Automation is not the big bad boogeyman people often associate with AI (which is actually not that big and bad either). It’s not going to make accountants and bookkeepers redundant. What it will do, however, is change their roles, making them more challenging (perhaps) but more satisfying (certainly).
There is a but.
But accountants must embrace this change. Failing to do so won’t make you redundant, but it might make you come across as fuddy-duddy-esque, which will affect your employment chances.
We’re going to look at how automation truly impacts your role as an accountant, so you can avoid fuddy-duddiness, upgrade your skillset, and become a professional force to be reckoned with.
Where Will Automation Have the Biggest Impact?
Drudgery. All processes that are repetitive, time-consuming, or which require a lot of manual data entry and error-free processing. So, data entry, payroll management, invoicing, reconciliations, and regulatory compliance.
What does this mean for you?
You have more time for the exciting, challenging stuff, like data analysis and interpretation. Access to accurate, real-time data enables you to work on financial projections and deliver strategic insights that guide sustainable growth.
To succeed in the new world, you need some key skills, which we’ll look at below.
Take to new tech
This means making friends with tech, so you can get the most out of its features. For instance:
- Artificial Intelligence: AI can automate things like invoice data entry, balance recons, and generate reports for stakeholders. It can also send payment reminders to clients and remind you of payments due.
- Machine Learning: ML learns from past information, enabling it to detect patterns, which enables it to detect anomalies, which you can then investigate.
- Robotic Process Automation: RBA integrates with AI to create a process called hyperautomation. Workflows are entirely automated from start to finish, including things like fraud identification, payment schedules, and real-time ledger updates.
Thanks to tech, laborious tasks can be done in mere minutes, without a single human involved.
Polish soft skills
Tech lays all the data you need at your feet. It’s up to you to give it value. This requires:
- Critical thinking: Making sense of data and using it to gain insights into clients’ current financial situation.
- Strategic insight: Applying out-of-the-box thinking to your client’s current situation and developing strategies to increase revenue, reduce expenses, optimize tax deductibles, and allocate resources more effectively.
- Clear communication: Communication is important anyway, but when conveying strategies and explaining tactics you must be absolutely crystal clear without a hint of impatience or condescension.
Soft skills don’t always come naturally, so be prepared to broaden your mind.
Meet compliance & regulatory requirements
Financial regulations are both stable and fluid. Stable because no matter what happens, compliance is non-negotiable. Fluid because they’re prone to change, which can become complex if you operate across state lines and/or internationally.
Compliance includes:
- GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
- IFRS: International Financial Reporting Standards
- National banking regulations, including Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
- Relevant ISO standards. ISO is an international standards organization that covers everything from quality control or data security. Standards relevant to finance include ISO 48245: Retail financial services.
Failure to comply results in fines, audits, and reputational damage. Automation can be set to monitor these requirements and automatically update systems to keep up with changes.
Enjoy the Advantages
Instead of feeling threatened by automation, take the bull by the horns and maximize the heck out of its benefits. Including:
- Scalability: Some automated systems are designed to scale with business expansion, including additional local entities and global multi-currency transactions.
- Accuracy: Accountants are human and humans make mistakes. Unfortunately for accounts, small mistakes can have serious consequences. Automation removes the risk, ensuring accurate reports and records (pleasing the taxman).
- Productivity: Automation saves time, which you can spend productively on strategic tasks, planning, or forecasting, and skills development to enhance services, perhaps with an eye towards specialization.
Cost-savings is another big benefit, including savings on operational costs and more efficient use of resources (people are resources too).
Choose Your Weapon
It’s important to choose the solution that meets your needs. This requires a little effort on your part because you’ll have to research the products available. Look for the following:
- Scalability: Very important if you have growth on your mind.
- Integration/flexibility: The ability to integrate with your current systems and the ability to adapt to changes in your tech stack without sacrificing uptime or interrupting workflows.
- Support: Are providers available for any initial teething problems, as well as potentially complex problems that arise over the long-term?
You should also consider the customization of products and services and vendor credibility.
Face Automation Head-On
You can’t hide from it, so you might as well shove your doubts and suspicions aside and embrace automation with gusto. Don’t think of it as being replaced. Instead, consider the new opportunities, like skills enhancement, more satisfying problem-solving and strategizing, and deeper client relationships.
You might just find that the benefits outweigh the cons and not a boogeyman in sight.
