In today's dynamic business environment, intelligent cash flow automation offers a revolutionary approach that utilizes digital tools to improve how money moves within organizations. These transformative tools enhance financial processes by automating approvals, forecasting, payment matching and real-time reporting, all seamlessly integrated with your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
While modern ERP systems efficiently handle data and operations management, they fall short in automating the critical workflows and processes that often bottleneck business operations. Cash flow automation bridges these crucial gaps, enhancing workflow efficiency by minimizing manual errors and providing instant insights into an organization's financial health. It effectively addresses widespread business challenges, including manual approval delays, time-consuming reconciliations, error-prone transaction validations and decision-making based on inaccurate or outdated reports.
Incorporating cash flow automation yields significant operational benefits, including up to 40% in time savings, more accurate and timely forecasting, and a substantial reduction in errors, leading to informed decision-making and optimized operational costs. A fundamental place to start with intelligent cash automation is your capital expenditures (CapEx).
Capital Expenditure Automation as a Starting Point
As a structured and well-defined process, CapEx is an ideal candidate to initiate process automation. While CapEx automation demands careful controls and foresight planning, it delivers high visibility and quick wins, highlighting a measurable return on investment that sets the groundwork for wider cash flow process optimization.
With automation, pervasive CapEx challenges such as late and missing information, delayed and manual approvals, and a lack of data visibility are addressed. Organizations are empowered to manage large-scale, strategic spending effectively, laying a firm foundation for comprehensive financial transformation.
The Strategic Roles of CIO and CFO in CapEx Automation
The successful automation of financial processes necessitates collaboration and adoption between the chief information officer (CIO) and the chief financial officer (CFO). From a CFO's perspective, late or missing information constrains visibility, hampers accurate forecasting, and slows the approval process. Disconnected data creates inefficiencies, while manual methods result in delays and uncertainty.
For CIOs, balancing the need for quick business agility with security requirements is a difficult challenge. Legacy manual processes in CapEx can lead to shadow IT, cause inconsistent data and security gaps, and make infrastructure management more complex.
Shadow IT refers to any hardware, software or cloud service employed without the knowledge or approval of the information technology (IT) department. Often, these are technologies used by employees to meet their specific needs or help improve productivity.
Cherry Bekaert's Cutting-edge CapEx Automation Solution
Cherry Bekaert Digital Advisory, the business and technology consulting arm of Cherry Bekaert, a leading national accounting and advisory firm, introduces a pioneering CapEx automation solution meticulously designed to streamline and enhance financial processes.
The automated solution combines the following technology tools:
- Dataverse: Serves as the core data repository through a secure, structured system of record.
- Power Apps: Simplifies CapEx intake and approvals for requestors and approvers using its intuitive interface.
- Power Automate: Manages notifications and approvals efficiently with an auditable trail.
- Power BI: Provides transparent and comprehensive dashboards that enhance financial visibility.
- ERP Integration: Offers a single source of truth, eliminating duplicate data entry.
- Copilot Agents: Delivers immediate responses and insights, enhancing decision-making capacity.
Cherry Bekaert’s CapEx Automation Solution in Action
Once a CapEx request is initiated, users can easily submit and track their requests with just a few clicks on the Power Apps interface. The intuitive design helps verify that all necessary information, such as budget justifications and forecasting data, is entered swiftly and accurately, reducing the risk of incomplete submissions.
Once a request is submitted, Power Automate seamlessly takes over, notifying approvers through automated workflows that keep everyone informed and accountable, all while maintaining a comprehensive and auditable trail.
Stakeholders across finance and IT can view live, interactive dashboards powered by Power BI, gaining instant insights into the status and financial implications of each CapEx request. This transparency fosters trust and collaboration among decision-makers, enabling them to make informed, strategic decisions.
Through seamless ERP integration, all CapEx data is automatically synchronized with existing systems, providing a single source of truth and eliminating redundant entry. Our solution also leverages Copilot agents to swiftly deliver answers to any queries, supporting streamlined decision-making backed by real-time data.
Benefits From the CFO’s Perspective
For CFOs, automating CapEx processes translates into reduced time spent on manual tasks and fortified policy compliance. Standardized workflows usher in a cultural shift from administrative burdens to insight-driven decision making. Moreover, CapEx automation serves as the cornerstone for a broader cash flow transformation.
This evolution empowers finance teams to concentrate on strategic initiatives, driven by real-time insights and robust compliance frameworks, enhancing fiscal responsibility and operational agility.
Benefits From the CIO’s Perspective
From the perspective of a CIO, the Cap Ex automation solution provides a structured and governed innovation platform that minimizes reliance on shadow IT. Utilizing Microsoft licensing, our scalable, low-code method accelerates digital transformation, reducing IT backlogs.
Centralizing requests and policy enforcement fortifies data security and compliance, while seamless system integration enhances business agility, positioning the CIO as a pivotal facilitator of organizational progress.
Transitioning From Manual Grind to Strategic Momentum
The benefits of our solution are profound and include:
- Reducing request and approval cycles by up to 40%
- Eradicating redundant emails, spreadsheets and reconciliations
- Offering real-time dashboards for insightful analysis
By embedding standardized controls within workflows, the CapEx automation solution maintains governance and compliance, empowering finance teams to shift from manual efforts to strategic momentum.
About Cherry Bekaert
Cherry Bekaert is committed to making a difference for our clients, community and the financial industry. Our CapEx automation solution epitomizes our dedication to innovative, solution-oriented problem-solving and collaborative success.
Engage with us to explore how our insights and experience can transform your organization’s financial operations, ushering in a new era of efficiency and strategic advantage. Together, let us build the future of intelligent financial operations.
