Accounting automation -it’s a term that has been bouncing around the accounting and bookkeeping industry for the past few years.
Automation allows accountants and bookkeepers to spend less time on the manual labour they have traditionally spent a majority of their roles on. That sounds ideal, however there has been discussion within the industry that automation is a tool that will replace accountants completely.
And it’s partly true. Automation reduces the amount of time spent on manual tasks, for example data extraction, such as ABM Billfeeds, a service that is offered to all customers of ABM’s accounting software. This service allows users to get supplier invoices automatically sent to the software and the information such as invoice number, date, line item details and total cost is automatically extracted and the data is available in the software in a matter of seconds.
In comparison, the manual process to complete the task would require the invoice to be sent to the accounts team, and then someone assigned to entering the correct details into the system, taking a couple of minutes per invoice.
In theory, automation does take less time to complete than having staff do it but the real value of automation is that it frees up accountants and bookkeepers from these manual tasks to spend time on higher value work. Not only do they have more time on their hands but accountants and bookkeepers are now able to manage their jobs with increased efficiency.
Automation helps accountants and bookkeepers to be better and faster at their jobs, leading them to improved outputs and allowing them to use their expertise within different areas of the business to help their business and their customers succeed.
Technology’s relationship with accountants will continue to develop, making better accountants and bookkeepers out of staff, ultimately leading to better business decisions.
