Top Challenges Facing Business Accountants

The accounting industry is going through a plethora of dramatic changes right now, and it goes without saying that these changes are presenting new challenges for leaders in the industry. Let's take a look at the challenges below, and what you can do about them if you want to stay ahead of the competition in today’s competitive market. According to the recent surveys, the biggest reason for inefficiencies in corporate accounting is resource constraints. Outdated processes and insufficient tools were also ranked highly amongst challenges most commonly faced by corporate accountants.

Let’s go into more detail below:

Resource Constraints

Workflow and efficiency should always be a concern of yours as a leader in accounting, but they are becoming far more significant in terms of concerns as the industry advances. Coming up with an effective workflow solution and then deploying it carefully is going to get you on your way to managing your efficiency and ensure the change is made across the entire firm.

As efficiency is measurable, you must begin to find ways of effectively measuring it in order to recognize and make the appropriate improvements to your firm.  Ensure you identify the metrics you use in the practice today, and then measure the activity you think could be improved. You can then come up with appropriate changes for that activity.

With the appropriate efficiency measurements in hand, a number of resources necessary to accomplish work can be measured and later compared to results. You can do this using new tools, systems, and processes that suit your corporation.

Outdated Processes

Did you know that 9 out of 10 finance departments are still using the traditional Excel method as part of their financial planning and budgeting system? Many of them don’t like to admit it, and this just goes to show that the process is outdated and unnecessary if you want to improve.

Having the ability to pull data from multiple sources into a single report would greatly increase productivity in the workplace. By using better processes to mine data and improve dashboards and visualizations on top of that, you could greatly improve your accounting.

As workflow efficiency should be a priority, staff and partners should put together a standardized way of getting work done firm-wide, so that there are no crossed wires as to who should be doing what.

If you do this effectively first time round, you should only need to make small adjustments to your processes moving forward.

Insufficient Tools

Having insufficient tools in the accounting industry just won’t do anymore. Keeping up with changes to software and systems can be troublesome, but only if undertaken incorrectly. Many corporations use anywhere from 45-75 software applications over the course of a year, and these will need to be updated regularly, so some frustration is understandable.

Accounting industry and firms who leverage the power of accounting technology combined with distinctive expert insights have the opportunity to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Leveraging accounting technology integrations combined with insight from financial industry leaders will lead to tremendous success in a field that is otherwise struggling with technology.

How we Can Help

We provide professional bookkeeping and accounting technology support for businesses by optimizing performance and providing the tools and software required for recording and maintaining financial records. Rather than spending your days on finance, hiring a full-time bookkeeper before you truly need one, or completely ignoring your financial information, we offer services tailored to your needs and business model. Get in touch today. We’re here to help.