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Preparing Your Finance Team for Automation: Skills, Mindset, and Change Management
There’s a lot of uncertainty among workers today regarding how technology will affect their jobs. People are concerned about Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking jobs away and about how AI might change the nature of white-collar work. When you decide to implement Business Process Automation (BPA) software, which often utilizes AI tools, there could be mixed reactions from the finance team.
You might know that BPA software will streamline business processes, improve cash flow, reduce errors, improve employee satisfaction, and provide many other benefits to your business. But are you prepared to communicate that to your team and get them all on board with automation?
Successful automation in today’s world hinges not just on software tools, but also on getting buy-in from finance staff and aligning automation with strategic goals. No one likes it when change is forced upon them for what seems like no good reason. But if you can involve the finance team in the planning process, clearly communicate the benefits of automation, provide training, and roll out the new software in phases, you can successfully prepare your finance team for BPA implementation.
Get The Team Involved
Ideally, before you get to the point where you’re ready to implement BPA software in your company, you involve the finance team in the planning and decision-making process. One of the key steps to getting automation right the first time is to identify the challenges your finance team faces. What’s working or not working right now? What processes take up too much time? Where does the team think things can and should improve?
Define your goals for automation while working with all the stakeholders involved, from the CFO to the controller to the accountants. That doesn’t mean everyone will be equally involved in planning, but it is helpful to give the whole team chances to weigh in during the planning stage. This is particularly helpful in the stage where you’re identifying pain points. The people actively using your current systems day after day can give you a good idea of what’s not working and may even have ideas for how to fix the problem.
Clearly Communicate Goals and Benefits
From the moment you start talking about automation to the finance team, clearly communicate your goals. Employees need to know why automation is a good idea, not just for the company, but for them personally. BPA software is an amazing tool for supporting effective finance teams, and your team needs to know how it will make their jobs easier as well as how it will benefit the company.
One of the major benefits of BPA software is that it streamlines and standardizes workflows. This helps eliminate inefficiencies, speed up financial processes, reduce errors, and save the company money. It also makes it easier for employees to complete their tasks. BPA software even takes over some routine tasks (e.g. data entry and matching invoices with purchase orders [POs]), freeing up employees to spend time on the more interesting and innovative aspects of their jobs. It can also improve work-life balance and enhance collaboration. In fact, surveys show that most employees report higher job satisfaction after the implementation of automation in their workplaces.
Provide Valuable Training
Automation doesn’t replace human employees, but it does change aspects of their jobs. With software automating routine tasks that once took up the bulk of employees’ time, you need to prepare your finance team for new roles. This can be exciting for employees, who often prefer to engage in meaningful work, but change can also be intimidating.
Without so many routine and repetitive tasks taking up their time, employees can take on a more value-added role that involves data analysis and interdepartmental collaboration (among other things, depending on your company’s goals and needs). As you implement automation, also implement a program to equip your team with the upskilling they need to thrive as your company changes. Training in data literacy, working with BPA software, and cross-functional collaboration prepares teams for a more analytical role.
Rollout in Supported Phases
Even when automating with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) BPA software, which is much easier to implement than on-premises software, rolling out automation still takes time. It’s not always practical to implement a new end-to-end financial management solution all at once. A phased rollout, supported by BPA champions within your company and clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track how implementation is going, helps manage change and maintain momentum.
Companies often start by automation accounts payable first. It’s easy to see how automation helps in this department by speeding up month-end close, automating data entry, and streamlining invoice and PO matching. As finance teams see the real-world benefits of BPA software in accounts payable, support can be built for continued automation in other departments. And as you track KPIs to evaluate the effectiveness of BPA software, you’ll start to see tangible return on investment that will keep the C-Suite supporting further automation.
Work Toward A Big Goal
As you’ll roll out BPA implementation in phases, keep the end goal in mind. You can benefit from automating just a few departments, but the biggest benefits of financial BPA are realized when your company automates the entire procure-to-pay cycle. If that’s what you want to do, then you need to start by partnering with a software company that can provide the tools you need for end-to-end automation.
NextProcess offers the only suite of software modules designed to power and simplify your capital project management, procurement & purchase orders, accounts payable, travel & expense, and payment disbursements. We provide a true end-to-end SaaS BPA solution that covers budgeting, project management, purchasing, accounts payable, and payments. We also provide a high level of customer support during implementation and beyond. Contact NextProcess today for a free demo so you can see how our flexible, customizable, user-friendly software solution can benefit your company.
