Nearly two-thirds of chief financial officers (CFOs) are either actively automating processes to boost efficiency and transform operations, with 99% planning to modernize in the next year, according to Cherry Bekaert’s Middle Market CFO Survey. Despite this investment, manual processes still dominate, and 26% of CFOs reported a reliance on manual workarounds.
For growing businesses, the gap between buying and using technology represents challenges as well as opportunities. By automating key financial processes using Sage solutions like Sage Intacct, X3, and others, you can turn your finance department from a reactive record-keeper into a proactive business partner.
What Is Finance Automation?
Finance automation is the process of automating manual, time-consuming tasks by implementing various software and technologies. Businesses are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to streamline finance functions, such as data entry, and to analyze patterns to identify trends. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can also be used in finance automation, as they enhance data integration, give timely updates, and often provide a single source of truth for the department.
Why Automation in Finance Is Important: The Hidden Cost of Manual Processes
As your business grows, those spreadsheet-based processes that once worked start to become expensive bottlenecks. The true cost of manual financial processes goes beyond the obvious problems, such as long month-end closes and errors from manual data entry.
Companies with low levels of automation typically pay more to process invoices than those with high levels of automation. This is real money left on the table — money you could reinvest in growing your business.
The Strategic Benefits Beyond Efficiency
What's even more concerning is the strategic impact. When your finance team is buried in manual tasks, staff can't provide the forward-looking insights your business needs for making critical decisions. The Cherry Bekaert CFO Survey also found that 69% of CFOs believe finance must place a greater emphasis on data analytics and insights to successfully meet the growing demands of modern finance teams.
While saving time and money often drive automation projects, the strategic benefits go much further:
- Scalability means growing your business without needing to hire more finance staff at the same rate.
- Strategic redeployment enables team members to shift from entering data to analyzing it and providing advice. This evolution transforms finance from a back-office function to a strategic partner in growth decisions.
- Enhanced controls reduce both fraud risk and compliance problems through standardized processes and permission-based access. Organizations with automated financial controls have significantly fewer instances of payment fraud.
- Real-time decision support allows leaders to make choices based on current information rather than last month's reports.
6 High-impact Financial Processes to Automate
With the expansion and rapid adoption of AI, companies must begin to automate, or risk falling behind. Below are a few high-impact areas to begin your finance automation journey.
1. Accounts Payable Processing
The manual way of handling accounts payable (AP) — sorting through paper invoices, chasing approvals via email, entering data by hand and writing checks — creates a perfect storm of wasted time and potential mistakes.
However, modern AP automation technologies transform this process by automatically capturing invoice data, then matching it with purchase orders and receipts, routing approvals through customizable workflows and handling payments electronically.
2. Expense Management
The traditional expense reporting process can be tedious, leaving employees to collect endless receipts and fill out forms. Then the finance teams must review and process payments, while managers risk being stuck in an approval bottleneck.
Digital expense management systems solve these problems by allowing people to:
- Capture receipts with their phones
- Automatically sort expenses
- Route approvals based on simple rules
- Process payments in batches
- Create helpful spending reports
Fortune Business Insights reported that the global expense management software market was worth $7.08 billion in 2023 and will likely grow to $16.48 billion by 2032. This growth shows how much companies benefit when they implement these solutions, including better policy compliance and faster processing times.
3. Revenue Recognition and Billing
For businesses with subscription models, recurring billing, or complex contracts, tracking revenue can quickly turn into a spreadsheet nightmare. Manual processes often lead to missed bills, incorrect revenue recording, and hours spent trying to reconcile numbers.
Automation tools provide:
- Contract-based billing schedules
- Automatic recognition of revenue as obligations are met
- Subscription management with auto-renewals
- Ways to combine revenue data across multiple business units
Companies that automate billing and revenue processes get paid faster, miss fewer billing opportunities and can predict revenue more accurately. This enables finance teams to focus on helping the business grow rather than just keeping up with paperwork.
4. Financial Consolidation and Reporting
Businesses with multiple entities often struggle with different systems, inconsistent charts of accounts and manual spreadsheets for consolidation that delay reporting.
Cloud financial platforms with multi-entity features offer standardized charts of accounts with dimensional reporting and automated currency conversions and intercompany eliminations. Companies that automate financial consolidation and reporting can dramatically reduce their month-end close time and have fewer reporting errors.
5. Cash Flow Management and Forecasting
Spreadsheet-based cash flow projections need constant manual updates and quickly become outdated when business conditions change. Integrated cash management tools provide real-time visibility across all accounts and automated cash flow forecasting based on when you expect to receive and pay money.
6. Compliance and Audit Support
Preparing for audits often means weeks of staff time pulling documentation, explaining processes and creating audit trails. Systems with built-in compliance features provide automated audit trails for all transactions and role-based security to ensure proper separation of duties.
Sage: The Platform That Changes Everything
While most businesses focus on core automation features when picking financial systems, there's a game-changing Sage feature that often gets overlooked: customizable workflow rules. These rules enable you to design approval paths that match your organization's structure, automatically routing transactions based on amount, department, project or other factors.
This platform transforms how decisions get made throughout your organization, allowing the right people to review the right transactions at the right time.
Your Next Steps
Implementing financial automation doesn't have to happen all at once. The most successful organizations break up the process into smaller action steps. If you’re ready to start your journey, you can:
- Document your current pain points and prioritize them based on business impact.
- Evaluate whether your current financial system can support automation or if you need new solutions.
- Consider working with an experienced implementation partner like Cherry Bekaert, with professionals who understand both financial processes and technology.
Cherry Bekaert's Digital Advisory team helps growing businesses implement financial automation solutions that drive efficiency and strategic insight. We understand the unique challenges of mid-market companies and bring both accounting expertise and technology experience to every project.
Contact us today for a free consultation to explore how financial automation could transform your operations.
