Accounting is an old profession, but the technology used should not be. As financial officer or chief accountant of your business, you set the accounting policies and processes. There are plenty of reasons why you should go for gold, so to speak. Technology in accounting practices optimize results and give greater cohesion and accuracy to a firm’s financial accounting.
We can think of at least five reasons why technology is something accounting practices cannot go without.
1. Financial forecasting and modeling
Good software that is worth your time and investment will offer an assortment of report functions, often customizable for the individual nature of a specific business. These metric tools are perfectly suited to easily produce financial forecasting by identifying trends, run comparisons and model certain projected outcomes. If you can have all this by merely pressing a button, why would you go without it?
2. Put an end to paper records
Good payroll and accounting software allow brilliant audit trails. If you run software on a server, it can store 100,000 times more data than file cabinets in seven blocks of warehouses. You can access the stored data basically immediately. Not the relentless paging through endless drawers of filing. And if you go into the Cloud with your accounts, your possibilities for paper trails, secure storage and ease of access become endless. What a timesaver!
3. Easy management of tasks and calendars
Never miss a tax deadline again. Digital calendar management tools should be part of every respectable accounting office. The online calendar creates alerts for deadlines, which avoid fines, and ensure timeous actions on the monthly calendar, like collating all appropriate information for payroll, for example.
4. Employee and Accounting self-service portals
Providing employees self-service access in Payroll enhances the employee experience. Payroll’s job has just gotten easier, while staff are feeling more empowered and engaged. The Accounting department also scores with self-service portals, enabling the business to run specific employee reports, such as employee hours worked, absenteeism, payment information to the payroll, and approving the payroll run, all from the online portal.
5. Compliance made easy
It goes without saying that a business must be compliant. But seriously, excellent software takes away that worry about possibly getting it wrong and costing the business dearly. Compliance is one of the top challenges in payroll. Legislation changes with every new moon.
Goodbye, manual accounting
Manual accounting is extinct. If it is not entirely, it should be. Automating accounting systems is a no-brainer. The advantages of incorporating technology in your accountancy practice are vast and encompassing. The best part of it is that it continues to evolve, to be more accurate, more customizable, on target and up to date. It is designed to make you even better at what you do.
Want to know more about how OPS can help you with your Payroll & Tax Compliance?