Elevating Accounting in 2024 with FloQast

⇨ Accounting departments are under significant pressure to operate efficiently and effectively, often turning to AI and automation for boosted productivity.

⇨ Business needs are constantly shifting, so organizations should prioritize solutions that are agile enough to meet demands.

⇨ The digital transformation journey to SAP S/4HANA is a perfect chance for them to evaluate workflows and overhaul ineffective ones.

Each year features a different economic reality than the year before. Organizations face new challenges and try their best to take advantage of unique opportunities within their markets. It is vital that businesses stay on top of these trends to avoid risk and put their teams in the best position to succeed. Accounting departments are under significant pressure to operate efficiently and effectively. One of the most buzzed-about trends in accounting is the use of AI and automation to improve workflows, minimize compliance risk, and remain agile. Many SAP organizations are turning to partners like the operational accounting experts at FloQast to improve efficiency and accuracy within their financial departments.

Bridging the Talent Gap

Organizations may struggle to keep up with the new demands put on their accounting teams in 2024, as a talent gap is beginning to emerge. Many accounting professionals have retired in recent years, but there are not enough professionals entering that field to replace them all.

“In the past, an enterprise could throw bodies at a process like the financial close and get it done. Talk to any accountant, and the monthly, quarterly and year-end close have historically been one of their most manual and time-consuming processes. And that continues to be the case today, but throwing resources at the problem is not an option with the talent shortage.  We’re hearing from many more companies that they must do more with less, the mid-market has always felt this pain, but the talent shortage is manifesting in larger enterprises.” said Colleen Wanty, Senior Director of Product Marketing at FloQast,” said Colleen Wanty, Senior Director of Product Marketing at FloQast.

This talent gap is making it harder for companies to find professionals with specialty skills like Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance or financial close expertise. Without these professionals, organizations need to find technological solutions to fill this gap.

Automation Elevates Accounting

One of the most effective approaches to fill the talent gap is automation. Organizations are leveraging automated offerings like those from FloQast to quickly take care of repetitive manual tasks, freeing up accounting teams to do more work that adds value to the organization.

Automation adoption has been uneven across the business world, as enterprise-level companies tend to be a bit more conservative about deploying automated solutions, whereas smaller and mid-sized businesses are keener on embracing it. This is largely driven by need, as smaller accounting teams often must do more with less.

These organizations are turning to partners like FloQast to help automate workflows like financial close, reconciliations, compliance, risk management, reporting, FP&A, and more. It is essential that organizations evaluate their own processes to see where automation can be applied, as manual tasks may be more prevalent than business leaders know.

“CFOs that survey their organization will still find a lot of manual work across record to report. This largely comes from integrations because even with an ERP like SAP in place, there is still a need for specialty solutions like accounts receivable, payables and payroll because they have features and capabilities to manage the function.  For example, with reconciliations other applications carry subledger detail, accountants need to perform the reconciliations and create adjusting journal entries.  Accountants often have multiple copies of their general and sub-ledgers as they upload and download data.   That’s still going on in any size organization,” said Wanty.

By leveraging automation solutions, companies can reduce the time it takes to execute these essential workflows. This not only reduces the possibility of errors, but it frees up accounting departments to add value to their organizations by taking on other important projects.

Differentiators

The digital transformation to SAP S/4HANA provides SAP users with a perfect opportunity to review their business processes and applications, as they evaluate which solutions they want to migrate over to the new ERP and which they want to replace. Leveraging solutions from FloQast during an SAP S/4HANA migration provides users with the opportunity to automate time-consuming manual processes while bringing standardization into the new ERP.

“We do have a number of customers who have used FloQast in the midst of an ERP transition because they can standardize all their workflows and have them all centralized in a single dashboard within FloQast. Customers have seen that this takes a lot of the risk and change management out of their ERP transition,” said John Breul, Vice President of Global Software Alliances at FloQast.

Often, implementations like SAP S/4HANA consist of a technology transition coupled with a business process change. Yet companies sometimes shy away from making several significant changes in a short period of time if they cannot afford consultants to tweak and change configurations throughout this process. FloQast’s solutions were designed for accountants to be able to quickly utilize and get return on investment.

“We designed the application to be intuitive to accountants, which makes it quick and easy to implement in weeks in some cases.   Our TCO is lower because FloQast can be implemented by the accounting team without big investments in consultants, and we deliver out-of-the-box integrations. Our ROI is faster because with FloQast you can put the process in as you do it today, iterate it over time, and increase automation with better collaboration and control,” said Wanty.

FloQast initially developed this solution working with mid-market organizations who needed solutions they could implement themselves. Yet they also found that enterprise organizations are also taking notice of the strategy, as it provides them with a “quick win” instead of a business process reengineering project. FloQast also integrates directly with spreadsheets, so accounting teams can continue to leverage tools like Excel where it makes sense.

Data is the underpinning of any modern, intelligent organization. Yet many companies are forced to duplicate records for audit purposes. FloQast leverages existing cloud storage vendors to maintain data for systems of record to meet audit requirements. This method allows organizations to maintain just one copy of their records for simplicity.

What this Means for SAPinsiders

Use digital transformation as an opportunity. Organizations may be unwilling to take on new projects in the midst of a move to SAP S/4HANA. However, this digital transformation journey is a perfect chance for them to evaluate workflows and overhaul ineffective ones. FloQast can pair up with SAP S/4HANA to automate workflows and accelerate cycle times.

Embrace automation at every level. Some larger companies are slower to adopt automation technologies than smaller ones. However, all businesses can benefit from automating manual and repetitive processes. Enterprises can focus on getting “quick wins” through easily implemented solutions, rather than overhauling business processes.

Prioritize agility. Business needs are constantly shifting, so organizations should prioritize solutions that are agile enough to meet demands. Business leaders should ensure that all solutions they adopt are scalable to accommodate growth and innovation for years to come.