Autonomous Finance 101: Don't Waste Any More Time

Managing accounting and financial processes can be time-consuming and stressful.

They involve intensive manual labor like mining and discovering financial details, which is tedious and resource-intensive. Accountants can spend a lot of time managing databases and numbers and often become exhausted after long days at work.

Wasting your finance team time and effort on tedious manual processes makes no sense when automation can make their lives easier. If you or your team are still manually copying and pasting data between Excel spreadsheets, you're stuck in the 90s and better to move forward sooner than later.

We have officially entered the era of "automatic civilization". To operate effectively, businesses need to bring data-driven insights and advanced analytics into their autonomous financial systems instead of engaging in time-consuming and repetitive tasks.

What is Autonomous Finance?

Autonomous finance is a data-driven process or algorithm that uses software to automate financial operations and management.

In today's dynamic and competitive environment, unconventional business practices are taking precedence over traditional methods. To keep pace and improve their workflows, companies need to be more agile and forward-thinking. Since finance is one of the most time-consuming and delicate departments in any business, you can save yourself a lot of hassle by automating your finance processes.

activities for which individuals are paid can be automated by adopting the right technologies.

Source: McKinsey & Company

Using the right technology helps your team handle time-consuming tasks like accounting, expense management, and bank reconciliation with minimal human intervention. This frees up time for employees to focus on strengthening their organization and influencing overall transformation and growth.

But, before we dive deeper into autonomous finance, let's understand the areas within your department where you can use it successfully. Just as you wouldn't start bodybuilding without knowing the difference between a dumbbell and a barbell, you shouldn't dive headlong into self-help finance without understanding the areas you can automate.

Which finance processes do you need to automate first?

Finance manages many processes and has the most direct impact on a company's bottom line. Here are the main financial processes of an organization.

Source: High Radius

Accounts payable

Accounts Payable (AP) is money an organization owes its suppliers for goods or services purchased on credit. This includes receiving purchase orders, reviewing and reconciling order details, routing them for approval, negotiating terms, processing payments, and ensuring suppliers are paid on time. Failure to pay on time can lead to late fees and ruin your relationship with your suppliers.

Accounts Receivable

Receivables are outstanding payments that your customers owe your business. Accounts Receivable includes sending and tracking invoices, reminding customers of payments, and closing open accounts on time. Collecting payments in a timely manner and maintaining an accounts receivable report are essential to avoid negatively affecting your organization's cash flow. A time to sell of less than 45 days is healthy for most industries.

Account ...