During critical inflection points like COVID-19, it’s up to companies to ride the wave of digital innovation or fall behind. Sarah Spoja, Chief Financial Officer at Tipalti, a firm that helps businesses manage their entire supplier payment operations, explores 5 essential tips for increasing operational efficiency while minimizing the burden on remote finance teams.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, countless CFOs have been forced to cut operating expenses and trim fat from their budgets. Unfortunately, many others have even had to rethink their operational headcount.
Although leaner teams can certainly increase liquidity, a not-so-positive byproduct is a strain this puts on employees to produce the same amount with reduced resources. This is particularly hard on finance teams that rely on high headcounts and manpower to address the sheer volume and complexity of their business processes.
Suddenly, finance teams have been forced to find new ways to collaborate in order to advance through difficult times. That expanded responsibility only becomes more difficult in an increasingly remote Opens a new window environment, where they’re still expected to conduct business as usual.
Riding the Remote Work Wave
The COVID-19 pandemic left an indelible mark on the way finance teams collaborate. Before global shutdowns, most companies kept their financial departments in a physical office. With in-person collaboration being impossible, finance teamsOpens a new window have been forced to workshop problems and create ways to work together remotely.
As a financial leader in your company, the onus falls on you to make sure your team is collaborating, working cross-functionally, and generally adjusting to the new normal of a remote workOpens a new window environment. You wouldn’t be in your role without a healthy dose of analytical skill, and now is the time to leverage that skill set while also honing your collaborative skills.
Likewise, technology implementations have a reputation for being painful, long, and confusing — but financial departments now depend on these solutions for their survival. It’s up to modern financial leaders to encourage team members to celebrate, not fear, technology: When leadership and end-users are eager to build something with a vendor, it can be a reward, rather than a burden, for the process owner.
So where might you start in your quest to streamline processes?
Here are five tips for increasing operational efficiency while minimizing the burden on your remote finance team:
1. Transition to a Paperless and Officeless Strategy
This is the perfect time to make sure your systems are 100% cloud-basedOpens a new window and offer 24/7 access for your finance Opens a new window team — key attributes for any modern remote team. Digital technologies (and cloud-based ones in particular) give your team the freedom to work together anywhere at any time; they also provide a single source of updated data in order to eliminate errors.
By managing your workflows with routing powered by artificial intelligence,Opens a new window you’ll ensure all your business processes are documented and accounted for. Finally, multi-subsidiary capabilities will allow your organization to function as normal, even if your teams are dispersed geographically.
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2. Build a Tech Stack for the Changing Workforce
Rather than matching each process bottleneck or problem to a separate tech solution, take a step back for a complete view of your business. What are the major changes that need to be made? What financial controls can you implement to protect your remote companyOpens a new window from tax fraud and regulatory risk? Manual processes, paper-based invoice approvals, and handwritten check writing are all inherently risky, especially when they’ve performed away from a controlled office.
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3. Use Smart Automation to Optimize Processes
Your finance teamOpens a new window members are feeling the pressure of their added responsibilities, yet they have fewer resources to work with than before. That combination can quickly lead to disengagement, burnout, and retention issues if you don’t find a way to help employees offload some of their time-intensive duties. Smart automation Opens a new window will boost your team’s morale and bring its workload back down to a more manageable level; it can also create top-line process efficiencies that will ultimately increase your bottom-line profits.
4. Invest in Value-Based Solutions
To find comprehensive, scalable, adaptable, and modern end-to-end technologies (with enterprise-grade financial controls), you’ll need to do your due diligence by conducting research. In today’s landscape, it’s key to implement solutions that allow you to get up and running quickly and efficiently. Be sure to ask about the implementation and onboarding process with all solutions you consider. Is the implementation included in the cost of the product? Will you have to seek out (and pay) a separate implementation partner? These are all critical questions to ask and understand before committing completely.
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5. Ensure Security and Peace of Mind
As you vet solutions, make sure they allow you to designate approval requirements within the system. That way, you’ll cover your bases with cybersecurity Opens a new window while also making sure to divide roles and responsibilities appropriately within the system.
During critical inflection points like COVID-19, it’s up to companies to ride the wave of digital innovation or fall behind. By pushing the envelope on your digital solutions, keeping a big-picture view of your goals and objectives, and fostering internal efficiencies, you’ll empower your team to adopt leaner work styles during changing times.
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