How Businesses Benefit from Automated Bookkeeping

Say goodbye to the tedious, fraught time spent inputting data and doing your books. Automated bookkeeping is changing the game for businesses with leaders smart enough to take advantage of it. 

It’s just the latest step in automating simple, often repetitive tasks to free up valuable time for you or your employees to do meaningful work growing your business. Let’s take a closer look at how it works and how companies are using it.

Understanding Automated Bookkeeping

At its most basic, automated bookkeeping is any system or program that uses simple formulas, algorithms, or even artificial intelligence to organize and log financial transactions. 

Instead of requiring a human to pore over receipts, invoices, expense reports, and other financial documents, automated bookkeeping services grab the necessary data in various ways and automatically input it into your company’s accounting software.

Key Features and Functionality of Automated Bookkeeping Software

Automated booking programs and services generally offer a variety of features that work together to simplify your overall financial picture. Most importantly, they revolve around automated data entry, as well as the ability to categorize transactions on their own. 

In many cases, this is helped by integration with your company’s bank and credit card accounts. More advanced features can include things like: 

• Automated invoice processing
• Payment processing
• The ability to track and manage expenses

These automated programs can also provide financial reporting and analytics, helping your organization fine-tune and improve its financial processes and overall business.

Implementation and Adoption of Automated Bookkeeping

Using automated bookkeeping is simple. Deciding on a service and setting it up can be more complicated. 

Before shopping around, consider your business’s entire financial situation and assess your needs and desires. This will help ensure these things are top of mind when selecting software. Migrating financial data from your current system is generally easy, though many services also offer customer support to help with these tasks as well as general system setup. 

Employees will likely need time to adjust to the new program and procedures, though they’ll doubtless take to it quickly when they realize the many benefits of manual bookkeeping. From here, you’ll simply need to monitor the service, ensuring any updates or other changes are implemented and tweaking your workflow as needed.

Benefits of Automated Bookkeeping

So why go through the work of changing over to automated bookkeeping? Here are some of the most significant advantages.

Increased Efficiency and Accuracy

Even the hardest-working and most diligent humans will make the occasional slip-up when entering data. These errors can be eliminated entirely with the use of automated systems. 

Automatic bookkeeping can also dramatically increase your efficiency by streamlining the workflow for humans and getting transitions processed instantly. Even better, they take care of the frustrating and time-consuming process of reconciliation immediately and on their own, with built-in error detection to keep things running smoothly.

Time and Cost Savings

When it’s only a few minutes every day, it can be easy to lose track of just how much time is spent on data entry and similar rote paperwork. Then, there’s the time spent generating reports and other repetitive but necessary tasks to keep the books balanced and up-to-date. 

All this time can be returned to employees or managers, providing more opportunities to do things that truly matter.

Real-Time Financial Insights

No more waiting around for the accounting department or employees to log all the necessary financial data in order to get a sense of how your business is running. Automated bookkeeping allows stakeholders instant access to the most current data, including real-time analytics and reporting. There’s no telling the impact this improved data could have on helping you and other company leaders make better and more timely decisions.

Enhanced Data Security and Compliance

Many traditional bookkeeping systems, even those using digital tools like spreadsheets and basic programs, can leave your organization’s financial information vulnerable to hazards ranging from hackers to power surges. 

Automated systems typically include encryption and other secure storage tech like automated backups. This allows you to get back to work far faster if disaster should strike. 

On another practical level, these computerized services can also ensure compliance with relevant data protection regulations.

Scalability and Adaptability

Fast-growing or changing companies may find their old-school bookkeeping systems quickly overwhelmed as the business grows. Automated systems can handle nearly any volume of transactions, as well as seamlessly integrate with other business systems or applications you may add over time. The best systems also offer customization and scalability that evolves as your business does.

Improve Your Accounting System’s Efficiency with Automated Bookkeeping

As you can see, automated bookkeeping is the way of the future, revolutionizing this once-menial task. Companies that make the switch can start seeing the benefits almost immediately. 

Meanwhile, businesses and other organizations that work with PlotPath can rest easy knowing our financial professionals take advantage of the many benefits of automated bookkeeping to ensure error-free work and leave more time for other critical tasks. Those considering the benefits should reach out to us today with questions and to get started.