CHEQUING OUT
HOW NOT TO DROWN IN RED TAPE : THERE ’ S AN APP FOR THAT
Companies are facing an evergrowing compliance burden as regulations increase and with skilled talent hard to come by , finance teams are trying to do more with less . Businesses in the SME bracket will potentially feel this more than larger corporations who may have bigger , better equipped finance teams . Adam Zoucha , MD EMEA at FloQast , believes many elements of the finance function rotate around the basic mechanics of the month end close . In this article , he explains how automation can help SMEs in this area .
It ’ s not easy keeping up with regulations these days . From the ever-unfolding impacts of Brexit to the revolving door in Number 10 , UK businesses are faced with a bewildering array of changes in the red tape department .
Rapid regulatory changes bring a whole slew of challenges : an increase in costs per control , additional processes to organise , data to find and an overall lack of bandwidth and skilled labour . Those difficulties don ’ t just keep finance and accounting teams from performing at their best – they also cost the organisation financially .
That would be a worry at the best of times , but with skilled talent particularly hard to come by at present , finance teams are being forced to manage more regulatory demands with fewer resources . And to top it off , if your business is in the SME bracket , chances are you ’ re feeling this cocktail of pressures more acutely than larger corporations with bigger , better-equipped finance teams .
CFOs and their teams have a huge amount to keep up with , and it ’ s not just in the dayto-day that these pressures take their toll .
Many SMEs working on growth will either undertake or be subject to mergers and acquisitions . If your compliance initiatives are struggling to keep up with regulations , any due diligence processes will be much more complicated , potentially resulting in major costs – or failed deals .
So what ’ s to be done – should you focus on improving your internal processes ? Hire external consultants ? Improve the programmes you use for your work ?
Give the repetitive jobs to the machines
To an extent , all of these approaches have merit in their place . But at the end of the day , dynamic regulatory landscapes need dynamic compliance solutions . If you ’ re looking to overcome the compliance burden , automation has to be at the centre of your strategy . Particularly with the skills shortage looking set to last , www . intelligentfin . tech
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