Johannesburg, 01 Sep 2016
In this modern era, where the business-world is characterised by high-velocity, high-volume information, the pressure is on companies of all industries to seize the competitive edge. Technology's ever-increasing advances are present all around us, affecting every facet of commerce, trade and business at large. This is particularly true in the financial sector, still in recovery from the global economic crisis of the late 2000s. Every project counts, and client-demands must be met both quickly and effectively. And for the forward-facing accounting practice, technology is changing the way they work, interact and compete.
There is a new emphasis placed on automated solutions, primarily in the form of software, which is proving immensely effective in the accounting arena. Modern accounting software can facilitate a clean, easy audit and the efficient creation of financial statements. In this blog, we'll look at how it does this, focusing on three core areas: accuracy, speed and compliance.
Accuracy
Traditionally, spreadsheets have been a core part of any accounting practice, stretching back to the days of Windows 95. However, it's well known that reliance on spreadsheets comes with risk, since they're highly susceptible to human-error, deletion, corruption, duplication, etc. - particularly during repeated manual handling of large amounts of spreadsheet data. This is a chief reason why spreadsheets have become viewed as damaging to business productivity. But more than this, the arrival of next-generation technology platforms (think cloud) and more advanced accounting applications (think web-based apps) are casting a larger shadow over the "trusty" old spreadsheet, thanks to the bevy of efficiencies they introduce.
New accounting and auditing platforms boast built-in validation tools that significantly reduce the number of errors and inaccuracies. The software is able to pick up any issues and bring them to your attention for immediate correction, thus significantly lowering overall risk and giving you peace of mind when you work.
Auditing and financial statement software puts your entity on the front foot against fraudulent or incompetent practices and introduces a work practice of continuous improvement. It does so through high levels of information integrity and accuracy - ensuring that your audits are correctly formatted, transparent and validated.
Speed
One of the major selling points of auditing and financial statement technology is the speed at which it gets the job done. Preparing financial statements that are fully compliant with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), for example, can be a very time and resource-consuming process, which is often fraught with tedious details, complex steps and a high level of administrative overhead, particularly since the standards are still undergoing continuous revision.
However, use of automation functions built into new accounting software applications makes the process much easier and more efficient. It can automate the creation of compliant financial statements, saving time on the drafting thereof. Through the use of software, project supervisors are able to oversee everything easily, effectively strengthening their control over work performed.
Compliance
Ensuring compliance with standards such as IPSAS or others can be a challenge on its own. Standards are known to be complex and can often be misinterpreted, at least in part. Technology can be used to minimise ambiguities in this area with auditing and financial statement software features that perform rigorous checks and balances against built-in thresholds and parameters that prevent inaccuracies from creeping into audits.
The software is continually updated to ensure current and future compliance - saving you a great deal of time, effort and money. Financial statement software eliminates the pain of having to keep up to date with compliance and redo the work every year. Because the software is updated to reflect the latest standards, it eliminates the need to arrange for constant training on the latest changes to IPSAS - it takes care of everything for you.
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