How automation can prevent hair loss.
The CFO
Every year, CFOs around the world get closer to baldness during closing periods. Not a completely proven fact but here it goes.
At the end of the accounting year, a hair follicle starts to drop, and then another and another. This phenomenon is not always accurate but it depicts the stress levels felt by overworked and undervalued CFOs who need to report to corporate about the company’s financial health.
Some organizations have to consolidate tera, sometimes peta bytes of data every year and organize them in a way that is deemed adequate for all concerned stakeholders. A company is judged upon its financial earnings and getting that information out of the realms of the accounting department can be tricky if it weren’t for state of the art software.
Where Enterprise Software Comes In
Gone are the days of manually recording in the general ledgers, nowadays, companies use enterprise software to input and output their data. Yet, a big part of this practice is the quality of data that is produced.
When an event like a selling item withdrawal is triggered, Sparta immediately creates a journal entry that will be posted in the Inventory Ledger. Let’s say we credit the Inventory account, debit COGS. Simple enough yet the volume of transactions can populate exponentially, creating a messy digital repository.
Enterprise Software creates transparency and visibility, on boarding every stakeholder for a swift decision making process. Sparta enables the finance team to clearly define any contingencies that might hinder any business process flow.
With clear and concise dashboards, the user can easily address issues, complete pending tasks and align goals with the long term strategies for optimal management.
Sparta outputs financial transactions for every automatic trigger (Sales of Generator here)
Financial Management
As CFOs have shifted from a less actuarial role to more of a decision-making position, their internal controlling mechanism is being powered by technology. Inside the organization, numbers will flow to the financial statements. Thanks to dedicated enterprise software, the data is easily accessible in a structured format.
Structure is key in making quality decisions. Nowadays, CFOs can rely on real-time data to ensure that they are on top of things: delegating their AP, AR, Asset Control and Analytics teams to leverage this data set for process efficiency and better financial planning.
Planning is vital, since business is relentlessly dynamic; CFOs need these tools for agile decision making. Many regulations can impact the bottom line so having accurate data can easily help CFOs to be compliant in a very timely manner.
Why Automate?
When a business event is produced, Sparta enterprise software records it and outputs a result such as a status update ‘PO-123X has been CREATED’ or an alert ‘Your Expense account 6321X is showing a credit balance’.
These notifications signal a change in the data set. They require an action that can get the process going to the next step. For our first example, creation of a PO shows intent for purchasing, yet given a specific allocated budget, it has to go through validation points before being delivered and invoiced. As a rule, indicating certain condition sets and looking for non-abnormalities, we can streamline that process and automate the value chain.
Automation can ease the burden of the finance and accounting team. Many processes are still human driven and require a tedious amount of work to get done. With the use of automation, the accounting team can easily invoice received orders, pay outstanding invoices or reconcile bank statements.
Another helpful aspect of automation is the ability to manage cash flow: Daniel Sorensen from Tipalti states that “Mismanaging funds is the main problem that can make any business go bankrupt”. Adding that “Automating activities also allows owners to quickly see how much they are generating”.
Sparta cloud enterprise software is leveraging Robotic Process Automation or RPA as well as Machine Learning to get ahead of the pack. Developing tools like automated payroll processing, predictive stock replenishment points and region based sales forecasts are some of the areas where our expertise are being used.
The modern CFO will demand these technologies to keep up with the complexity of the business needs.
Automation and AI can work in tandem: here is a piece of ML powered functionality that incorporates into Sparta
CFOs Of Tomorrow
Embracing technology is the new norm for the CFO of tomorrow. With digitization right at the fore front of change, CFOs are seeing their role change. A study shows that “more than two thirds (70%) of CFOs have full responsibility for digital transformation” (Asavin Wattanajantra from Sage.com blog).
This newly inherited role demonstrates the commanding power of the new age CFO. Companies are ever more reliant on their input, where in this day and age, their decision can potentially pivot the direction of the company altogether.
CFOs will be responsible for coordinating a team of data driven individuals, walking them through the financial details of the different business processes. It’s safe to say that, the traditional recruitment of accountant or financiers will be different. A data centric, actuary employee will prove more value than an accounting graduate.
In the mist of this role redefining, cloud software providers like ours are betting big on liberating the CFO and the team with automation.
In Summary
Stress induced hair loss is a serious issue, well some of the times. And we’re not claiming to have found the magical cure for it. But for most of the CFOs that might be worried, we’re providing a path to relief. The CFO job can be stressful, even with the use of great accounting software.
This newly inherited role demonstrates the commanding power of the new age CFO. Companies are ever more reliant on their input, where in this day and age, their decision can potentially pivot the direction of the company altogether.
Although the automating accounting tasks has its benefits, sometimes automation can lead to confusion and might even blur the line of the day to day life of an accountant. Since the accountant is the gate-keeper of data, the CFO will need his/her support of the data isn’t making sense.
Our goal with Sparta is to streamline accounting and liberate the team to contribute on value adding. The world is getting convoluted but fortunately, a world of ease is just around the corner…
To see Sparta in action, book a super quick demo today: Show Me!