Understanding the right tools for the right job is key here. Take accounting for example. Would you use a CRM to manage your books? I would hope not. In the case of automation, this is where specialized accounting automation software comes into focus. How do they differ? Although the software used may be similar, the purpose varies greatly. The following is everything you need to know about automation for your business.
As technology continues to advance, automated software is becoming a growing need across the business landscape. Using automation can be advantageous for your business as it increases efficiencies and saves you time and money. However, most of the automation software out in the wild today were designed for general automation purposes with a strong focus on marketing automation.
The Key Differences Between Accounting and Marketing Automation
Accounting automation takes the very specific repetitive tasks of an accountant or bookkeeper and executes them automagically at lightning speed. With the right accounting automation tools, it will synchronize all of your transactions across multiple vendors and payment processors, surface any transactional anomalies, potential fraud and alert a human accountant when needed. Simply put, accounting automation will help you get your books updated instantly in turn allowing you to analyze your bottom line in real time instead of the last quarter.
Marketing automation is fundamentally similar but is specifically used to automate marketing activities, track marketing data, conversions, KPIs and eliminate redundancies such as synchronizing client information across multiple business systems. This is especially helpful when migrating customer data from your ecommerce system to your CRM for example.
Pros and Cons of Using Accounting Automation
After understanding what automation is and how it can be applied to your business, it’s important to cover both the pros and cons of using this technology:
- Pro: Perhaps the best argument for accounting automation is the return on investment. Once all the workflows have been configured with all your systems integrated, there will be no need to manually enter invoices or sales receipts. If you are an accountant, there’s an exponential reduction in tracking down uncategorized transactions. Not to mention the countless other time saving activities that will allow you and your staff to focus on more important revenue generating activities.
- Con: Simply put, complexity. These automation applications are highly complex as they need to plug into multiple systems potentially having dozens or more moving parts. The learning curve can be very steep. This is why it’s important to select an accounting automation partner that handles all of this for you so you simply focus on what you do best.
At Agile Planners, we can be that accounting automation you need to realize the benefits of automation. Our accounting technology professionals with our state-of-the-art accounting automation tools can have all of your financial systems talking to each other quickly and efficiently. Agile Planners will be there to assist you from planning to implementation and give you the tools you need to reap the benefits of accounting automation.
Built for Purpose Accounting Automation
In the past, generalized automation systems have been used to try and simplify accounting. However, these systems are too generalized, aren’t made by actual accountants, and have caused more headaches along the way. That’s why Agile Planners is working with a new built-for-purpose accounting automation platform called Accounted. This will help unify all of your accounting needs in one easy-to-use platform.
For more information on accounting automation, contact us today.
