Article source: AccountingWEB 

Whether you run a small business or own a large enterprise with thousands of employees, your accounts departments is the most engaged department throughout the year. Accounting processes keep getting complex with time and evolving taxation procedures keep accountants on their toes. Over 73% of the accountants had pointed out that they always look for new tools and software to automate manual accounting tasks in order to reduce errors and work load.

Most of the modern accounting software such as quickbooks, netsuite and Odoo to name a few are extremely affordable and offer out-of-the-box accounting capabilities. Out of the three, Odoo is license free and offers the most advanced accounting capabilities to both small and large enterprises.

The priority for most of the enterprises is to save costs but unfortunately due to the lack of understanding that automating accounting processes can control unnecessary expenditures and save money, some enterprises reduce discretionary spending while some impose wage cuts to improve the bottom line.

Let’s understand how using modern accounting software enables enterprises in 10 different ways to save both time and money and turn accounting staff more productive:

1. It automates repetitive tasks

Modern accounting software automates repetitive tasks such as invoicing, statements, payments reminder & collection, reporting and budgeting so that you don’t have to manually go through each of the above processes which is time consuming and adds upto to the employee costs.

2. Electronic invoicing and statements save costs

It is much quicker and efficient to create invoices and statements using modern accounting software as it is fully integrated to other departments such as materials, procurement and suppliers. Accurate Invoices are created automatically and sent to the customers for payments via email or fax. Also, payment reminders are sent for unpaid invoices automatically with interest added against delayed payments. Imagine sending invoices electronically to the correct contact and receiving payments even faster. This saves you a lot of time and efforts in collecting payments.

3. Automates preparing management accounts

Many businesses still rely on those old excel spreadsheets to prepare accounts which is full of errors and time consuming. Modern accounting software saves you a lot of time by automating manual accounting processes and tightly integrating various departments.

4. Managing your margins

Margins directly impact your bottom line and efficiently managing margins is crucial to fuel the growth of your business. Modern Accounting software such as Odoo provides your employees with insights in real-time relating to the margin goals of your organisation and they could take immediate measures to improve margins.

5. Upload data from spreadsheets in a single click

Spreadsheets still play a vital role in budgeting and other accounts preparation processes. However, transferring data from spreadsheets into a legacy accounting or business software leads to errors and takes a lot of time. Modern accounting software is equipped with import feature that allows accountants to upload all the financial data into the software in a single click.

6. Automated reports preparation and distribution

Modern accounting software are fully equipped with financial reporting feature that prepares insightful reports about the expenditures, finances and other financial data at regular intervals and automatically emails the reports to a pre-set list of recipients. It is a valuable time saver as it enables the management/staff to take necessary steps toward improvements or focus on areas that need attention.

7. Credit control

Modern accounting is all about accuracy and speed. Enabling your staff by having quick access to the information related to the overdue accounts listing can make a real difference to your employees’ lives and they can save a lot of time. Credit control feature enabled your staff to identify who to contact for payments and ensures recoding each interaction.

8. Powerful dashboards and key performance indicators

It allows you to track your company’s finances, budget and analyse the financial activities that are available in the form of insightful reports and customisable dashboards. It allows the management to dig deeper into the organisation’s finances with integrated analytic accounting feature that is equipped with key modules such as invoices, timesheets, expenses and projects. It also provides reporting services and reports such as drill-down, drill-up and drill-across for better understanding.

9. Payment run

Payment run feature available in modern accounting feature saves time by allowing your staff to quickly pull supplier invoices and check which accounts need immediate payments. It allows posting payments against those accounts automatically or you can generate a report and submit to your bank electronically for making payments.

10. Customisable screens and menus

Modern accounting software are fully customisable as per the needs of the organisation. It allows customising menus and screen options to enable the staff have access to the features that they require often or use on a daily basis. This powerful feature not only helps in streamlining processes but also provides end-users with quicker access to the job related screens and menus.

In today’s fast-paced business environment where business owners expect their employees to multi-task, modern accounting software plays a vital role in turning the accounting staff more productive and efficient.