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August 26, 2021

6你应该自动化的手动过程

By Tische Smith

As a controller managing a back office, it can often seem like the list of tasks is never-ending. 永远都有竞争的问题和优先事项:员工水平, internal customer needs, transactional errors, changing business needs.  

对于大公司来说，拥有多个手动流程也是很常见的, 但这往往会导致人为的错误. In addition, company growth can lead to longer working hours for staff, just to cover the workload.  Working long hours, 处理不满意的内部客户, and dealing with the effects of transactional errors can be frustrating for employees. 

 If your organization is looking to implement more efficiency and productivity into your processes, it’s time to work smarter, 不是更难实现自动化. 

Why is Automation Important?  

 “…Constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”  – Elon Musk

High-performing controllers and finance managers are always looking at improving efficiency, customer service, accuracy, 以及交易和流程的及时性. 许多事情推动了对自动化的需求, 但会计过程自动化有几个积极的影响: 

• Create scalability and customer satisfaction by improving efficiency and/or turnaround time for a transaction. 
• 减少每笔交易的成本——没有自动化, 随着公司的发展和交易量的增加, 营业费用持续上升. Implementing automated processes takes some up-front resources but can easily pay off in the long-run through much lower per-transaction costs.   
• 推动标准化——有效地实施自动化, 制定一个一致的标准是必要的, 并删除可能在手动流程中发生的一次性场景.  
• Improve timeliness, tracking and accuracy of transactions – Automation of certain transactions can help reduce manual errors and provide solid tracking of transaction flow through a system.  

通过自动化改进的6个领域: 

Travel Booking & Expense Reimbursements: 

• 考虑同时处理差旅和费用的应用程序, to leverage the intelligence from the travel bookings to minimize the effort of creating and processing expense reports. Travelers can save time using
  您的单一来源旅行预订应用程序, 在应用程序中维护他们的奖励计划, 该公司可以直接获取旅游信息. 
• 当您考虑应用程序时，以下功能可能是重要的: 
  • Phone application that allows for: 
    • Imaging/receipt capture
      
    • Expense report creation/submission 
    • Approvals  
  • 用于差旅和费用报告以及相关审批的可配置工作流 
  • 可配置的政策约束，以帮助遵从-旅行政策, expense policy, account coding
  • 公司信用卡数据接口能力-信息，如日期, vendors, 美元金额可能与旅行相匹配 

Monthly Close Process:

• 许多erp有上传日志条目的模板: 
  • Review your ERP for JE upload functionality and invest the time to set up templates for each recurring JE
  • 导出源数据的格式适合上传模板 
• 考虑软件应用程序，帮助你处理关闭虚拟: 
  • Close checklist/task management 
  • Automation of reconciliations 
  • Automation of journal entries 
  • 任务的工作流/批准，例如日记账条目和核对 
  • Reporting/analytics 

采购-采购订单(PO) vs. Non-PO purchasing: 

• 大多数公司的采购都需要PO，而其他公司则不需要.  采购政策应明确采购订单和采购订单的要求. Non-PO purchases. 
• PO Purchasing Considerations: 
  • Existing ERP functionality – This functionality may be very basic and consist of PO documents with matching capabilities or could include more advanced features. 
  • 实现策略遵从性的外部软件应用程序, workflow capabilities, notifications, vendor interfacing, and reporting. 
  • In-house applications that allow for form design and management may be used for basic tracking and approvals where a sophisticated PO system is not required.
• For Non-PO purchases, one recommendation is the setup and use of Purchasing Cards (P-Cards).  P-Cards are credit cards that can be set up with limits to help manage non-PO purchasing, 它们提供了几个方便的好处:
  • 基于支出水平的可盈利回扣. 
  • Reduction in AP workload by reducing the number of invoices the AP staff receive and process. 
  • Policy compliance management may be enabled through banking systems and card-related controls such as card limits and vendor MCC code limitations. 

Accounts Payable:

• 手动接收，发送和处理供应商发票 需要多个接触点和工作人员的勤奋.  If vendors are not sending invoices to a central point, the invoices may get lost or duplicated.
  
• ERP软件公司已经改进了他们的AP功能.  探索你的ERP系统的能力.
• Consider applications that will interface with the ERP, including common features such as: 
  • OCR(光学字符识别)成像  
  • 策略遵从性和审批的可配置工作流 
  • Management of PO vs. Non-PO transactions 
  • 可能的接口与P-Card或“幽灵”卡银行系统
  • Vendor payment processing 

Payroll & Timekeeping: 

• 手工时间表要求每个员工在表格上记录他们的工作时间, followed by payroll employees having to input the time into the payroll system and/or the ERP. Eliminate this duplication of effort by implementing timekeeping software that can interface into the payroll system. 
• In-house payroll requires staff with specific knowledge of payroll taxes and labor laws for different jurisdictions.  Consider using an external payroll service to leverage payroll and tax capabilities. 大多数工资外包系统也有人力资源功能, 以便更好地协调会计和人力资源之间的关系.  寻找任何工资系统的功能，例如: 
  • Import capability – import timekeeping data and/or other payroll/benefits related data used for payroll calculation 
  • 收入和扣除代码的GL映射 
  • Export capability for payroll data – export payroll data in a format for upload to your GL 
  • Explore the potential for payroll system to interface directly with finance ERP via API
  • 报告/分析供会计或人力资源部门使用 
  • Employee usability to view paystubs and update or view personal and tax information 

Reduce or Eliminate Checks:   

• 支票支付比大多数电子支付方式花费更多, 因此，减少或消除支票的数量可以节省运营成本.  
• 工资应直接存入银行, or pay card, 哪种方法既能省钱，又能让员工在线查看自己的工资单. 
• 费用报销应通过直接存款方式进行.  Most automated expense reporting applications have email notification capability to employees. 
• 需要考虑的电子供应商付款类型: 
  • ACH payments – Many ERPs have functionality which will email vendor remittance information and have ACH file exports for upload to the bank. 
  • "鬼"卡或AP信用卡-用这些卡, no plastic is generated but there is an AP credit card account set up with the bank specifically for vendor payments.  
  • p卡(采购卡)-与公司卡项目分开, this credit card program can be set up separately with different compliance parameters, such as for non-PO type transactions or to reduce the number of traditional AP invoices that AP staff must review and set up for payment.  

各种流程的自动化提高了会计团队的绩效, benefits employees, allows the company to grow without adding exponentially to its back-office costs, and provides accounting management with solid tools for managing the back-office functions. 

“美国的正确之处在于，尽管我们有一大堆问题, 我们有很大的能力——智力和资源——来对它们做些什么.” – Henry Ford

Whether it’s short turnaround “quick hit” efficiencies or software implementations, Bridgepoint Consulting has the expertise you need to identify and implement solutions to fit your needs. 拥有一支经验丰富的顾问团队, we’re ready to assist your organization with identifying and implementing automation to simplify business practices and drive growth