Sounds harsh, but you don’t need an army of accountants anymore.

The first step in automating your accounting function is creating a process map. It’s boring but you’d be screwed without one.

Accounting automation at its most basic level includes any software solution designed to reduce or eliminate manual accounting processes. The modern form of automation we generally think of today has existed since the late 1990s and early 2000s.

What I’m referring to are digital tools such as NetSuite (founded in 1998), Bill.com (founded in 2006), Square (founded in 2009), and Gusto (founded in 2011). Today, there are literally thousands of financial software companies on the market that each fill a particular niche. I find it very rare that a single piece of software can fill the “one size fits all” category or successfully automate every accounting process someone has. Most prefer to select and integrate multiple pieces of software into a “technology stack.” Every department in a company has different needs, and department leaders often have strong opinions on ultimate software selection.

This is an important consideration: the practical implementation of a new system can be vastly more complex than the theoretical implementation timelines that sales reps push.

The fact that you are reading this suggests that you have already been exposed to accounting transformation concepts in some form or fashion—maybe in passing from a post in your social media feed or more in-depth through a major news outlet publication. I see many articles targeted towards CFOs, explaining reasons why companies should automate accounting processes, but I see fewer sources explaining the mechanics and logistics of leading such a transition.

This can be tedious but is vital for the overall planning and implementation of your digital transformation. You must assess and document every accounting process in your company to understand the flow of data from start to finish before you can fully evaluate which piece of software will be the best fit.

A few years ago, I had a client that sold products through multiple direct-to-consumer, wholesale, and retail channels. They decided they were finally ready to tackle an Oracle NetSuite implementation to consolidate 16 different systems into a single platform (inventory, sales, operations, etc.).

One piece of the new process map looked something like this:

1. A customer order begins on the Amazon platform (sales order).
2. The sales order was generated by Amazon and piped into the ERP system (NetSuite).
3. NetSuite cross-checked the sales order against real-time inventory levels to confirm whether it was in stock or not.
4. NetSuite then automatically generates a “ship this order” record and sends it to the warehouse.
5. The warehouse receives the message, packs the order, and creates the shipping label.

Essentially, this client now needed only a single accountant to review data and ensure continued accuracy and system functionality. They could let multiple other accountants go.

Prior to this investment in automation technology, each step of this process was largely conducted manually by multiple accountants. Not only did this process take a day of data entry time, but it also inhibited transaction-level visibility to understand what’s happening in the business in real-time.

Inventory could be stocked out while the company was still greenlighting orders. Nothing was connected, and therefore wasn’t communicating with each other. Detailed trend analysis or forecasting exercises were not readily available either because the data to support these models couldn’t be produced frequently enough.

In order to accomplish any consolidated financial analysis, data from each sales platform had to be analyzed individually. Because this was so time-consuming, analysts could usually only update these reports once per month to explain to management “what happened last month.”

By the time the accounting data was reconciled and reports were published, it was largely too late to make meaningful adjustments to the business and have them impact the current quarter’s results.

Timelines for successful accounting automation transitions can vary—meatier projects can take a year or more.

The timeline for full implementation of this client’s NetSuite, from process map through “go-live,” was roughly 18 months.

NetSuite became their central workstation for 16 different integrated processes throughout the accounting, finance, supply chain, purchasing, and sales departments.

1. Integration work took 12 months—mapping accounting processes, connecting systems, software development, etc.
2. After the go-live date, another 6 months of system refinement and staff training were needed to function as an efficient team using this new tool.

Employee buy-in is key to successfully automating large accounting processes effectively and efficiently. In other words, make sure your accounting personnel is comfortable so they don’t quit mid-transition.

Two of the main factors contributing to lengthy implementation timelines for large, consolidated systems are development complexity of integrating multiple departments’ workstreams and length of time for employee adoption.

Employee hesitation to learn something new or adapt old habits to new frameworks is usually a headwind from day one. Sometimes staff are intimidated and concerned that they might be made redundant when they find out management wants to automate a portion of their job duties. They might resist the new technology and try to explain how “this system will not work for us because our business is so unique.”

I see this every time, but leaders need to be willing to flex their operating frameworks to adapt to new technology, for the overall health of the business. While it is important to realize that automation could provide such efficiencies that the personnel team may not look the same after full automation takes effect, I find that developing post-implementation career growth roadmaps for those impacted employees helps to ease fears and makes for a smoother transition.

To be fair, implementing an ERP like NetSuite is on the larger end of accounting automation projects.

It is typically a long and expensive process as it spans multiple departments, many personnel, and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This client’s full NetSuite implementation had one-time costs of $85,000 in development and configuration work prior to go-live, ongoing annual costs of $200,000 for company-wide software licenses and data connections, and $12,000 or so in annual maintenance.

• They were able to reduce two transactional and support roles, saving around $230,000 in payroll/benefits.
• NetSuite updates data connections every fifteen minutes, 365 days a year, providing real-time insight into company performance.
• The supply chain team could use NetSuite to monitor and maintain daily inventory levels across hundreds of products.
• Technology-driven data enabled faster and more accurate business decisions, yielding a strong return on investment.

There is a time and place for making accounting automation stick.

Choosing the appropriate timing and selecting the right functions to automate is not always straightforward. There are times when automation might not be appropriate or even possible.

I had another client with large and complex sales contracts. Sales cycles were long and customer contracts usually had many different obligations and components. The company provided creative services in addition to product sales, making revenue recognition a complex task requiring skilled accountants.

While automation helped streamline parts of their business, there was no single tool to replace human expertise in interpreting contracts.

There is no perfect, “one size fits all” solution that can be employed by every company since each business is unique.

Accounting automation does not always have to mean a six-figure investment; sometimes adopting a $79 per month tool can provide just as much benefit. Start small and build out from there. Look to your finance leaders and push them to bring some ideas to the table. There are thousands of resources on the market today.