Running a small business is exciting but also exhausting. This is especially true if you don’t have enough resources to hire additional staff, such as accountants, to take care of your books. That’s when you risk getting in trouble with the Canada Revenue Agency.

But did you know that you can actually automate your accounting, effectively eliminating the need to hire an accountant? But first things first, here’s how accounting automation can benefit your business.

Benefits of accounting automation

• Reduces human error.
• Saves time.
• Ensures fast data retrieval.
• Enables cloud access.
• Provides secure storage.
• Allows for real-time integrations.
• Boosts operational efficiency.
• Guarantees consistency in accounting practices.

Steps to automating your accounting in 2021

Now that you know how accounting automation can benefit your business, here’s how to implement this strategy.

Step #1: Identify your accounting processes

The truth is, some of your accounting processes don’t need automation. So it’s important to identify those that do. A great way of finding accounting processes that can be automated is by considering those that:

• Require repetitive and consistent attention.
• Need high-level human interaction at the personal level.
• Don’t require a lot of mental effort and creativity.

For example, suppose you usually send emails to your customers every morning, informing them about unpaid invoices. In that case, this process can be automated, saving you lots of time, money and energy.

Step #2: Choose the right automation software

Given the increasing demand for business accounting automation, there’s plenty of tools out there promising to provide the best automation features for small businesses. However, the right tool depends on the specific needs of your business. Here’s a list of 11 of the best accounting software for small businesses worth checking out.

Step #3: Oversee the automation process

To realize the true potential of the accounting automation tool of your choice, it’s advisable to have someone manage it. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should hire extra staff to specifically manage the software; it beats the logic behind acquiring the software in the first place.

Instead, you can appoint yourself or someone in your team to manage the software, ensuring it runs and operates efficiently. This could also mean acquiring additional training to learn how the software works, but most accounting software are beginner-friendly and should take you just a few days or weeks to learn how they operate.

Step #4: Create a workflow

For the accounting software to serve your business even more effectively, you’ll need to set up a workflow to follow anytime you need automation. In this context, a workflow is a structure that dictates how to execute a specific task.

The workflow should include the following elements.

Trigger

A trigger is an event that initiates a specific process—for example, an invoice that’s due.

Action

The action is usually a response to the trigger. For instance, sending the invoice to the customer or a reminder about the due balance.

Result

A combination of the trigger and action is what generates the result, e.g., when the customer opens the email reminder, clicks on the payment processing page, and processes the payment, effectively settling their overdue balance.

Step #5: Test the workflow

Testing your workflow well in advance helps identify any issues you may encounter along the way. For example, you can set up an email account for testing purposes. Then, depending on the features of the specific software, you may send an automated email to the email account and confirm if it’s been delivered. And if the email contains a link to a payment processing page, follow the steps to verify that the feature also works.

Bottom Line

The importance of business accounting automation can never be underestimated, especially in the world of modern technology. Automating your accounting could be the difference between losing thousands of dollars every year or making and saving even more. Visit SimplifyLLC to learn essential tips on starting and running a small business.