5 benefits of accounting automation software for your business

Accounting automation software

Success or failure of a business is almost always affected by the accounting department. If the accounts are not accurate, contain errors, or records are not properly maintained, the company could face fines or fail altogether. Because so much of the accounting process is reliant upon repetitive tasks performed by many different employees, labor costs and risk of human error as well as employee burnout have caused some businesses to consider automation. 

What is automation in accounting? It depends on the particular software used and the desired results. For example, a company could choose to automate one small portion of the accounting process by implementing a simple scanner that digitizes physical documents. 

On the other hand, comprehensive automated accounting software can automate almost every aspect of accounting. There are many processes within the accounting department that can be automated to make employees more efficient and happier. 

The impact of automation on accounting can be significant. For companies that pay employees to manually read, type, and reformat all of the invoices, ledgers, and miscellaneous accounting documents they receive, automation can reduce costs, make employees happy, and improve the efficiency of the company. The precise levels of automation’s impact on accounting will depend on the accounting automation software that each organization chooses to utilize – the more comprehensive the software, the more significant its impact. 

While it may seem that a complete accounting automation system is the best option for every business, that may not necessarily be the case. If a large company already has a business system they use and they do not want to change it, then even the best accounting software will require a complete department reorganization. 

Rather than risk the downtime this would require, businesses of any size would benefit from software that can automate the repetitive tasks in accounting while seamlessly integrating with the business system currently in place. Rossum offers an intelligent document processing solution that can do precisely that.

Automation in accounting and finance

The history of automation in accounting and finance is relatively long. While machines for speeding up specific accounting processes prior to the invention of computers did exist as early as the 1880s, this can hardly be called automation. True automation began in 1955 when General Electric purchased a computer for accounting purposes. By 1978, the first accounting spreadsheet software was created. Since then, the benefits of automation in accounting have only grown. 

Examples of automation in accounting include Quickbooks, which more than 4.5 million companies use, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, which can detect text in digital documents for ease of data extraction.

Will accounting be automated? The answer is that, while currently it cannot be entirely automated, many processes can be. Accounting requires validation and verification, and these steps must still be performed by people; therefore, accounting cannot be completely automatic. 

Some organizations may also wonder about the disadvantages of automation in accounting. Jobs are often one area of worry because employees do not want to be replaced by machines or software. The answer to this is that instead of performing manual data entry tasks, these employees will be free to work on tasks that require human involvement. Automation does not eliminate jobs; rather, those employees are made more efficient and they are happier as a result of not having to perform tedious and repetitive tasks.

Accounting automation examples

What is accounting automation? Simply put, it is any technology that can minimize human involvement in an accounting task. To understand accounting automation, examples of real-life scenarios can demonstrate how automation might work for an organization’s accounting department. 

Not only can these examples illustrate the benefits of automation in accounting, they can also help you understand if there is risk involved in a particular software solution. For example, the benefits of using Quickbooks are the centralized, secure nature of the platform, but the risk is that it may not be practical for large organizations. 

Undertaking a software and the oftentimes long implementation time can be disheartening if the software ends up being the wrong fit for your organization. Many people give up on automation altogether and go back to the legacy ways of accounting. This isn’t the case with Rossum because Rossum is a solution, not a software. We also help you to know if Rossum is the right fit before implementing, and implementation itself is quick and easy.

To better understand automation in accounting, it’s beneficial to examine the different stages. Going past the recommended steps of automation and implementing a comprehensive software solution in your company may cause problems. Instead, companies should test out automation by using a simple solution that automates one particular accounting task. 

The disadvantages of automation in accounting should also be considered before choosing any software. Accounting automation jobs should also be taken into account because a business must determine who performs the task of implementing the automation solution. Whether a company decides to automate now or later, understanding accounting automation can help with the decision-making process.

Accounting software

One solution in accounting automation is called accounting software. Accounting software is a platform designed to make accounting easier and simpler for businesses. It usually includes invoicing and receipt tools as well as bookkeeping solutions. 

Accounting software can range from free-to-use platforms designed for freelancers and companies with less than ten employees to ERP solutions that include a wide range of business tools for large companies and corporations. Looking at a list of accounting software options can be helpful when trying to choose the right software for your company’s needs.

It’s valuable to look at an example to illustrate how accounting software works. Among the most popular accounting software for small business needs is Quickbooks. This platform makes it easy for small businesses to automate income and expense tracking and pay employees through integration with several major payment providers. 

Essentially, Quickbooks automates bookkeeping processes and simplifies the storage of accounting ledgers. The main issue with Quickbooks, however, is that it is not the best solution for large companies. Additionally, for both small and large companies, a bookkeeping software like Quickbooks may still require manual data entry for physical documents. In order to effectively automate data capture in accounting, Rossum is a solution that can help.

Accounting software list

An accounting software list can be found online and is an excellent place to start when trying to find the right software for your business. A list of the top 10 accounting software solutions can provide you with an overview of the most common software with the best reviews. The best list of accounting software will also contain a brief description of each software and its features. 

For example, the list from Spenddesk includes a few paragraphs describing the individual software as well as the Capterra rating and the G2 rating. Both Capterra and G2 are websites dedicated to software reviews, especially for businesses.

A standard list of the best accounting software might not be helpful, however, if you are seeking accounting software for large business needs. This is because many of these lists were made for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

To find software for large companies, you can try searching for “top 10 accounting software for large companies.” A search that is more specific like this should yield results closer to what you are looking for. Either option for accounting software lists may produce valuable results, but every software should be investigated at a deeper level before deciding to use it at your company.

AI accounting software

A software option that provides the most accurate and effective accounting solutions will possess Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities. Artificial Intelligence is a technology that is designed to think and act in a human-like manner. This technology can be an aspect of other technologies or platforms rather than a solution by itself. 

The impact of Artificial Intelligence on the accounting profession is mainly in the field of repetitive tasks or those that do not require human verification. For example, Rossum is an AI-powered data capture solution that can perform some of the same tasks as an AI accounting software, namely pre-processing of documents, data capture, PO matching, and more. Rossum uses AI to automate these traditionally manual tasks through an intelligent document processing solution.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and its impact on accounting is that it eliminates the need to perform repetitive tasks, but it still requires people. AI automation, on the other hand, is designed to almost replace human involvement in a job altogether. The best AI accounting software will be able to learn like a human and perform accounting processes with the least amount of attention or work from employees. Rossum’s AI-powered data capture solution learns from human interactions over time so that less involvement is required.

Accounting software examples

Accounting software examples or case studies are great for businesses that want to understand how another company used a specific software solution. Finding examples can be as simple as performing a search online. 

If a business is looking for the best accounting software for small business needs, then it will be beneficial to search for precisely those terms. Without a specific search, you may find examples of software options used by large corporations that are priced above your company’s budget or include solutions that you do not need at your scale.

Large corporations should look at a list of accounting software for large business needs specifically. Using these lists, you can look for examples or case studies for each software option you are interested in on their websites. A specific search will also be necessary if your company needs a unique solution, such as an offline accounting software. 

Specific accounting tasks should be automated but may not require comprehensive accounting automation software for that purpose. Several steps in document processing within an accounting department can be automated with the use of AI-powered data capture solutions like Rossum. Rossum’s platform can make it easy to sort documents, capture data, and streamline validation in an accurate, efficient way.