The end of the year (EOY) is a hectic period for individuals who work in finance, even while repetitive processes in finance can be automated and programmed as part of automated workflows, providing long-term value. Although the overall work connected with this time of year is focused on two essential deliverables – reviewing and reporting – the approaches utilized influence the success and quality of EOY operations.
Finance Teams Evaluate Routine Tasks
EOY responsibilities for finance begin with a review of financial information for accuracy, which may include checking for data consistency in accounts, ensuring that all accounts are reconciled, examining and verifying balance sheet accounts, or reviewing all expenses such as taxes, bonuses, or commissions.
It is critical to seek out ways to automate tasks on a regular basis using the many workflow automation techniques available. To accomplish this goal and to ensure overall best practices, skilled finance teams create standardized procedures that can be duplicated year after year. They are strategic by implementing best practices to make this process more efficient, minimize risks, improve data quality, and improve overall financial and accounting operations.
Looking Ahead
The key to completing end-of-year activities successfully is to simply prevent problems by standardizing methods. This is also the time of year when leading organizations look ahead and make strategic and cost-allocation decisions. They leverage existing capabilities and processes around book reconciliation, cleaning up AR and AP, doing asset reviews, handling 1099s, and putting together tax plans, and have templates and frameworks in place to make these difficult tasks appear simple.
Experienced companies know that if they need end-of-year partner support, they must ensure that the partner chosen has a wide range of experience, time-tested procedures, and established relationships with finance leaders and accounting teams. Partners aid in the management of processes and assist their clients in avoiding mistakes. End-of-year tasks, while appearing routine, can rapidly become overwhelming and divert attention away from vital company functions. Leading companies work with partners who specialize in EOY services to provide assurance in reporting and to make sense of all the data and routine chores. They seek partners who can provide strategic counsel, are knowledgeable about best practices, and have applied their procedures in a range of businesses and scenarios.
Invest in Automation
Proactive business leaders make it a point to evaluate and update routine processes frequently. Investing time and effort in effective automation for continuous process improvement ensures they achieve maximum performance potential and remain effective year after year.
