From aeronautics to zoology, accounting is tied to virtually every industry. As long as there is money to be made for a product or service, revenue will need to be accounted for. Accounting professionals provide important services such as filing taxes, closing books, and maintaining financial compliance, among others. But today’s accounting professionals often spend most of their time on transactional requirements and repetitive tasks, leaving them little room for making operational and strategic decisions.

Accounting automation, often referred to as Robotic Process Automation or RPA, is the solution to this issue. Whether you are entirely unfamiliar with this concept or you’ve heard about it but aren’t 100% convinced it’s worthwhile for your business, this article just may make you a believer in workflow automation.

What is accounting automation?

Accounting automation is an operational process that leverages software to automatically perform manual tasks. Otherwise known as automated accounting or accounting process automation, accounting automation software takes the work out of paperwork by seamlessly and accurately examining financial statements, computing tax filings, evaluating accounts receivable, inspecting account books, filing paper or electronic documents, and much more.

Automation and AI technology aren’t confined to the future, either; they’re the here and now. Many business owners, who either contract external accounting professionals or have an accounting department, are already automating various accounting tasks. According to Acumen Research and Consulting, the global automation software market is expected to reach a valuation of more than $46 billion within the next five years, an increase of nearly 17% compared to 2020. That’s just for automation software, never mind automation in general.

Accounting automation, or RPA, is as popular as it is today for one simple reason: It works. As is the case in other professions, time is money — the longer it takes to do something, the more it costs. This kind of intelligent automation streamlines work processes, resulting in greater productivity, efficiency, and fewer errors in recording financial data.

Let’s go over these benefits more in-depth and learn how they relate to the challenges that your accounting team and accounting professionals face:

What are the main advantages of accounting automation?

Addresses hiring challenges

In the aftermath of the pandemic and The Great Resignation, in which approximately 47 million people nationwide quit their jobs in 2021 alone, according to CNBC, many business owners are struggling to fill open roles and get more people on their payroll. Manufacturers, retailers, and the hospitality sector have all been hit hard and received a considerable amount of attention from the press. But accounting firms are in a similar bind, particularly CPAs. In an annual survey conducted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, finding qualified staff was cited as a leading issue by CPA firms of various sizes, be they sole practitioners or those with 21 or more staff members.

Since financial automation can operate on its own, tasks that would traditionally be performed by an accounting professional can be conducted via artificial intelligence. Not only that, but RPA software also improves accuracy, which saves time and reduces workloads related to financial reporting.

Increases efficiency

There’s a reason why the educational journey to becoming an accountant takes as long as it does. When numbers are involved and precision is pivotal, accounting professionals need to know what they’re doing. Their knowledge must extend beyond best practices since their assignments require a great deal of critical thinking.

But at the same time, a considerable portion of their day-to-day accounting tasks are mind-numbingly repetitive. In fact, according to a poll conducted by Kelton Global, a leading global insights firm, the accounting and finance professionals surveyed said they spent more than half of their time in the typical month engaged in repetitive tasks, activities that could be finished easily through workflow automation.

Accounting software eases workloads by systematizing monotonous accounting tasks so they can be completed quickly and autonomously. Instead of manually inputting data and transactions into a spreadsheet, which drains resources, automation does it … automatically. An automated accounting system gives accounting professionals more bandwidth to attend to the affairs requiring greater attention to details, such as client correspondence, providing strategic insights to their employers or clients to enhance revenue, and more.

Improves data quality

Accounting is a specialty; clients and business owners hire accountants because they have a great deal of knowledge about tax law, bookkeeping, reconciliation auditing, and other capabilities. But regardless of their expertise, mistakes happen, and seemingly minor oversights or transposing of numbers can result in enormous complications, even investigations by the Internal Revenue Service.

Automation helps to minimize errors by reducing the need for spreadsheets and manual data entry. This way, it reduces risk and provides more certainty in remaining error-free.

Maximizes productivity

Even though workflow automation and artificial intelligence are both already in place, many are concerned that it won’t be long before automation increases its foothold and winds up replacing large swaths of the labor force, including accounting professionals.

That is highly unlikely in accounting. Accounting software streamlines those repetitive tasks that prevent accountants from attending to the affairs that artificial intelligence can’t replicate, such as strategic initiatives, advising, assessing budgets, and consulting with other financial professionals. Thus, it complements accounting professionals by giving them an extra set of hands so they can focus on more high-value assignments and increase productivity.

Automate accounting with NetSuite

Whether you are looking to optimize your accounting practice or get the accounting portion of your operation addressed so you can focus on your area of expertise, NetSuite is a comprehensive accounting automation solution. Replete with a wide variety of features that address traditional and specialty accounting tasks – such as revenue recognition, expense reporting, journal entries, transaction matching, invoice consolidation, and more — NetSuite is the world’s premiere cloud accounting software, boasting over 31,000 customers worldwide and counting. Inspirage can get you set up with a customized implementation.

Please contact us today to learn more about this accounting automation, or RPA, tool and our other capabilities that can help your business work smarter.

NetSuite ups its game with exciting new innovations in its 2020 Release 2

#1 Planning Rules

The NetSuite Supply Planning scope can include multiple locations to generate the global supply plan. Planning item categories and additional items can define the item scope. The newly introduced Planning Rules carries the supply chain transfer rules for items between locations.

#2 Hierarchical Pegging

Pegging creates a peg chain between a supply transaction and a demand transaction that can be viewed from either side. For example, if a supply order is late you can easily see the impacted demand. Hierarchical Pegging enables a planner to drill-down from a parent item to the next level of the related child item. This can span across other locations. The planning engine honors the supply allocation when generating pegging information.

#3 Separate Planning Repository

The Planning Repository stores transactional information from NetSuite into a new set of tables for the supply plan run. This planning repository puts you in control of how often you refresh the plan inputs, provides a time consistent view of supply and demand for the planning engine and planner’s review and enhances supply planning performance.

#4 New Tools for Materials Requirements Planning

A repository with timely and consistent information and a workbench to review orders, suggestions and exceptions before releasing / updating orders are some of the new tools released for Material Requirements Planning. In addition, sales orders are included in predicted risks, ensuring goods ship on time.

#5 Planning by Exceptions & Pre-defined Exception Messages

All challenges to the supply plan are listed on the Exceptions tab. This gives the planner the ability to put tasks in autopilot mode so that their focus can be on Exceptions.
With this new release, planners now also have access to Pre-defined Exception Messages that can be set to trigger action for the following areas:

• Insufficient lead time
• Item has no activity
• Negative starting balance
• Negative time fence balance
• Past due demand
• Past due supply

For example, an exception for insufficient lead time for a proposed planned order can alert the planner of potential supply challenges.

NetSuite’s Supply Planning solution is integrated within the NetSuite ERP and provides seamless access between your company’s regular transactional system and planning system. There is no need to source an external supply planning tool. Leverage NetSuite’s Supply Planning capabilities to create an agile and integrated supply chain supported by functionality that grows with your evolving business requirements.

If your business requires a more robust planning solution, Inspirage’s Oracle NetSuite & Planning Cloud Integration addresses this need. Inspirage provides an out-of-box integration solution between NetSuite and Planning Cloud, leveraging our iHub CS proprietary integration middleware platform with pre-built, ready-to-deploy connectors. The solution takes into consideration the necessary entities required for planning which can be configured from business to business, according to the industry. This integration seamlessly connects your supply chain business processes providing the relevant inputs to the Planning Cloud engine using the data stored in NetSuite. It also works in reverse, providing the right outputs back into NetSuite from Planning Cloud. Contact our team to learn more.

First: Why Cloud ERP?

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has become a synonym for efficiency. The business trend is to use ERP as a one-stop solution hosting all business data spanning across multiple and disparate business functions from supply chain and manufacturing up to finance and accounting. It comes as no surprise then that the ERP system is often dubbed as the single version of truth for a business.

But why NetSuite? NetSuite is one of the fastest adopted business systems in the world. It is a unique and easy-to-implement solution which seamlessly integrates business needs including e-commerce, warehouse management, project management, finance and accounting. It’s a simplified and actionable solution easy for both small and big companies to adopt without the hassles that come with an on-premise ERP.

The main advantages of implementing a cloud ERP system such as NetSuite over an on-premise ERP include:

• Rapid implementation – NetSuite provides implementation times as low as 100 days
• Reduced investment – No need for desktop computers, servers and IT infrastructure
• Lower operating cost – No need for storage space, maintenance staff and upgrades
• Ease of access – Access real-time data from any device on any platform atany location so long as you have a working internet connection

As per Gartner’s report, almost 47% of the businesses are planning to switch to Cloud from their current ERP system in the next five years, and the revenue of cloud market is expected to grow 22% by the end of 2018

RPA: The New Workforce

Competition is high in today’s world. Companies have come to realize that spending money on marketing to improve their profits and to stay ahead of the competition is not the only way to sustain themselves. Irrespective of the size, businesses have started leveraging the latest technologies to remain a few steps ahead and consequently improve profits.

Companies are constantly looking to automate their processes to save time. Automation also helps reduce errors and maintain compliance, thereby, saving costs. Automation software usually uses standard API’s or SFTP batch entries to interact between multiple systems. However, there are many systems in the market today which are not designed for such technology and companies end up employing people to do the job. This is where Robotic Process Automation (RPA) comes in. RPA utilizes a software bot designed to eliminate the need for a human workforce and can execute the task in an automated fashion.

Some of the capabilities of RPA include:

• Programmed to execute a set of repetitive rule-based tasks following easy-to-understand logic
• Recognition and gathering of structured data from multiple interfaces
• Handling processes exceptions and the reconciliation and reporting of such errors
• Recognition of GUI and creation, update and deletion of records in ERP and CRM applications

Some of the benefits of RPA include:

• Cost effective – It has been estimated that using RPA cuts operational costs by as much as 20-40%.
• Better ROI and increased employee productivity – An employee used to perform such tasks can be utilized to concentrate on their regular day-to-day activities
• Increased quality and accuracy – One-time setup leads to the elimination of human errors
• Improved compliance

Automating the Mundane

Many companies have the best of ERPs in place but, even the most experienced of employees can make mistakes in data entry and filing. These mundane tasks can be fully automated with the help of RPA. This results in the elimination of errors and a high standard of compliance isassured.

Some of the examples of tasks in NetSuite which can be automated using RPA include:

• Order entry from email/other enterprise systems
• Case creation for POs which have exceeded the receive by date
• Invoicing of orders etc

By utilizing RPA with NetSuite there is an immediate cost saving benefit. Completing tasks faster, more accurately and with greater visibility of the entire business structure helps companies to perform their operations at a fraction of the cost which results in an improved ROI.

Wholesale distribution is a vital link in the modern supply chain. As of 2016, there were more than 300,000 companies involved in wholesale distribution in the U.S. alone, while worldwide annual sales from wholesale distributors were nearly $7 trillion, according to the consulting firm Allen Austin. While the industry’s size and scope are impressive, today’s distributors face big challenges on both sides of their operations, i.e. from manufacturers and retailers:

• Many manufacturers feel pressure from rising commodity prices, which in turn spur them to raise prices or seek alternative distribution channels. Wholesale bypass is also an appealing option and has been identified by IBISWorld as a significant threat to wholesalers in every industry from sporting goods to groceries.
• A lot of retailers have also pursued disintermediation. Big box chains already purchase most products directly from manufacturers, and other dealers have also looked for ways to trim selling costs by doing the same. Retail margins are thin – among the lowest tracked by the S&P 500 – and wholesale is one cost among many.
• At the same time, firms at all points in the supply chain are consolidating, thereby reducing the relative buying power of distributors. For example, just four firms control 85 percent of the U.S. beef market, while two companies have 90 percent of the country’s non-craft beer sales.

Small and medium-sized distributors in particular have their work cut out for them. In addition to the broad, long-term risks of being perceived as middlemen who don’t add any value, they also have to deal with day-to-day issues such as fluctuating fuel costs, rapid price changes and stock forecasting.

There’s good news, though – most of the biggest hurdles in front of SMB wholesale distributors are solvable with the right technologies. Modern ERP systems, such as NetSuite, in tandem with synergistic solutions for logistics and supply chain management (SCM), give these SMBs much more visibility into their operations, along with the ability to make better decisions. As a result, they can become more agile while avoiding the complex and siloed legacy IT systems common at larger, more established rivals.

Here’s how an integrated approach to technology pays off, in the context of several frequent problems in wholesale distribution:

Demand planning

Staying competitive as a whole distributor requires fulfilling customer orders under many different – and often challenging – circumstances. As more retailers switch to just-in-time inventory and many products become unexpectedly popular thanks to internet marketing campaigns, wholesalers need sufficient demand planning.

A sudden July 2018 spike in demand for physical copies of a particular video game – thought to be less important now that digital distribution is so prominent in that industry – underscored the relevant risks here. Fortunately, ERP systems give you a clearer picture for forecasting demand by integrating historical sales trends, supplier data, seasonal considerations and much more.

Inventory management

Manual spreadsheet-based processes are still common in inventory management. Although doing most of this work within Excel has some advantages in terms of simplicity and control, it also comes with significant inefficiencies. Modifications are time-consuming, human error is inevitable and critical data may not be synced across the organization.

In contrast, automated inventory management via ERP helps you track bin locations, expiration dates, reorder quantities and in-transit orders across multiple warehouses. That puts you in a much better position to deal with both manufacturers and retailers.

Wholesale distributors benefit from the implementation of modern ERPs.

Reporting and analysis

Without effective reporting, it’s impossible to know where your operations stand at any given moment in time. Moreover, you’ll likely waste too much time sifting through redundant information spread across multiple silos.

Implementing ERP and SCM tools with the help of an experienced partner such as Inspirage helps you consolidate IT systems and standardize your reporting processes. Accurate reports help you gain more value from business intelligence, comply with industry standards and understand any potential weaknesses within your operations.

Purchase order management

The automation provided by modern ERPs is a major step up from the manual processes that have traditionally underpinned purchase order management. Details about shipment locations and histories are easily accessible for more streamlined decision-making throughout the organization.

Revitalize your wholesale distribution operations with Inspirage’s help

Wholesale distributors have to continually evolve to stay relevant in a rapidly changing industry in which both manufacturers and retailers are rethinking their business relationships. Inspirage is here to help in the search for technical solutions as well as in their implementation, through expert project management and consulting.

Inspirage is a Platinum level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) and has over 100 pre-built Oracle solutions. Inspirage has been a go-to partner for customers looking to integrate NetSuite with Oracle products such as Oracle Cloud WMS and PBCS. Connect with our team today to learn more about how we can help you find and implement right solutions for your wholesale business.