Modernizing Finance Workflows: Unlock Efficient Scaling, Automation, and More

Businesses relying on legacy systems that are poorly integrated or otherwise fail to share financial data are vastly inferior to modern Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that offer visibility into financial data, enable faster decision making, automate certain tasks, and increase efficiency. Read on to discover how automation might enable faster, more accurate decision making.

Legacy Systems

Unsure if your financial system is ripe for improvement? Slow legacy systems are characterized by paper-based approvals, technological tools that are disconnected from each other, and spreadsheets that rely on manual entry. The manual workflows typical of older systems are susceptible to inaccurate data entry, redundancy of effort, and other forms of user error.

Upgrading underperforming legacy systems can be a powerful efficiency booster enabling greater accuracy in your financial data, sharing information across integrated systems, and outputting ad-hoc reports to support faster decision making at every level. Modern ERPs also support automation that can accomplish many simple data-related tasks to save your team members time.

Identify Disfunction With This Checklist

The following pain points are commonly associated with legacy systems. If you’re encountering three or more of these on a regular basis, it might be time to update your financial technology.

• Data entry and reconciliation are time-consuming, compromising the productivity of your team members;
• Your legacy system doesn’t easily connect to modern tools or automate workflows;
• You’re incurring additional costs related to training new employees when institutional knowledge is lost due to turnover;
• When employees do leave, they cite workflows that rely heavily on manual processes and outdated systems;
• Errors are exacerbating financial accuracy and compliance efforts due to legacy platforms that require manual interventions and complex workarounds;
• Reporting and closing cycles often suffer from delays caused by disconnections or slow data consolidation;
• Opportunities are missed due to a lack of real-time data or the ad-hoc analysis of costs, margins, etc. slowing decision making; and
• Scaling finance operations is difficult as legacy workflows and technologies prove inflexible in the face of new demands.

Benefits of a Modernized Financial Workflow

If you’re all-too-familiar with the headaches outlined above, here’s what you may be able to expect of a modernized financial workflow:

• Automation of some manual tasks can reduce the frequency of inaccurate inputs and free your finance team members to dedicate their efforts to higher-value work;
• Streamlined approval and reconciliation processes can accelerate the delivery of standard and ad-hoc reports;
• Real-time visibility into financial data should empower faster, more confident decision making and more organizational flexibility; and
• Scalable systems will support growth without adding proportional workload or headcount, while the implementation of new beneficial business technologies will be seamless.

The Modernization Process

Once your leadership has aligned on the path forward, modernization can be accomplished all at once, with a broad organization-wide effort, or piece-by-piece. Whatever the pace of modernization you’re comfortable with, a capable, experienced advisor can make the process simple and straightforward. Usually, the modernization process consists of:

• Partnering with advisors who share recommendations on the tech solutions available and plan process redesign and change management efforts;
• Exploring the cloud-based financial management and enterprise resource management (ERP) solutions that fulfill key functions and integrate with existing business-critical technologies;
• Assessing workflows to identify bottlenecks and repetitive manual tasks;
• Prioritizing the automation tools that align with your use case, industry, size, and business complexity; and
• Considering the needs of your finance and IT team members so all stakeholders are involved in and best served by your new system.

Conclusion

Hopefully this brief overview has introduced the importance of financial workflow modernization and given you an idea of what to expect when undertaking the modernization process. The sophistication of your financial workflows will largely be determined by your ERP’s capabilities, making it an essential part of overall business strategy.

If you’re ready to enable automation, visualize financial data in real time, scale efficiently, and seamlessly integrate new technologies, contact CBIZ today to discover the right ERP solution for your business.