CFO’s Guide

To Business
Finance Automation
 Table of contents:

1. Introduction................................................................................................................. 1

2. What does finance automation entail?................................................................ 2

3. Common blockers impacting the efficiency of finance operations.............. 3

4. Selecting the right business automation............................................................. 6

5. Talent Gap and skill upgrade.................................................................................. 7

6. Cybersecurity and other risks................................................................................. 9

7. Cultural roadblocks.................................................................................................... 11

8. What are the main benefits of finance automation?....................................... 12

9. Finance process that can be automated............................................................ 16

10.Conclusion: How much automation is the right amount of automation?... 23

Introduction
If finance’s numbers don’t work, eventually, nothing will. No one understands this notion better
than CFOs do.

Automation is no longer a debated trend in finance, especially in the Indian context.

72% of accounting professionals in India ‘consider reducing manual intervention and fostering
increased automation as pivotal drivers for their business case,’ while 52% are optimistic about
the use of automation in financial tasks, such as financial closure reports.

From bookkeeping and invoicing to planning and management, finance covers every aspect
and function within and without an organization.

Data shows that process automation is
the best way to achieve an error-proof
financial department. Financial metrics
such as profit ratio and cash flow are
key when determining the health of your
organization and investment potential.
That's why financial operations must
be stable, secure and accurate, but not
all finance teams are meeting
expectation.
CFOs, therefore, wear many hats. With
their limited bandwidth, they need to keep
the books updated, analyze numbers to
make the company more profitable, and
partner with CEOs to decide what works
best for the company. However, in juggling
multiple roles, squeezing decision-making
cum leadership between day-to-day
financial activities becomes a challenge.

1
To address this, finance processes and
departments are undergoing an overhaul,
and technology has been their biggest
enabler. As more finance processes are
automated, finance roles shift from reactive
and transactional to proactive and
analytical.
automation. However, CFOs realize its
potential and are taking steps to implement
it. Only 3% of SMEs are in the advanced
stage of automation, while the rest are
highly optimistic about how finance
automation across processes can transform
their organization.

The majority of businesses in India are just

beginning to reap the advantages of finance

The next few chapters discuss in detail the obstacles, impact, and potential
of finance automation on business processes:

Finance Automation

Common blockers to finance automation

Benefits of finance automation
Finance processes that can be automated

What Does Finance Automation Entail?

Short-term fixes such as increasing headcount aren’t a sustainable solution when handling
workload and complexities of finance processes. Finance automation is the right and the only
way to scale and streamline processes, no matter how well-trained or deep your workforce
and processes are.

Finanace Process Automation

Budget CAPEX & OPEX Contract Employee Expense
Management Management Management Management

Purchase Order Innovice Accounts Payable

Management Management Management
2
Finance automation refers to the use of
technology to expedite finance processes
such as bookkeeping, invoicing, accounts
payable, accounts receivable, payroll,
reporting and analytics, expense
management, etc. Automation helps to
optimize operating performance, build
accuracy, reduce costs, and save valuable
time and effort.
For instance, OPEN Moneya business
payments platform that enables
businesses to make seamless payouts,
manage compliance, streamline expense
management, auto-reconcile, categorize
income and expense, and automate
bookkeeping within a single interface.
Start Free Trial

For instance, OPEN, a leading business finance automation platform, enables businesses to make
seamless payouts, manage compliance, streamline expense management, auto-reconcile and
categorize income and expense, and automate bookkeeping within a single interface.

Finance automation simplifies, accelerates, and automates processes while freeing up finance
professionals to concentrate on more value-added and analytical tasks. Businesses can save
70% of their operational costs, leverage faster turnaround times, and have fewer errors.

Common Blockers Impacting

The Efficiency of Finance Operations
There’s a pressing need for CFOs to address
challenges in finance operations via
automation. By leveraging the transformative
power of emerging tech like machine learning,
artificial intelligence, natural language
processing (NLP), ERP systems, etc., finance
automation can make finance workflows
efficient, productive, and
transparent.
However, the road to automation isn’t a
smooth drive. There are many blockers that
finance automation addresses in finance. An
equal number of challenges remain to be
addressed in finance processes to make
the Big Automation Leap.

Manual Work
Many organizations still deploy paper-based
finance processes along with software
solutions to handle records. Among finance
processes, Accounts Payable and Accounts
Receivable remain the most labor-intensive
finance functions, followed by internal audit.
Paper-based manual work and data entry
have a greater scope for errors and fraud.
They also require much time and effort,
lowering operational scalability and
efficiency. In addition, these records often
must be aligned with digital records,
updated, and cross-checked continuously.

3
 For instance, GSK India’s finance staff resisted
the idea of Excel being more efficient. CFO Puja
Thakur found her team was spending signifi-
cant time using Excel to download, adjust, and
then upload data.
The staff were requested to provide a list of all
cases where Excel was being used, why it was
95% of professionals in India face the challenge of maintaining the accuracy of manual inputs
during data entry.
Paper VS Work Order Software
On average, 7% of documents
are lost and costing you about
$220 to reproduce them.
Nearly 75% of time spent working
with paper-based information is wasted
in searching and filing.
Paper decreases productivity a total of
8 hrs a week - locating (1hr), difficulty
sharing (1hr),distribution/storage (1hr),
filing/retrieval (1/2 hr) for a grand total of
400 hrs/yr!
49% of managers say they
frequently are unable to handle
the volume of the information
they receive.
Source : Novo Solutions
being used, and how long it took. Puja worked
with her team to identify monotonous and
routine processes and introduced bots to do
those jobs automatically. The team then
focused on further eliminating the use of
spreadsheets and replacing them with tools
such as Power BI and Qlik Sense.
Work order software effectively
ELIMINATES
all work orders.
Using the correct organizational
tools can improve time management by
40% Workers can access work
orders and attached documentation
directly from a smart phone in the field.
In mere seconds work order
software can locate, share, store, and
distribute work orders
There is a 30% productivity increase
for the simplest workflow document
management. Because work order
information is tracked, quality information
is available to determine current and
future needs.
4
This kind of record-keeping and data collection is tedious and time-consuming. Thankfully,
CFOs understand the importance of automation and digitization today. The more efficient and
frictionless finance operations are, the happier they are

Printers, toner cartridges,paper,

writing tools, shredders, photocopiers,
staples, paperclips, folders, and
cabinets add up to around $400,000
a year for an average company.

Source: Formstack

CFOs also realize that today's workforce is conscious about their job role and work
satisfaction. Low-value, mundane tasks won’t just increase workload. They would

Reduce employee productivity and morale

Reduce engagement levels
Increase employee turnover and attrition
Increase wastage of valuable skills and expertise

No CFO wants a half-motivated workforce, and they wouldn’t appreciate the waste of
precious human capital.

Similarly, lack of responsiveness from stakeholders, inaccurate or incomplete vendor/customer

information, or a work week spent managing the high volume of emails in inboxes are
turn-offs.

Finance automation is a key priority for professionals who consider that automation led by AI
and machine learning can greatly enhance, optimize, and simplify finance processes.

5
Customer Expectations
No matter the size of an organization, customer expectations of how products and services
are delivered remain the biggest disruptor, even in finance.

Kerry Agiasotis, Executive Vice president at APAC, Sage, says, “As consumers,
the highly interactive and engaging experiences that retailers and service
providers are delivering through new and emerging technology is satisfying
our increasing need for instantaneous gratification and personalization.

These new expectations are causing a massive shift in our expectations of

the workplace, mostly unmet due to processes and legacy systems that
cannot deliver the same levels of user experience and speed of outcomes.”

If business processes are to be agile and customer support immediate and responsive, the
backend has to be supple and moving with automated processes and workflows. Finance,
being an all-pervasive function, needs to fulfill the same obligations

Selecting The Right Business Automation

Finance automation is an important part of
the technical foundation businesses require
today.
The struggle to find and implement the right
business automation is real and rarely
addressed in corporate scenes.
Each organization, unique and its workings
heterogeneous from the others, requires
finance automation that fits like a glove to
deliver operational optimization and
efficiency.

What kind of company is it, and what are its core operations?

If you try finding the answer to this question before determining your finance team structure,
you can save yourself a lot of hassle

Markus Harder, CFO at DeepL, says, “ The first step with a finance team should
be about recognizing the constraints you have and fixing them. It’s a process
of evolution.”

6
For instance, a services business like a SaaS or
a FinTech platform won’t have high accounting
needs. Clients pay as per the packages. But if
it’s a manufacturing business, operations get
complex.
Managing supplier relations, invoices, and
payment dues on one side, arranging
distribution channels, marketing campaigns,
procuring bills, and managing customer
relationships on the other – each process and
touchpoint is interconnected with the finance
function and needs a denser finance team
and software solutions.
Another relevant question you must ask is
whether to outsource or not. With
outsourcing, you can bring in relevant
expertise, access skills, and reduce
management tasks. But you lose control
over how things function.
Also, finance operations deal with company
accounts and sensitive information.
Therefore, the decision to outsource should
be made after careful consideration and
much thought.

Talent Gap and Skill Upgrade

Automation minimizes human intervention, but humans are the focal point of all finance
processes. With finance transformation accelerating faster than ever, the skill requirements of
finance professionals are evolving. The shortage of the right talent is a persistent blocker.
74% of CFOs agree that attracting the right talent remains one of the key challenges.

CFOs and their teams must be rightly equipped to harness the technology to its maximum
potential. However, the talent gap has made it difficult for CFOs to accommodate
technological and cultural shifts within the organization.

7
 Respondents expect to see skill gaps as market and technology trends
alter organizations' talent needs.

When skill gaps are expected to occur within organizations, % of respondents'

Currently experiencing In next In next In next None in next

skill gaps 2 vears 3-5 years 6-10 years 10 years

43 22 22 5 6 2 Don't
know

Share of organizations' current roles at risk of being disrupted by market

or technology trends in next 5 years, % of respondents'

50% of roles. 11-25% 1-10% No

of roles of roles roles

Don't
8 22 41 22 4 2 know

"Figures may not sum to 100%, because of rounding: n= 1,216.

In a Sage survey, over 72% of organizations already use cloud-based financial management,
and 86% of survey respondents felt that CFOs have a larger role in data analytics. Due to
automation, administrative functions are being eliminated, requiring finance professionals to
operate as quasi-data scientists.

People need to upskill themselves to harness technology. 48% of organizations still adopting
cloud-based technology identified learning new skills as the biggest hindrance.

8
Cybersecurity and Other Risks
Cybersecurity is something that CFOs need to manage as a part of their automation strategy.
78% of professionals agree that managing risks associated with fraud and security is at the
top of their priority lists.

Top Cybersecurity Threats

Malware Phishing Spear Man-in-the-

phishing Middle
Attacks

Denial
SQL DNS
of service
injection attack

Cybercrimes are increasing in scale, sophistication, and numbers, and company

accounts are at great risk, given their sensitive nature. There are 2,200 cyber attacks
reported per day, with one attack happening every 39 seconds in 2023. Cybercriminals
have stolen more than 33 billion records to date in 2023. Given the risks of data
security and consumer protection, governments have introduced several regulations
and frameworks surrounding user privacy and data. European Union’s General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one such law that organizations need to comply with.

9
 Key Global Cybersecurity Laws
Here's a look at some of the key legislation that affects the cybersecurity
world in different regions,

The United States The European Union

Operating in the United States requires The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
compliance with several laws dependent upon sets out the requirements for collecting, storing,
the state, industry, and data storage type. and processing personal data.
The Health Insurance Portability and Kev features of the GDPR include:
Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law that
Providing clear and transparent information on
protects patient health information.
how data is handled
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) regulates
Establishing protocols for responding to data
the collection and handling of financial
breaches
information.
Ensuring data is only kept for as long as
The Payment Card Industry Data Security
necessary
Standard (PCI DSS) sets rules for
safeguarding consumer credit card data.

The United Kingdom

ASEAN
The Data Protection Act (DPA) is a law in the UK
that regulates the handling of personal data,
The Association of South East Asian Nations
including how customers access and delete it.
announced a Cybersecurity Cooperation Strategy
that includes:

Protecting personal data

Oceania
Ensuring secure data storage and disposal
protocols
The ACSC Essential 8 is a set of mitigation
Informing customers of their rights related to strategies and controls that help protect
cybersecurity Australian businesses from cyber threats,

CFOs must understand the opportunities
and threats the digital ecosystem offers
corporations. Conversations around data
privacy rights are being pushed into the
public domain. The CFOs protect and
safeguard customer and organizational
data and maintain a robust regulatory
environment.
While these are more ethical and regulatory
concerns, CFOs also have a financial
responsibility to keep information secure
amidst the rise of frauds and hacks. Misuse
of data firmly falls within the finance
function.

10
Cultural Roadblocks
Appetite to change and cultural resistance
remain deciding factors in adopting technol-
ogy in finance processes. CFOs can deal with
misconceptions around automation through
a greater understanding of headline risks.
believe automation would render their or their
colleague’s job redundant. However, skilled
manpower will always remain in demand, and
it’s a misconception that automation causes
layoffs.

With new tech, old software becomes CFOs must educate their employees on
redundant, and workforce requirements are cloud-based financial management and
also reduced. 61% of surveyed employees automation software capabilities.

Business Case For Finance Automation: Hays

Hays has implemented several initiatives to engage staff at all levels in process
improvements and automation. The finance team conducts an annual competition,
judged by senior management, whereby team members can present improvement
ideas. A recent winner, for example, proposed using OCR technology for job candidates
to take a picture of their bank account details, which were then automatically fed into
the system. This took out the risk of errors, sped up the process, and took away a
tedious task from staff.

Most CFOs are uncertain when and how to make the call around automation, unsure about its
impact on their organization and internal affairs. How technology is introduced in any
organization is imperative and worth a thought

There are certain steps CFOs can take in this regard:

Technology adoption must align with the needs and culture of the
organization before being implemented

Introducing change management programs with a people-first mindset

Striking a balance between culture, talent, and technology.

11
What are the Main Benefits of
Finance Automation?
Some CFOs stand out for bringing automation to finance processes, upskilling their teams, and
integrating automation solutions with in-house accounting tools and processes. The ability to
harness technology and foster team-tech relationships will set great CFOs apart.

CFOs leading the way in digital transformation know the benefits automation brings to the
table and the ways it can reform and evolve business processes:

Automation in Finance
STATISTICS

The amount of time The amount of time The amount of time

CEOs could regain by saved by automating saved on invoice
employing automation invoice capture processing by using
for financial tasks accounts payable
automation

Chief financial officers (CFOs) were once historians. In version 2.0, they became real-time
analysts with real-time dashboards. Today, in version 3.0, they are leaders and visionaries who
can foresee the future.

A CFO’s role is changing. A lot is happening from becoming generalists to

specialists, and a lot is happening where specialists are going even
deeper in depth with the kind of things you can wrap up with technology.
Covid has taught us that we can leverage technology to get our plans
rolling. A CFO is a person who is a business evangelist, but at the same
time, he takes a backseat and looks at things from a strategic angle
rather than going into transactional business nowadays.

~Kunal Sanghavi, CFO, HDFC Securities

12
Today's CFOs consider finance automation machines, through piles of data in the
their most effective weapon. In fact, 72% of shortest span of time.
CFOs use finance automation to drive
Business automation, especially in finance,
operational efficiency in their day-to-day
has closed information gaps and evolved the
processes. As artificial intelligence (AI) and
roles of finance professionals and CFOs, from
automation spread wider and become more
historians to visionaries who use data
ubiquitous, CFOs and their teams can move
analysis to uncover opportunities.
back and forth in time, just like time

A whitepaper by Sage, ‘CFO 3.0 – Digital Transformation Beyond Financial Management,’

reveals some interesting findings.

93% of finance professionals agree their role has changed over the past five
years.

Of these, 67% agree they’re expected to be business advisors rather than

number crunchers.

More than half of the respondents agree that this change in expectation is a
direct result of the industry's digitalization, and

44% attribute this change to the rise of a new generation of accountants

entering the workforce

CFOs and financial professionals face three main challenges while implementing finance
automation in finance automation processes such as invoicing, accounts payable, accounts
receivable, etc.

Finding new ways to bring automation and technology upgradation in financial

processes

Integrating financial and operational information for streamlined work processes

Aggregating information across sites and locations for a single source of truth

13
Focus on Higher-Value Activities
Automation simplifies and eliminates manual, repetitive processes. 30% of the CFOs and
finance professionals noted business improvements due to automation. They were spending
less time on repetitive tasks. Fewer mistakes were being made. And CFOs were going all
strategic.

Additionally, CFOs appreciate how ML, AI, and related technologies can off-load certain tasks
off their shoulders, leading to:

Meeting growing customer expectations

Improvement in processing times, speed, and accuracy

Better focus on decision-making and value-generating activities

Better transparency and visibility of operations

More streamlined and aligned functions

Business Case For Finance Automation: GSK India

GSK India has been making efforts to reduce the time taken to produce monthly
financial reports and increase the availability of ‘touchless’ reporting. Through
automation, GSK has reduced monthly closing and reporting from five days to two days.

These automation solutions have also added efficiency in other areas of finance. GSK
uses bots to take care of auto-uploading in Indirect taxation Likewise, in the case of
approvals, everything is done seamlessly and online. The automation approach has
helped save time and improved data quality and reporting.

Single Source of Truth

For CFOs, digital transformation and
automation in finance aren’t just strategic
priorities but also imperative for the single
source of truth they provide. As processes
grow more complex and one-on-one
communication is limited, the importance of
having a single source of information is
undeniable.
Suppose the procurement department
prepares its accounts, the inventory
manager fills their sheets, and the
salespeople record every transaction
concerning them. But no one is talking to the
other. These multiple information sources
must be synced and reconciled before
knowledge can be pulled between the pages.

Automation minimizes human intervention while making all systems and solutions talk to each
other and remain as they are in real time.
14
Economies of Scale
Finance automation can bring economies of
scale to finance processes by automating
manual tasks and streamlining operations.
This can help reduce costs and efforts
several times. Ardent Partners’ 2023 research
found that automated invoicing costs
between 40% and 90% compared to manual
and paper-based processing methods.
Automation also speeds up recording,
reconciling, and analyzing records. The ardent
report suggested that automation can
accelerate the average time to process an
invoice by 81% in Accounts Receivables. The
companies can get discounts for Accounts
Payable by making early or timely payments.

Business Case for Finance Automation: M&M

M&M has added automation in several layers of its core finance operations process.
M&M uses RPA for bank reconciliations. Instead of manually uploading bank
statements into the SAP system, the new process involves the bank emailing the
statement to a designated email address. The RPA ‘reads’ the bank statement. It
uploads it into the SAP system, where it is reconciled.

Extractable Insights
Finance automation also connects the dots by
reconciling finance numbers from different
departments and organizational functions.
These numbers present a single-window view
of company accounts and performance in a
particular quarter or financial year, the
sources of income, expenses incurred, revenue
flow, working capital requirements, and critical
finance metrics around the organization’s
health.
Finance automation provides access to
in-depth and actionable insights by accurate-
ly reporting these numbers. CFOs can use this
information to review policies and plans, make
budgets, and gather their heads around other
performance metrics.
Teams no longer sit at their desks, toiling over
detailed reports. These smart automation
tools provide actionable numbers that can be
instantly used. With all the tedious data entry
work removed, finance teams can focus on
more strategic tasks.
CFOs can turn the raw data into statistical
references to base their decisions. They can
understand and challenge business strate-
gies to offer effective solutions. Work towards
building and strengthening relationships and
supervise reporting and accounting tasks.

15
Finance Processes That Can Be Automated
EY’s Digital Disruption in Finance Survey finds that only 11% of finance leaders and CFOs believe
they are in the advanced stage of digitally transforming their finance functions.

CFOs should realize that data integrity forms
the core of all financial activities. Once that is
fixed, they can implement the steps to start
automating processes. More than 2/3rds of
the businesses have implemented or are
currently implementing cloud-based
accounting software.
Others are leveraging technology to
automate different parts of workflows.
Regardless of size, industry, or geography,
almost all organizations have the same
finance processes that can be automated.

Financial Close

Source to Pay
(S2P)

Payroll
Administration

Account
Reconciliation
Financial Planning &
Analysis

Order to Cash
(O2C)

16
Accounts Payable (AP) and Invoice Management
An Accounts Payable clerk must process over
1000 invoices a month on average. The
cumulative costs can be huge, and the effort
is immense. Automating invoice management
is the best solution for enterprises that handle
hundreds and thousands of invoices
annually. The scale and scope define the
extent of automation needed in AP and
invoice management for SMEs and MSMEs.

A typical Accounts Payable automation process can involve:

Matching invoices to supporting documents, such as purchase orders and receiving

forms

Setting rules to automatically assign a ledger code to each invoice to eliminate manual
coding and inconsistencies

Alerting necessary approvers at the required time for timely payments

A few checks while automating invoice management include:

Recording and managing invoices that come without purchase orders require effort to
extract data and may require human intervention.

Automation integrates different language models to handle and investigate invoices in

different geographies.

Rule-based automation is necessary in every step of the financial processes to

segregate suppliers based on cost types and centers. This additional step can enable
detailed reporting and cash flow visibility.

For large volumes, e-invoicing networks between buyers and suppliers should be used,
and the invoices should be automatically imported into the enterprise’s accounting
system to reduce processing problems.

Inter-company invoices should be carefully recorded and matched in compliance with

tax laws applicable to a particular legal entity.

Intelligent document processing platforms and buyer-supplier e-invoicing networks are two
prominent kinds of AP automation. AppZen, OPEN, Freshbooks, NetSuite, Quickbooks, and Zoho
are popular AP automation software vendors. Read more about their reviews on Capterra.

Power your business with OPEN’s automated AP solution.

Sign up today

17
Accounts Receivable and O2C
Accounts Receivable automation offers
solutions to automate workflows within an
enterprise, including requesting, procuring,
receiving, and settling payments for products
and services.
O2C (Order to Cash) refers to the process of
receiving orders from customers to receiving
outstanding balances. It is a part of the
Accounts Receivable process. Accounts
Receivable (AR) forgoes the need for manual
tasks, resulting in better cash flow
management and liquidity.
It directly retrieves information from multiple
sources, such as ERP, CRM, banks, retailers, etc.,
to reconcile the amounts and automate
repetitive tasks. Invoice automation can
decrease days sales outstanding (DSO) by 15
days.

AR is responsible for:

Setting up new customer accounts

Producing invoices based on sales orders

Collecting invoice payments

Notifying those responsible for approving and managing AR and O2C tasks

Some of the best practices CFOs should follow in AR automation include:

Develop an invoice blueprint to avoid discrepancies in recording once you have a clean
and accurate data feed

Train your AR team on how best to use the software functionalities and keep abreast of
best practices and relevant workflows

Keep track of your critical AR metrics to optimize cash collection and cash flow

Ensure high collaboration with other teams such as sales, customer service, etc.

AR automation software should be synced up to date or integrated well with native

well with ERP and CRM systems to ensure
efficient data transfer. Automation should be
followed by integration because, without it,
there would be no synchronization within the
business processes.
The single source of truth required to keep the
records up to date and in tandem with each
other can get nowhere if your tech stack isn’t
business systems. OPEN removes this need by
providing a single solution to manage all your
accounts payable and receivables, payroll,
invoicing, and other finance functions.
Sage Intact, NetSuite, Quickbooks, OPEN, etc.,
are some of the leading names in Accounts
Receivables software.
18
Expense Management
When managing expenses manually, a
truckload of effort is needed to organize and
manage paperwork and spreadsheets. The
headcount and operational expenses are
high.
Picture an employee painstakingly arranging
receipts, filling record entries, and sitting on
expense reports all day to be sent to
accounting teams for reimbursements next.
The annoyance and frustration are unmea-
sured, as a single error can cause effort to be
put in from scratch again.
While we no longer witness such high levels
of manual expense management, finance
teams can do much better with automation.
Many back-and-forths can be eliminated at
Payroll Management
Payroll management is one of the most
time-consuming and cumbersome tasks,
especially for SMEs, who must stay updated
with changing tax and wage laws. 97% of
SME owners say they manage at least one
area of business operations, one of the most
popular being payroll.
Automation eliminates the painstaking
efforts finance teams put in every month.
With their valuable time saved, managers
and employees can get accurate data sets
to work on. ERP systems with finance
automation allow CFOs to choose a payment
schedule based on the employee category,
and the software takes care of the rest.
Finance automation tools can help you
automate tasks such as adding employee
both the AP and AR ends. The processes are
standardized, books are shareable across
teams, and tax and compliance procedures
are automatically met.
The entire expense management is simplified
– finance teams aren’t spending their work
weeks processing and reimbursing expenses.
Automating expenses also simplifies tax
management via real-time tracking and
calculation of deductible expenses.
Processes become more visible, and CFOs
can gain insights into spending trends,
high-spend areas that need to be curbed,
expense frauds are minimized, and expense
policies can be adjusted likewise.
information and banking details, setting
wages and rates, and automating payroll
frequency. In case of revisions, tweaks in
data don’t disrupt the pay cycles.
Some payroll automation rolls come as APIs
(application programming interfaces). These
tools can be easily integrated with existing
systems and consolidate critical financial
data. Most tools come with intuitive
dashboards that track KPIs using existing
data sets on departmental performance,
expenses, conversion rates, etc. Once you set
it up, reports can be delivered to your inbox
on a predictable schedule.
Besides the regular bookkeeping and
automation tasks, payroll management
software can automate tasks such as
19
 Accurately calculating paychecks while considering factors such as wages, tax
withholdings, location, and benefits contributions.

Calculating overtime, holiday, and after-hour pay as necessary.

Easy tracking of complex schedules

Track time off requests for vacation or sick days

Handling benefits like the accrual of paid time off

Ensuring compliance

Automatic payment of employees via direct deposit or pay cards.

Purchase Orders
Purchase order automation automates
procurement processes and reconciles
payments and spending. The need to
maintain spreadsheets and manual ledger
books is removed. Automation software
provides virtual cards. These cards can be
used for making purchases. And being
directly connected to accounting books,
CFOs know who is spending and how much
is spent.
It also interconnects AP function and
procurement and has touchpoints spread
throughout several departments. One-to-one
communication in such scenarios will involve
a lot of back and forth and will also be
difficult to track. Also, if approvals are
awaited or key dates are missed, supply
delays can occur, impacting the entire
production schedule.
These delays and lapses can impact vendor
relationships, disrupt supply chains, and you
may lose on great opportunities.
Then comes automation, followed by
integration between procurement and AP,
and everything gets sorted. Finance
automation allows immediate visibility,
efficiency, and accuracy of purchase order
management. Approvers get alerted in time,
and when approval arrives, everything
moves quickly, thanks to automation. The
software automatically reconciles invoices,
receipts, and purchase orders to streamline
workflows.

20
Financial Reporting and Planning
Financial reporting is necessary for any active
business. CFOs can convert the raw data
from automation systems into actional
reports and financial statements for further
analysis. They can also automate the same
by formatting the software per the compa-
ny's requirements.
Financial reporting is mostly a top manage-
ment task. The leaders deeply engaged in
company policies and decision-making must
spend hours, even days, sourcing, aggregat-
ing, and reconciling data from multiple
sources. This can get frustrating.
Finance automation precludes the provision
of raw data from multiple sources
consolidated to provide actionable insights
as a single source of truth. In a survey, the
IMA (Institute of Management Accountants)
asked which financial processes would
undergo a significant or complete change
because of technology over the next five
years. Financial reporting was the common
response.
Many companies rely on tech solutions to
automate the steps required to produce
financial statements. Once that is attained,
the report generation process is a breeze on
such automation platforms. Automating
financial reporting brings time utilities.

Business Case For Automation in India: TCS

TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) uses automation internally for the perfor-
mance management of 150 of its business units. Previously, business leaders
presented the unit performance numbers as they preferred to the senior
leadership. This changed with automation. A standardized and automated
set of numbers is generated directly from the financial analytics system.
Since the analytics are automated there is no longer room left for
discussions on the accuracy and currency of the data.

Automation in financial reporting has its own advantages:

Accuracy of reports

Transparency and credibility of data

Fulfills due diligence for investors through earnings reports

More time to analyze the results

Easy and quick access to critical information for internal and external stakeholders

21
Consolidated Financial Processes
Financial processes concern numbers but
pervade every process and function in any
organization. Consolidation is an important
utility finance automation brings for CFOs.
For management, report building isn’t an easy
task. It may take days to combine information
from many functions in a single spreadsheet,
collate, and ensure everything is correct, the
balances match, and nothing is left out.
This can take days. The process gets more
complex when different currencies, exchange
Budgeting and Forecasting
Budgeting and forecasting aren’t much-dis-
cussed functions under finance automation.
However, as business processes scale and
increase, budgeting becomes more complex
and hard to manage.
But how does finance automation help build
budgets and forecast numbers for your
organization?
Since processes are integrated and accounts
reconciled, automation software can easily
pull all financial and operational information
This arrangement can have multiple advantages.
Stakeholders can remove certain numbers
from the calculation to see how the
reports look without them.
Easy tracking and comparison with past
budgets become feasible
Prebuilt report templates and dashboards
allow easy consumption of data
Spotting trends and comparisons
becomes easier
rates, accounting regulations, and local tax
codes are involved.
Automation helps get a unified view of
financial information by consolidating the
processes in the shortest time possible. Good
finance automation software also allows a
functionality where users can be tagged to
intercompany sales and purchase orders
whenever they are created. This makes it
convenient for the right people to stay in
touch with the proceedings during
reconciliation.
required for budgeting and forecasting.
There’s no additional requirement to export
or import data manually in a system. All
stakeholders work on the same data set
acquired from that single source of informa-
tion – finance automation software.
Complete automation isn’t feasible for
budgeting and forecasting as a lot of it will
depend on the discretion and vision CFOs
have for the coming financial year. Parts of
the process can be automated to reduce
the time and effort spent.
Predictive capabilities are enhanced as
information can be mapped, studied,
and analyzed in multiple ways
Creative visualization of data allows
data to be better communicated
22
Taxation and Compliance
Abiding by the rules and regulations,
especially those related to payroll, data
protection, and tax compliance, is a sacra-
ment for organizations looking to fulfill their
automation dreams. If automation software
isn’t programmed to handle the rules and
laws and keep updated with changes, it
defeats the very purpose of automation. The
automated books and records must be
reanalyzed to check for adherence.
Taxes and compliance depend on the
jurisdiction in which the organization is
incorporated or operating. In the import-ex-
port business case, the software must fulfill
obligations at both ends.
Conclusion: How Much Automation is
The Right Amount Of Automation?
Finance automation isn’t just disrupting one
sector but fundamentally changing how
business is conducted. The transformed
business model speaks of more accessible
tech solutions, changing customer
expectations, and the need for connected/
integrated business as the main drivers
behind the change.
Businesses are actively seeking ways to
improve their operations' agility, scalability,
and efficiency. For them, finance automation
is the answer. Almost 50% of the businesses
have started implementing or are in the
planning stage of their digital transformation
process. They are planning to introduce
automation and digitization in the next two
years.
For instance, some customers, agencies, or
non–profits are exempt from sales tax. Such
transactions should be tracked and exempt.
Putting them within the taxation ambit will
only ruin relationships, as no customers will
take kindly if they are charged extra when
they are actually exempt.
Manual calculations only add to the burden
and list of error-prone books. An accounting
system with built-in tax logic can sort the
distinctions easily and keep the credibility
intact. The automation process should also
be flexible enough to incorporate tax holidays
and reflect the changes in tax laws.
Finance automation, in addition to
automating manual and menial tasks, can
provide data insights and actionable
statistics that CFOs can use to drive further
organizational transformation. Automation is
here to assist and not eliminate manpower.
Dedicated and all-inclusive automation
platforms like OPEN today connect all the
in-house toolkits, software solutions, and
systems and extract information from native
servers before automating the process. The
apps and APIs can easily talk to each other.
Instead of inert numbers and complex
reporting, finance automation joins the dots
to present visualized data, which assists in
decision-making and supervision. CFOs can
23
implement transformation programs and
awareness drives to create better
responsiveness and acceptance for the new
tech stack.
Customer expectations have played a huge
role in speeding up the automation of
finance processes. B2C companies like
Amazon, Netflix, Uber, etc., have set
standards in personalization and
responsiveness. They are making things more
connected than ever for the average user.
Therefore, there’s even greater urgency for
businesses to implement automation to
stand out from the crowd and serve
customers in the best way possible. The
change has just begun.

Looking to introduce finance automation for your business?

Sign up for OPEN Money.

Our product experts will help you get started with a demo call.

www.open.money