applications in order to retrieve accurate customer information and conduct the necessary bank account transfers.

Keep track of asset balances

The ability to balance assets is a central process for most companies. However, this can be a very difficult task for accountants to handle, especially when one considers the balances of key bank accounts, credit card accounts, lockbox accounts, etc.

By automating reconciliations, companies have the ability to continuously verify such asset balances in order to ensure that the process is seamless. This is possible with Acumatica Financials, which allows a user to configure various payment checks and validations including standard IBAN and BIC checks. Additionally, Acumatica can also conduct validation checks and flag any inconsistencies so that accountants can review these before confirmation.

Adopt an automated approach across the board

It is quite common for tasks to be distributed amongst different teams within the finance department, so a single process will generally pass through multiple channels and individuals. This can create a considerable number of issues related to human error, however an automated approach can provide a centralised mechanism of closely monitoring tasks at every stage.

In addition, this allows workflows to be easily configured to better manage various accounting and finance processes, as well as other tasks connected to reconciliations. Automation with proper software can also allow a user to have a real-time snapshot of the workflow, identifying potential bottlenecks and other pending tasks.

Integrate to existing systems

While it is true that new software applications tend to be more technologically advanced, a complete overhaul of existing programmes is often an impossible task for most companies. In fact, the most popular software solutions are those ones which can easily be integrated into existing systems. This is a cost-saving exercise, as companies can improve on their existing platforms and retain vital information such as POS data, credit statements, or any other customer information that they require.

The automation of financial processes is a necessity in the current business climate, as it provides accuracy, control, and visibility. By combining technical automation and process optimisation, companies can modernise their approach to accounting and financial services. Learn how Acumatica Financials can help achieve financial process automation for your business.