Top 4 Niche Automation Tools to Save Your Accounting Team

Automation tools can be a challenge for companies because they could replace employees’ jobs. These tools and automated processes may be able to replicate some tasks that humans perform, but they also free workers. Automation tools can also increase productivity and reduce errors. They can also provide data-driven insights that might otherwise be overlooked.

In functional areas such as accounting, automation tools are something incoming staff members welcome and expect. For example, a 2018 survey of soon-to-be accounting graduates revealed 71% linked automated processes and tech with the profession’s future success. A majority of the participants agreed that technology makes their work easier.

Top 4 Niche Automation Tools to Save Your Accounting Team

The C-suite is starting to believe that tech will speed up business work. According to a study by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, more than 50% of top executives foresee developing complete automated accounting systems. Automation tools are available in many areas of accounting and offer a variety of features.

Automation tools cover everything, from payroll to project management and invoicing. These are four niche categories of automation tools that can boost the performance of your accounting team.

1. Revenue Reporting for Digital Content

Digital content is everywhere. You can find blog posts, YouTube videos, downloadable songs files, and many other creations online. Many people and companies make this content available online for monetization.

While they may be the creators of the content, many companies hire performers and production studios to help them. This means that there are other entities or individuals to whom fees and royalties can be paid.

It is also important to track what content generates revenue and how much. These processes can be automated by digital rights management platforms or revenue reporting tools for your accounting staff.

To calculate the revenue for each piece, they won’t need to enter the data manually into a spreadsheet. Software that automates revenue reporting can be used to calculate the fees your company owes producers and other creative collaborators.

One example is Aux Mode, a DRM platform that developed revenue reporting software to calculate these figures and help monetize your YouTube content. Reports can be generated by your accounting team that details the revenue from each piece of content.

These reports can be broken down by title or series to show the income. Automated reporting tools can reveal trends in views, overall revenues, as well as amounts generated over different periods.
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2. Expense Management for Projects

Companies, like those in the construction sector, can generate revenue and incur expenses for different projects or jobs. Automation tools that integrate project management and accounting features help track transactions within individual projects.

Your accounting team could spend hours associating expenses reports and other transactions with specific jobs.

Acumatica or Jonas Premier will now automatically complete these tasks and ensure that expenses are reconciled with the right project. This will save your accountants time and reduce the repetitive work involved in accounting.

The likelihood of errors occurring can be reduced by using the integrated expense and project management tools. Your team won’t need to investigate why invoices are arriving and how to expense them.

Project and expense management tools allow project managers to work more effectively with accounting teams. Project leaders can track the progress of tasks and see what may be holding up vendors’ invoice payments. Accounting managers can better predict expenses and payouts. Both sides can see how each job or project contributes to overall company revenue.

3. Credit Card Management and Reconciliation

Businesses can manage their payments with credit cards, which are convenient for employees and incidental expenses. These incidentals may include expenses for business travel such as hotel rooms, rental cars, and gas. These incidentals can include office supplies and break room snacks. Accounting teams can find it difficult to manage, track, and reconcile multiple credit card payments from employees.

Accounting staff might be spending too much time on additional tasks such as catching fraud, errors, and misuse. When employees are stretched thin, mistakes and potential abuse can be difficult to spot. Fortunately, there are digital accounting tools to handle many of these tasks and workflows.

To catch fraudulent transactions and mistakes, your accounting team can use reconciliation software such as Fyle and Abacus for credit card management. This software can do the job continuously, rather than employees double-checking for errors during closing.

These tools can be configured to reconcile monthly statements against credit card transactions. This will reduce the chance of accounting teams having to go through the paper and multiple spreadsheets.
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4. Cash Flow Management and Predictions

Knowing how much cash your company has is a critical part of being an accountant. Your company needs to meet its financial obligations, and poor cash flow management can lead to missed payments. Insufficient cash flow management can lead to insolvency. You can maintain a healthy amount of reserves by keeping track of what is coming in and going away.

Sometimes, it can be hard for decision-makers and accounting teams to identify the root causes of cash flow problems. These problems could be caused by unexpected expenses or too many invoices. Slow accounts receivable processing could also contribute to these problems. By syncing all processes and factors that affect a company’s cash flow, technology can help eliminate blind spots.

CashAnalytics or HighRadius are automated tools that can help you manage and forecast your cash flow. They also provide future forecasts for your cash flow. Your accounting team and leaders can get micro and macro views of how cash flow is affecting the company.

This allows the team to make better decisions about whether terms for receivables should be changed. The executives will be able to see if there is enough cash flow to fund facility expansions and other capital projects. Your company’s financial data will be more accurate.
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Conclusion

Some employees may feel anxious about giving up their job tasks or workflows to technology. Some employees may be concerned that their jobs will disappear or that the nature and scope of their work will change. Automation can and does, change the tasks that people do. However, it also opens up opportunities for meaningful work.

No accounting team is an exception. They can be free from tedious, frustrating, and low morale tasks by using automation tools. They will be able to save time, do more, increase accuracy, and make better decisions. They’ll also feel empowered and freer to use their advanced skills.