Given the choice between doing something manually or automatically, the best pick seems obvious, right? Automation saves time on every task from manufacturing a car to keeping track of your bank account. It also eliminates many of the costly errors and redundancies of doing such things by hand.
Despite all of the clear benefits, manual work still dominates in fields such as SMB accounting. Professional services firms in particular can face major setbacks from relying so heavily on manipulating Excel sheet cells and running numbers through QuickBooks.
The limits of manual workflows in professional services accounting
As a professional services provider, you live to sell to your clients. But the sale is not as simple as making a pitch and getting a signature. There is a lot of marketing, resource scheduling and accounting behind any successful transaction.
"Manual work still dominates in fields such as SMB accounting."
Challenges often show up during these processes, due in part to manual activities and the types of tools used. A 2015 survey of professional services firms by the Hinge Research Institute (and featured in Accounting WEB) found that attracting and developing new business was the most-cited issue (over 70 percent of respondents), with technology troubles (30.7 percent) also in the top five.
Manual, spreadsheet-based processes amplify both of these problems because they:
- Fail to integrate project accounting and revenue management, which complicates compliance.
- Create tons of work during any budgeting or forecasting process.
- Stifle growth by tying so much of your business to fragile legacy applications.
- Force you to rely on IT for troubleshooting as well as running crucial reports.
- Lack insight into real-time metrics about your costs, profits and employee utilization.
The common thread among all of these issues is the absence of automation. Accordingly, nothing is streamlined and everything takes forever. The only way through this disjointed mess is by making a switch to modern cloud accounting software.
Intacct provides seamless automation for professional services
A cloud-based solution such as Intacct provides the automation you need to handle your increasingly complex finances. For starters, it offers tight integrations with customer relationship management tools, as well as automated revenue recognition using milestones, schedules, and project percentages completed. These features help you modernize your quote-to-cash process.
Quote-to-cash is an onerous process when using manual Excel-based workflows.
Plus, you gain the freedom to create custom KPIs and invoices and view your business data from many possible dimensions. This provides a much-needed alternative to error-prone reporting in Excel. Self-service dashboards are also available to all key stakeholders in your organization so they can keep tabs on the firm's performance in real time.
As an Intacct Premier Partner, RKL eSolutions can help you move past siloed information and onerous manual processes. With deep experience in the professional services field, we are ready to guide you toward an accounting solution that is sustainable, scalable, and cost-effective.
