Many organizations continue to seek efficiencies through the greater use of accounting tools. Automation has crawled into our lives and work more easily and has taken up the inevitable role. Transactions are being processed automatically and reports are being generated automatically. Machines and software have started working alongside humans to make accounting more productive and effective. 

Will accounting be automated in the future? Before we delve deep into the future aspects of accounting automation, we will come to clear terms on what accounting automation is.

What is Automation in Accounting?

Automation is the process of incorporating technology to achieve outcomes with minimal human efforts. Accounting automation is the process of reducing the manual elements of accountants’ tasks by leaving it to the software that draws outcomes precisely and often instantly.

Evolution of Accounting Automation

Our bookkeeping ancestors used paper ledgers to put down revenues and expenses. The first step towards automation of the accounting process was in 1979, the first-ever spreadsheet built for accounting was introduced by Apple - VisiCalc. Later, Intuit came up with QuickBooks, accounting software that can be used by both accounting and non-accounting professionals.

We are gradually handing over our redundant accounting chores to applications that never tire with the drudgery. 

What accounting process are automated

Automation in accounting is not in its nascent frame. More than half the small and medium-sized businesses and accounting firms have already embraced automation for their accounting for faster and meticulous turnaround. We have software like QuickBooks, Xero to accomplish our menacing accounting chores. Below are some of the accounting processes that are being ubiquitously automated around the globe. 

Payroll Processing

Payroll processing software can manage the entire life cycle of payroll operations end-to-end. Payroll software is not just for the salary computation, it takes the handle from enrolling employees onto the company’s payroll, maintaining employees’ attendance, calculating taxes as per the latest tax norms, payslips, salaries and payroll accounting entries as a whole. You will not need to spare hours on number-crunching and paperwork. This ensures on-time salaries for your employees for dynamic employee retention. 

Data-Entry

Manual entries are the most time-consuming and labour-intensive task in accounting. Also, manual entries are why we are fumbling with errors at the brim of financial closings. Let us stop the inefficiencies in manual entries and start staying alive in the trend with auto-entry software. SaasAnt Transactions is one of the most powerful tools that you can supplement with QuickBooks for bulk imports, exports and deletes. This will give you precise results in a snap.

Online Invoice Tracking

Automating your invoices with online invoice payments is an efficient way to track your invoices and receive payments quickly. With online invoice tracking, you can get paid from anywhere anytime by your customers. This is the easiest, fastest and most efficient ways of getting paid.

Optical Character Recognition

OCR is a great choice for lean accounting firms and small and mid-sized business that are seeking ways to reduce the cost and manpower in manual entries. This goes best for companies that are still communicating with paper-based invoices and ledgers. OCR basically extracts data from documents that it receives. The image of the documents can be transformed into structured data that can be used by multiple systems. 

Payment Sync Automation

Accounting automation, by integrating your payment processor and accounting software, you can pass on your transaction details to your accounting software without manual intervention. Manually copying transaction details from one system to another leaves open doors for unintentional errors that cost you more. PayTraQer is a powerful software that connects payment processors with QuickBooks account.

AI in Accounting

The accounting process is made more sophisticated with the intervention of artificial intelligence in accounting. Industries have started using robots to speed up their turnaround a decade ago. Robots are used to perform redundant tasks perfectly, over and over again. The process of using robots as a part of automation is called Robotic Process Automation (RPA). As the name suggests, it is a process to automate processes through the use of robots. 

You might be wondering how robots could have their roles in accounting. A majority of the crowd thinks that robots are walking, talking, human-like bots. Robots need not be physically existing machines. Robots are just computer coded software, programmes that are programmed to make decisions. This could replace humans performing repetitive rules-based tasks. 

RPA is used to capture, interpret existing digital data from applications, and perform transaction processing, data manipulation, and communication across systems.

Many businesses have already shifted their infrastructure to the cloud. In addition to cloud advances, machines play a pivotal role in accounting decision-making, as the industry fully embraces AI’s role in accounting. 

Accounting could impact different accounting jobs in different ways. For instance, as a financial controller, you might shift your focus from detecting problems after they occur to anticipate them based on the big data patterns through AI in accounting. This way, you can foresee issues and frame proactive business or financial strategies, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and then react. 

How Automation of the Accounting Process Makes Things Easier?

There are some processes in accounting that are pain points. Deploying automation in the accounting industry eliminates redundant manual tasks and automates the tiring functionality. There is a lack of communication between two systems at times. This gap will be costing you more time, money and labour. Using an application that can knit the gap between two highly functioning applications can save you hordes of time, labour and money. But letting automation handle your redundant tasks, you can have more time and clear headspace to work on making business decisions. 

With accounting automation, you tend to have absolutely error-free and de-cluttered records. Erroneous records not only affect the credibility of your reports but are also a threat to a peaceful reconciliation. Reports state that accounting firms waste about 33% of their time, fumbling with inaccurate records. But, when accounting is automated, there are no cluttered records and so you will enjoy a hassle-free reconciliation. 

When you switch to automation, you will not have to rely upon a human to push and pass on the process every time. It will give you productive results at a faster pace, as they can work round the clock all through the calendar unlike humans, and not get tired. Automation of the accounting process at every stage is going to ensure absolute transparency. Even if something gets stuck somewhere, it is easy to spot and rectify it. 

The Bottom Line having told everything, automating your accounting is the future. It may seem overwhelming in the beginning, but it is going to rule the accounting domain in the next decades. So, stop following old-school accounting processes and switch to new-age accounting automation. If you are looking out for automation tools for your accounting, try out our products, SaasAnt Transactions and PayTraQer with a 30-day free trial and see how accounting and automation go hand-in-hand and make your life way easier. Drop us a mail at [email protected] if you have any questions.