Ninety-eight percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) have invested in automation and digitization in the past 12 months, according to a 2024 McKinsey survey. Despite this investment, 41% report that just one-quarter or less of their financial processes are currently automated.
For growing businesses, the gap between buying and using technology represents challenges as well as opportunities. By automating key financial processes using Sage solutions like Sage Intacct, X3, and others, you can turn your finance department from a reactive record-keeper into a proactive business partner.
The Hidden Cost of Manual Financial Processes
As your business grows, those spreadsheet-based processes that once worked start to become expensive bottlenecks. The true cost of manual financial processes goes beyond the obvious problems, such as long month-end closes and errors from manual data entry.
Companies with low levels of automation typically pay more to process invoices than those with high levels of automation. This is real money left on the table — money you could reinvest in growing your business.
What's even more concerning is the strategic impact. When your finance team is buried in manual tasks, staff can't provide the forward-looking insights your business needs for making critical decisions. The same McKinsey survey also found that companies with highly automated finance teams spend 60% more time on strategic activities than those still doing things manually.
6 High-Impact Financial Processes To Automate Now Using Sage Solutions
1. Accounts Payable Processing
The manual way of handling accounts payable (AP) — sorting through paper invoices, chasing approvals via email, entering data by hand and writing checks — creates a perfect storm of wasted time and mistakes.
Modern AP automation technologies transform this process by automatically capturing invoice data, then matching it with purchase orders and receipts, routing approvals through customizable workflows and handling payments electronically.
2. Expense Management
The traditional expense reporting process can be tedious, leaving employees to collect endless receipts and fill out forms. Then the finance teams must review and process payments, while managers risk being stuck in an approval bottleneck.
Digital expense management systems solve these problems by allowing people to:
- Capture receipts with their phones.
- Automatically sort expenses.
- Route approvals based on simple rules.
- Process payments in batches.
- Create helpful spending reports.
Fortune Business Insights reported that the global expense management software market was worth $7.08 billion in 2023 and will likely grow to $16.48 billion by 2032. This growth shows how much companies benefit when they implement these solutions, including better policy compliance and faster processing times.
3. Revenue Recognition and Billing
For businesses with subscription models, recurring billing or complex contracts, tracking revenue can quickly turn into a spreadsheet nightmare. Manual processes often lead to missed bills, incorrect revenue recording and hours spent trying to reconcile numbers.
Automation tools provide:
- Contract-based billing schedules
- Automatic recognition of revenue as obligations are met
- Subscription management with auto-renewals
- Ways to combine revenue data across multiple business units
Companies that automate billing and revenue processes get paid faster, miss fewer billing opportunities and can predict revenue more accurately. This enables finance teams to focus on helping the business grow rather than just keeping up with paperwork.
4. Financial Consolidation and Reporting
Businesses with multiple entities often struggle with different systems, inconsistent charts of accounts and manual spreadsheets for consolidation that delay reporting.
Cloud financial platforms with multi-entity features offer standardized charts of accounts with dimensional reporting and automated currency conversions and intercompany eliminations. Companies that automate financial consolidation and reporting can dramatically reduce their month-end close time and have fewer reporting errors.
5. Cash Flow Management and Forecasting
Spreadsheet-based cash flow projections need constant manual updates and quickly become outdated when business conditions change. Integrated cash management tools provide real-time visibility across all accounts and automated cash flow forecasting based on when you expect to receive and pay money.
6. Compliance and Audit Support
Preparing for audits often means weeks of staff time pulling documentation, explaining processes and creating audit trails. Systems with built-in compliance features provide automated audit trails for all transactions and role-based security to ensure proper separation of duties.
The Hidden Feature That Changes Everything
While most businesses focus on core automation features when picking financial systems, there's a game-changing feature that often gets overlooked: customizable workflow rules.
These rules enable you to design approval paths that match your organization's structure, automatically routing transactions based on amount, department, project or other factors. Companies that use this feature typically cut approval times by 60% or more by eliminating the email chains and follow-up calls that previously delayed decisions.
This single feature doesn't just save time — it transforms how decisions get made throughout your organization, allowing the right people to review the right transactions at the right time.
Making the Transition: A Practical Approach
Implementing financial automation doesn't have to happen all at once. The most successful organizations follow these steps:
- Identify the company’s greatest pain points to focus the first implementation.
- Redesign processes before automating them.
- Involve teams in the change.
- Time the implementation well to put less pressure on the team.
The Strategic Benefits Beyond Efficiency
While saving time and money often drive automation projects, the strategic benefits go much further:
- Scalability: This means growing your business without needing to hire more finance staff at the same rate.
- Strategic Redeployment: This enables team members to shift from entering data to analyzing it and providing advice. This evolution transforms finance from a back-office function to a strategic partner in growth decisions.
- Enhanced Controls: Better controls reduce both fraud risk and compliance problems through standardized processes and permission-based access. Organizations with automated financial controls have significantly fewer instances of payment fraud.
- Real-Time Decision Support: Strengthen support allows leaders to make choices based on current information rather than last month's reports.
Your Next Steps
Ready to transform your financial operations? Here's how to get started:
- Document your current pain points and prioritize them based on business impact.
- Evaluate whether your current financial system can support automation or if you need new solutions.
- Consider working with an experienced provider like Cherry Bekaert, with professionals who understand both financial processes and technology.
Cherry Bekaert's Digital Advisory team helps growing businesses implement financial automation solutions that drive efficiency and strategic insight. We understand the unique challenges of mid-market companies and bring both accounting and technology experience to every project.
Contact us today for a free consultation to explore how financial automation could transform your operations.
