As a business, your Accounting and Finance team is as important as your Business Development & Delivery units. It is important that this department functions with unparalleled efficiency since it deals with billing, taxes, revenue, profit, loss, and other transactions. Any hiccup on the listed functions, and the business might suffer a great loss. You are probably here after anticipating these possibilities and looking for a viable solution.
So, in this post, we will tell you some Super Tips to make your Accounting & Finance department more efficient. All you have to do it set some processes in place, upgrade your team’s professional competency, and automate as many elements as you can. Let’s get started!
Really! Your accounting and finance personnel must stick to the set processes and never bypass them. Overriding the set processes can increase the scope for errors and reduce efficiency. For example, sticking to the deadlines might become a regular issue if the Accounting team does not take it seriously. Thus, you need to establish proper policies, guidelines, and processes to be adhered to, so that the team functions like a well-oiled machine.
Take another example where your Accounts Receivable team is not following-up with the clients for raising bills or invoice. If they become past due, they’ll hamper the final calculations and slow down the overall functioning, not to mention, the impact on Working Capital. To ensure it does not become a problem, you need to issue clear guidelines as to how the Accounting team members should function.
Efficiency of a highly effective team largely depends upon its competency. Your Accounting team is no different. It might be a good idea to boost up their professional and core skills. This will serve two purposes. Firstly, skill upgrade means that your team members are constantly learning and applying those learnings in the day-to-day business processes. Second, skill upgrade homogenizes the individual competence and confidence. It is always better if all your accountants and finance personnel are aligned with the organizational goals, are autonomous in problem solving, and respect each other for their knowledge.
Silver Brook Learning Center cracked this solution long before, and brings to businesses its unique professional training courses to help organizations elevate their team efficiency. For example, we provide a range of effective Accounting and Finance courses that will give your Accounting team an edge while working for your business.
An old but tried & tested process optimization technique fairly common at the banks. You can introduce batch processing for your Accounting functions and Finance operations. For example, your team might be receiving invoices, Checks, and Reimbursement requests every day. Shifting your team’s focus on these randomly occurring tasks can digress them from the work at hand. Instead, collect these requests, decide monthly dates on which these requests will be processed, and move on. This technique is used by the banks to process each check that goes in. This process will keep your team focused and be more productive.
Automation exists to help, not the other way round! It is time to integrate your Finance Department with an advanced ERP or Bookkeeping Solution to automate mundane and time-eating tasks. Manual labor involved in the calculation of profit/loss statements, saving transaction details, generating invoices, etc. can be a hindrance to your team’s overall efficiency. Using a software solution will ease their burden and enhance the productivity dramatically. With the advent of AI and Machine Learning, the efficiency can be further improved through in-depth and robust data analysis and setting up algorithms to ensure smooth automation.
Employing the above-mentioned tips will help you bring out a positive change in your finance team’s performance. Implement it and start plotting the productivity graph today!
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