The future of finance and digital transformation

Finance’s digital transformation isn’t just a solid step that the industry must go through - it’s the beginning of an ongoing process by which the sector can consistently improve itself. Using technology to do away with tedious, repetitive, time consuming and inefficient manual tasks is essential for enabling finance professionals to spend their valuable time and skills on more complex jobs.

A good cloud-based accounting system will take data generated throughout the business and use it to create automated reports. Insights based on real-time data are presented on intuitive dashboards that enable users to make effective decisions.

Finance, as we all know, is a risky business — from the perspectives of both human error and security. By greatly reducing the stages at which human input is required, it is far easier to ensure compliance and reduce the risk of data loss.

With cloud-based software, the system is constantly evolving and receiving updates to its security, to keep it one step ahead of hackers. By contrast, a more traditional system is installed and then only updated at specific intervals — if at all — leaving security gaps.

Top predictions for finance in 2024 and beyond

What is the future of finance? These are five things to look out for — not just in the next year, but over the next few:

• More widespread digital adoption: the early adopters of good cloud-based technology are reaping the benefits of the systems — now others will have little choice but to follow suit to stay competitive.
• The end of cycles: driven by the adoption of the technology, and the ability to access live data, the braver finance businesses may decide to forgo the staccato nature of reporting cycles altogether. After all, why wait for a report when you can access the information on demand?
• More focus on insights and services: with the disappearance of the mundane administrative tasks, finance businesses will focus their resources on the more profitable of financial advice and consultancy.
• APIs will drive data standardisation: but it won't be enough for some. Those businesses that struggle to manage their data, without investing in the correct technology for them, will still be struggling with the amount of information generated.
• The finance workforce will shift: certainly not as a result of the Covid pandemic, but possibly kick-started by it, people working across the industry will have developed new ways of working and new skills and disciplines for doing it. Customer service, flexibility and collaboration skills will start to be in greater demand.

Read more: We explore the top 5 accounting trends to watch out for.

Technologies and solutions to improve your finance function

Technology, for its own sake, is rarely useful, and to implement the wrong system is costly for a business in both the direct outlay and in any loss of productive time it creates. It’s therefore crucial to understand what systems will improve and streamline your processes and which will duplicate and complicate them.

Strategic analysis

The analysis that a good software package provides to finance professionals means that they’re much more able to understand and predict market trends. The path to follow in accounting should be as little of a gamble as possible. This is where digital transformation and the finance function can be of most help to businesses. You should just ensure that the package you look at includes that capability by examining its features.

Robotic process automation (RPA)

RPA has been the victim of a little doom-mongering, with claims that it’ll take away jobs in accountancy. In fact, its purpose is to automate the mundane, low-value work and liberate finance professionals from it, so that they can focus on the more valuable tasks that it can’t do.

List point

The adoption of this technology throughout a whole business, and the visibility that it offers, means that its benefits stretch beyond the core accountancy functionality. Particularly in terms of staff wellbeing, as it allows HR teams to monitor the working patterns of finance professionals, such as how long projects are taking. In today’s more enlightened workplaces, avoiding employee burnout is key to keeping a business’ efficiency and productivity at its peak.

Our cloud accounting software provides a full suite of financial management modules and advanced functionality to drive business continuity. Download a brochure to explore the features, or book a demo to view our accounting software in action.