Technology is constantly changing and adapting. Accounting has had a challenging relationship with technology over the past 10 years – struggling to find balance between meeting conservative accounting requirements and taking advantage of a rapidly changing technology environment. Here are some crucial ways that technology has changed accounting in the last decade.
Adaptability
It used to be that you made your business work around the specifications of your accounting solution. Developments in technology focused on customer and end-user needs rather than centered on the accounting department. Advancements in comprehensive software make it possible and easy to adapt your solution to your business, not the other way around. Many new solutions are scalable and can grow when your business does.
Environmental Impact
With storage systems moving to the cloud, there has been a huge shift in the amount of resources, especially paper products, that accounting departments are using. Beyond the cloud, being able to send and pay invoices electronically is also a huge saver when it comes to paper. Cloud storage solutions are more energy efficient than hosting your data in house. Because of this, not having an onsite data center and moving operations to the cloud can reduce your energy consumption as well as your carbon footprint by up to 30%.
Accuracy
Data integrity and accuracy is crucial when it comes to managing finances effectively. Human error was and is common with solutions stuck in the past and heavily dependent on manual processes. These errors could be simple – a mistyping mistake or accidentally entering a line item twice. Over time the small miscalculations can add up in a big way making your numbers wildly inaccurate. With advancements in accounting technology and seamless integrations, the human error factor is dramatically reduced making your books more accurate than they’ve ever been.
Security
Security within accounting has changed in many ways with technology over the last decade. Proprietary information is no longer simply kept under lock and key where almost anybody could gain access to it. Your data and private financial information can only be accessed by those intended to access it. There are many safeguards in comprehensive solutions protecting your company from a data breech. From password protection to cyber protection, technology has made it possible to keep your data secure.
Efficiency
With manual processes being significantly reduced thanks to accounting technology, this has been a decade of efficiency improvements across the board. Through automating business processes you are saving exponential amounts of time and money on manpower hours. Manual processes that have been replaced by a combination of automation products and outsourced services, including managing invoices for payables and receivables.
