The 3 Biggest Technology Innovations Transforming Accountancy Today – And How Prestige Business Management is staying ahead of the curve
Technology has the ability to radically overhaul industries. Our society, in the course of the last century, has experienced radical change courtesy of information technology. Yet, this innovation is continuous and today’s ‘game changers’ are starting to impact how accountancy businesses do their work.
The rise of cloud-based computing, automatic bank feeds and paperless OCR technologies have all made a big impact in changing the way accounts businesses do their work.
This article won’t even touch the fears of AI and machine learning languages and how they could put accountants out of a job. Or how Blockchain could, one day, end decentralised payments and financial processes. It will instead focus on the technology we have accessible to us today and how they can still make a big difference within your accountancy business.
Number One – The Cloud
The Cloud, which Gartner defines as, “cloud computing which is a style of computing in which scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service using Internet technologies.” Put even simply, it is about using internet-based computers for storing and accessing programs or data services over the internet instead of storing and accessing platforms on your own computer or network. The ‘Cloud’ has changed the way music, film and retail is experienced. Yet, cloud computing has also changed the way businesses engage with accountancy services.
Introducing the cloud-based accountancy service – like Xero or NetSuite – who have created a platform that means any web-connected device can communicate with the system. This means “on-the-go” workers can do real-time accountancy services without wasting time. This means businesses can work smarter. It also means companies can save both time and money. By being in the ‘Cloud’, the entire business can engage with the accountancy platform in ways traditional software couldn’t work – most notably in collaborative terms.
Number Two – Automatic Bank Feeds Delivered Daily
The ability to automatically import your entire bank transactions, on a daily basis, has revolutionised the way accountancy software, especially cloud-based accountancy solutions, work within the modern business environment. It saves time and money and is more efficient than manual data inputting (which means error free data).
There are different ‘feed’ technologies. A popular third-party ‘feed’ platform is Yodlee which has the ability to connect with your bank account and transfer all account data into your Xero account. PayPal similarly provides a payment service transfer data feed that allows you to feed your PayPal transactions into your digital accountancy package. Many banks, with HSBC and Santander in the vanguard, are providing bespoke organisational feeds for customers.
Number Three – Paperless OCR Technologies
The ability to stream your latest transactional data into your cloud-based accountancy packages have also led to technology improving cash-flow and receipt-based management. The ubiquitous smart-phone and to a lesser degree the tablet/iPad has empowered businesses to help digitise their business receipts and invoices helping to create paperless finances – a world away from the shoe boxes and lever-arch files of old.
Receipt scanning tools, like the ones provided by Prestige Business Management, allow business costs to be tracked and stored digitally. Allowing mileage, business receipts and purchase invoices to be stored electronically and transferred digitally to your business account package in the cloud.
Why not talk to the team at Prestige Business Management to find out how smart digital and cloud-based technologies could help improve your financial and accountancy systems, helping you to save time, money and effort freeing you up to do what you do best – to focus on running your business!
