The area of financial accounting involves reporting on the multiple transactions that a business generates over a period of time, following guidelines set by both local and international rules.
Many processes in financial accounting are repetitive and can easily become time-consuming, cost-heavy tasks when performed manually.
These workflows may include for instance journal entries, financial statements, reconciliation reports, documents (such as email attachments or paper documents), data processing and validation, or approvals, among others.
Companies need clear strategies to ensure their competitiveness in line with frequent market changes, taking into account modern technology that can deliver new applications fast without compromising on security or scalability.
A recent report by Accenture found that finance departments can streamline as much as 40% of the accounting tasks with the help of process automation.
By employing automation, companies can save time and costs, prevent possible errors from manual work, and give back time to their teams to focus on more creative work.
Advantages of optimizing workflows with a no-code approach
While no-code technology has been around for decades, it has gained increased popularity over the past years because of accessibility and low-cost, as software developers remain scarce and expensive.
Compared to traditional development, no-code works by assembling and configuring elements on a digital canvas. Each of these elements, which we call Actions, can perform a specific function.
For instance, in PROCESIO we use Call API actions to connect to other systems, Get File Data actions to import data from spreadsheets, Decisional actions to enforce business rules, and so on.
Once the configurations are ready, users can run processes either manually or automatically by setting up frequencies and schedules. In the case of apps built with no-code tools, these can be easily accessed just like any other regular web app.
There are several good reasons to consider when deciding to streamline processes using a visual development platform. Among the most relevant advantages we can mention:
- Decentralization: no-code technology allows the people that need to solve the issue to build the apps themselves instead of resorting to developers or IT experts
- Time and cost savings: no-code is cheaper compared to traditional development, as the steps involving the design, confirmation, and final validation of an app between the issuer and the developer can be eliminated altogether
- Flexibility: finance teams need flexible applications that can adapt to changing needs, a feature that legacy systems often fail to offer
- Simplicity: compared to legacy systems, no/low-code technology provides a simpler framework to optimize, scale and grow processes and apps
In addition, a reliable no-code platform will also provide adequate security and data compliance in line with GDPR regulations.
Use cases
There can be many areas that finance and accounting teams can automate, and this depends on each company’s business processes and scenarios.
Below are a few common examples that many companies work with day by day, which we’ve elaborated on in a bit more detail.
- Automate invoicing flows: avoid incomplete or late payments, make sure customer invoicing data is in sync, and prevent errors
- Automate purchase order processes: eliminate manual approval steps involving documents, emails, or manual data entry
- Sync accounting journal entries: make sure records are up-to-date across different software whenever new transactions occur
- Automate accounts payable reporting: streamline invoices and bills, reduce working with paper documents, and ensure that payments are made on time and without errors
How to start automating your own finance processes
Now that you know how no-code process automation works and the benefits for optimizing finance workflows, you can follow the follow basic steps to get started:
- Draw a sketch or diagram that accurately represents the data flow, events, and lists the stakeholders in your processes
- Identify the bottlenecks and the areas that can be optimized
- Create a first mockup of your automation: at this stage you can determine the kind of actions you need and make the first configurations with business rules
- Once you’ve configured the test process, run it and make any final necessary adjustments
Congrats! You can now implement your optimized processes in your day-to-day activities.
Would you like to learn more about how you can empower your business and technical teams to build custom software and workflows up to 10x faster than by writing code? Open an account or book a Demo with us and start building today!