Today, in an era that’s meant to be about finance transformation, much of the finance function still relies heavily on manual accounting processes including spreadsheets for rebate management, you’ll find plenty of them buried in emails and on desktops. Instead of those in finance focusing on giving high-level insight, they find themselves stuck chasing down errors, reconciling data, and trying to make important decisions based on an assortment of often incomplete or inaccurate rebate data.
As a result, many organisations end up with disputes with trading partners and around 4% of potential rebate revenue typically goes unclaimed. But could 2021 be the year all this changes for finance and they finally embrace automation to solve their manual accounting processes.
Manual accounting processes lack version control, audit trails, consistency and scalability. Ongoing reliance on tedious, manual accounting processes in the finance function has many disadvantages, including:
Automation is not about replacing real workers with robots and computer software but rather making it easier for the team to work in a more efficient manner. By automating routine tasks, you can increase workflow efficiencies – freeing up your finance team for higher value tasks, driving down costs, and boosting your revenue.
Businesses expect finance functions to maximise the efficiency of their operations and minimize the time they spend on non-value activities. Automation is a key tool in delivering this goal and, therefore, a high priority for many finance functions today.
Many organizations are still in very early stages of process automation and still rely heavily on manual accounting processes. On average, only about half (51%) of business processes are automated. However, according to an EY study, 65% believe that automating finance processes will be a significant priority in the future. The most successful organizations will be those who embrace automation in order to better equip their human talent.
These days, companies are under tremendous pressure to go digital in order to survive and stay competitive. As CFO, you’re largely responsible for the strategic direction that your company takes. Does your business have the right infrastructure, processes, and technology to support your rebate management strategy? If the answer is no, then this is where SaaS comes in.
All the advantages of SaaS have been magnified by COVID-19. Companies need to transition from manual accounting processes to digital solutions. That allow finance to communicate and collaborate on their deals in a consistent way while minimizing upfront and ongoing costs. However, just because financial professionals want to have better technology and tools, that doesn’t make them IT experts. SaaS solutions bring finance an easy-to-use service where the only things to manage are an internet connection and a web browser.