Whether you have an entire team dealing with the numbers or it’s a one-person operation, the accounting department is a key component for any business. Misjudged money management is all it takes for a company to collapse.
There’s further bad news. It’s no secret the accounting department is among the most complex branches found in any organization. Complicated processes, ever-changing rules and regulations, the need to receive approval from different departments – there are many reasons why your accounting team can be overwhelmed by the pressure and challenges it faces on a daily basis.
Due to this, it’s important you search for ways to improve your accounting department when possible. Doing so will make them more efficient and productive, as well as limit the potential for mistakes that can hinder your business.
Below are five proven methods to enhance your accounting department.
5 Ways To Improve Your Accounting Department
1. Train Your Finance Team
The most obvious step to take when improving your finance team is to provide them with training. Obviously, you only want proficient and talented individuals to be in charge of your company’s accounts. Yet even if you hire financial experts to run the department, it’s still important to supply ongoing training.
It’s not uncommon for internal procedures to change – and your department has to fall in line with these changes. In addition, they have to know everything about the accounting software – and other tools – your company uses, which be significantly different from a software they had learnt previously.
The good news is you can offer training in a variety of ways. It could be done one-on-one, as an in-house seminar or even an external workshop.
2. Improve Compliance With Policies And Regulations
Your accounting department has to deal with an assortment of policies and regulations. Not only can these prove to be confusing (particularly with so many to contend with), but they’re also liable to change on a frequent basis.
Due to this, there’s no sitting around. Your accounting team has to always be aware of any alterations and react when necessary. If they fail to do that, it can land your business in some serious hot water.
Take anti-money laundering (AML) policies for example. If you don’t put in the work to cover these AML policies when they’re updated, your business could end up with a heavy fine – and you might even end up in jail. This is why it’s highly recommended you use AML compliance solutions.
With the right software solutions, your accounting department can make easy work of those policies and regulations. They can stay up to date with the latest changes, use AI and machine learning to make educated decisions, make it seamless to investigate cases, and so on.
3. Greater Integration With Other Departments
As you will know, your accounting department isn’t on its own little island. It works alongside other departments in your company. They rely on these departments to flesh out their financial data input.
Because of this, you should be searching for ways to better integrate your accountants with other teams. With better integration comes better communication, and this boosts efficiency across the board.
To improve communication and remove the tedious obstacle of your accounting department requesting data manually from every other department, it is recommended that you use a shared system.
With cloud computing, for example, you are able to seamlessly integrate all of your departments together. The result: your accountants don’t have to request or wait around for data. They can gain access to everything they require within a matter of seconds.
4. Reduce Manual Processes
Extending on from the previous point, you should seek ways to reduce the number of manual processes handled by your accounting team. These processes are both energy sapping and time-consuming, and it’s vital your financial team focuses on more important tasks.
With modern technology, it’s possible for your accounting team to automate a range of processes – including complex tasks. With the right software, it’s possible for reports to be generated, profits and losses to be calculated, invoices to be created automatically, and so much more.
5. Boost Team Communication
This isn’t necessarily improving communication within your accounting department – although this does help. What you should be focused on, however, is being upfront in communicating expectations to your financial team. There shouldn’t be any confusion on their part as to what their role is and the tasks they need to do.
Along with setting clear guidelines, take the time to listen to their feedback. They could have advice that improves certain processes for instance.
Read Also:
- 10 Characteristics of Great Business Accounting Software
- Small Business Guide – Different Types of Accounting Services that You May Need
- 8 Benefits of Outsourcing Accounting Services For Your Small Business
Author: Sunny Aaron
