Top 3 Types of Accounting Automation Your Business Needs

Last Updated on January 4, 2021 by Rakesh Gupta

Automation is a game-changer for every industry and type of organization. Arguably the most impactful business automation has been in accounting processes. From lead to ledger the financial aspect of the customer’s journey is faster, easier, more accurate. On Salesforce, automated accounting is a critical component of the platform – both for smooth operations and informed, effective business strategies.

Let’s look at three types of automation your accounting solution should have.

3 Types of Automation You Need in an Accounting System

Automating key business processes has significant advantages. In a business world that’s not only rapidly changing, but also heavily data-driven, time is money. Additionally, your data is what guides you towards true return on investment opportunities while being efficient.

Here are core automations that take your accounting process from tedious manual labor to a simple button click.

Event Automation

Transactional accounting is now more streamlined and easier because accounting platforms can fully automate repetitive entries for you through event automation. For example, Accounting Seed utilizes click-not-code automation which enables you to do multiple functions with just a button click. The simpler automation is to implement, the more efficiency you gain. Event-related automation also lets users accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously. This reduces your manual labor while enhancing your entire system’s accuracy.

Event Automation Examples:

Define an event as a specific action in the accounting life cycle, such as receiving payment, and then dictate what is next in sequence.
Automate revenue recognition based on the appropriate sequence in the cycle.
Automatically update records with real-time data.

Batch Automation

Batch automation, or batch processing, is automation in which the system completes batches of jobs at once instead of forcing you to do each job individually and manually. Batch automation lets things like revenue recognition and billing be done in mass to save you time and meet deadlines. You can also run multiple batch operations sequentially according to your defined processes.

Batch Automation Examples:

Automatically approve and initiate payables that satisfy desired requirements.
You can also use this to approve specific accounting actions.
Send out mass billings to individual customers.

Scheduled Job Automation

Scheduled job automation ensures that your accounting never falls behind for you or your customers. Processing jobs manually always carries risks of delay or errors. Recurring jobs create consistency and help you to meet financial deadlines. You should be able to automate daily, weekly, or even monthly cycles as you need. Once set, these can be easily adjusted to reflect new changes to billing or revenue cycles. One-click of a button can become multiple tasks delivered exactly when you want.

Scheduled Job Examples:

Generate monthly customer invoices for designated periods, like once a month.
Create a bi-weekly payment to staff or vendors.
When a record is in a certain status, a scheduled job can continue the process, such as emailing an invoice when a ‘complete’ status is achieved.

Internal Control Automation

Automating internal controls protect, maintain, and document accounting data, which is highly valuable for both security and compliance. Salesforce offers many platform-based features that let you create in-depth internal controls around the accounting life cycle.

Here are a few features that can be used in a Salesforce-based accounting system:

User Permissions
Workflow Rules
User Role Hierarchy
Validation Rules, Approvals
Real-time Event Monitoring
Session Settings

Automating internal controls let you fully dictate the processes that help you comply with core requirements by creating checks and monitoring features around the data. You control data accessibility and set requirements for entering and interacting with data. Besides securing your financial information, this adds another layer of accuracy to your accounting processes. Of course, these automations also make it much easier to satisfy compliance rules.

All these automated features let you and your team spend less time entering numbers and more time analyzing them. On Salesforce, Accounting Seed is automated accounting. Be sure to schedule your free demo here.