Accountants are essential in the B2B space. That is why the accountants shortage is rippling through the entire business world. Not only do they keep finances in order, but they provide crucial data owners need to run their business.
Accounts receivable (AR) automation will never replace accountants. Rather, it’s a viable tool that enables owners and financial professionals to manage a successful business while the accounting industry struggles with staffing issues.
According to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), 75% of its members have hit retirement age. Finding talent to fill those seats may prove challenging as just over 67,000 candidates took the CPA exam in 2022, the fewest since 2006, according to the Financial Times.
"Accountants are the backbone of companies not just for financial reporting purposes, but for helping them make decisions," said Dennis Whitney, Senior Vice President at the Institute of Management Accountants.
Choosing the right automation platform helps your business run more efficiently and reduce costs while providing insight and real-time data.
Here are five ways accounting automation software can be effective during the accounting shortage:
1. Improves cash flow
Having fewer accountants or financial professionals on staff may muddle your accounts receivable process, resulting in slower payments that put a crimp in your cash flow.
The opposite occurs through automation. By expediting the billing and reconciling process and enabling your customers to make payments with the push of a button, automating your accounts receivable process gets you paid faster than if it were done manually. Automation reduces your Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), enhancing your cash flow and providing the capital you need to grow your business – a rarity when you’re dealing with a staffing shortage.
2. Performs manual tasks
Maintaining an efficient and effective accounts receivable process is essential. But that can be difficult when there are fewer people available to run it.
Automation performs tasks like reconciling invoices and data entry while sending out payment alerts and reminders, ensuring your financial department runs smoothly no matter the size of your staff. By performing these time-consuming and often mundane accounting chores, automation helps increase retention by enabling employees to carry out more strategic projects instead of drowning in repetition.
3. Eliminates mistakes
Errors can happen to anyone at any time. However, they tend to happen more frequently when there are fewer people to catch and correct them. This hurts your company’s reputation and creates disputes with customers.
Human error is eliminated through automation, which takes care of data entry and ensures the right invoices and services are linked and reconciled with the right customer accounts. It also enables customers payment options through AutoPay, card usage, and the Automated Clearing House (ACH), reducing and eliminating check usage and acceptance. That way, you won’t have to worry about checks being misplaced or you and your customers falling victim to check fraud.
4. Provides access to important data
Business owners look to accounting professionals to provide information when making key financial decisions. However, the fewer of those people that are on staff, the harder it is to get the data you need when you need it.
The right accounts receivable automation platform places real-time information right at your fingertips through a clean dashboard that provides a company’s Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and AR aging and breaks down your customers’ methods of payment.
Having a small accounting staff means your employees may not have the time to be as thorough as you’d prefer. Automation makes it simple for you to stay up to date on the status of each invoice and prioritize your top five customers based on sale order and alerts you to past due accounts requiring attention.
5. Strengthens customer relationships
Many believe automation takes humanity out of the buyer-seller relationship.
On the contrary, automating your accounts receivable is an effective way to take these relationships to the next level. Online portals enable your customers to manage and store payment information in a digital wallet, eliminating friction from the payment process and allowing them to pay bills without having to re-enter credit card or checking account numbers. You also have the power to set up AutoPay and simply draft recurring monthly fees from your customers’ preferred payment method, as well as set thresholds on credit card transactions. These portals also make it easier to communicate through email or chat and attach important documents or pictures.
Bill360 was created to help B2B companies thrive no matter the size of their accounting staff. Our proprietary accounting automation software platform is like nothing else in the industry, enabling you to get paid faster, increase cash flow, and grow your company. Bill360 requires less than an hour of training and syncs with QuickBooks and Xero in minutes. That way, you’ll be able to start using our platform immediately.
Take advantage of our free 30-day trial, after which Bill360 is yours for just $10 a month.
