Automate your accounting: why not?

A robot to do your accounting for you, or to replace your chartered accountant? Automated accounting is a trend that is gaining ground within companies, encouraged by digital transformation.

The evolution of the accounting profession is a reality, but automated accounting in no way replaces the role of the accountant.

It simply eliminates the need for manual data entry and takes advantage of data analysis to give companies an overall view of their financial health.

The chartered accountant, meanwhile, is entrusted with an advisory role: he or she becomes the accounting point of reference for business decision-making.

As you can see, the end of accountants is not in sight. Find out more about the challenges of automating accounting processes and how online accounting software is helping companies to go digital.

See all software Accounting

Accounting automation: definition

Accounting automation consists of eliminating manual processes and replacing them with automatic ones, using dedicated and secure software.

Accounting automation covers :

• accounting entry: invoice entry, entry of accounting entries, entry of bank statements, entry of payroll entries,
• printing estimates and invoices,
• dematerialisation of invoices, now a legal requirement,
• payroll management,
• drawing up balance sheets and profit and loss accounts,
• VAT management.

We also talk about " digitisation of accounting", " robotisation of accounting ", or RPA (Robotic Process Automation). The aim is to take advantage of technological advances in robotisation and artificial intelligence (AI) and apply them to accounting.

Automating repetitive processes avoids manual input errors and frees up time for higher added-value tasks.

Example: the robot reads a scanned invoice, identifies the relevant information such as the amount, the customer, the date and the VAT, to automate invoice processing.

Why automate your accounting and choose software?

The benefits of automated accounting for businesses

Why automate your accounting? What are the advantages of automated accounting software?

To sum up, online accounting software :

• automates accounting processes ;
• optimises costs by avoiding repetitive, time-consuming tasks with little added value;
• reduces the number of errors (formulas, incorrect entries, duplication, confusion, etc.);
• guarantees legal compliance thanks to regular, automatic updates to the tool: you can be sure that your accounting is being managed in full compliance with the law;
• facilitates exchanges with your chartered accountant, who has direct access to the tool to monitor your accounts in real time;
• provides mobile access to accounting data via a mobile application, for some software packages.

The benefits of accounting automation for accountants

According to Exact pour Experts-Comptables, there are 5 advantages to a 100% cloud accounting production solution:

• mobility and freedom: access to up-to-date data, even when on the road with a client ;
• collaboration and advice: more time for advice and better client relations, sharing a common interface;
• productivity gains through automated tasks and processes;
• managing the firm's business: secure accounting data, personalised dashboards, case tracking, etc.
• interactivity : connecting business applications to the accounting production tool.

☝️ In short, online accounting software is just as beneficial for a business manager as it is for a chartered accountant.

See all software Accounting

How can you automate your accounting processes?

Software is increasingly equipped with accounting automation functions such as :

• Document and data recognition using OCR (optical character recognition) technology ,
• archiving
• compliance checks,
• validation processes, etc.

As accounting has a cross-functional impact on virtually every department in a company, the benefits of automating accounting processes are becoming increasingly widespread.

Here are a few examples of accounting processes that can be automated.

Pre-accounting

This term covers all the work done upstream of accounting, i.e. everything that a company's manager or accountant has to prepare before calling in their chartered accountant, if they have one.

Pre-accounting tasks include collecting, filing and archiving all accounting data:

• supplier invoices
• customer invoices
• expense reports
• bank statements
• pay slips,
• social security contributions, etc.

🔎 Examples of software :

• Dext is a turnkey pre-accounting software package aimed at VSEs and SMEs that can handle a very large volume of purchase invoices (unlimited number of suppliers).
  Take a photo of the document or import it from your mailbox, and Dext takes care of deleting duplicates, extracting the data and converting it into accounting entries.

• Spendesk is enterprise purchase management software that offers a single interface for automatically centralising all your expenses and expense reports. This gives you reliable, real-time visibility of all your data. It automates your accounting processes, from retrieving receipts to entering accounts, including bank reconciliation and employee reminders.
  
  
• Sage Business Cloud Compta, 100% cloud accounting software for small businesses, automatically generates your entries by importing all your banking, purchasing and sales data. No more typing errors! What's more, thanks to synchronisation with your bank account and automatic generation of dashboards, you can monitor your cash flow in real time, giving you greater control.

Procurement processes

Purchasing from suppliers triggers a large number of information and document flows that need to be tracked and archived.

For example, you can automate :

• generate purchase orders
• update stock levels in real time once goods have been received,
• generate a purchase invoice from the purchase order,
• create accounting entries from invoices,
• archiving invoices in the accounting software,
• take into account the payment of taxes.

🔎 Software example: Azopio automates the retrieval of invoices, receipts and bank transactions from different sources (mobile application, photo of an invoice, email, etc.). It then classifies them before depositing them in your appropriate cloud storage services. This accounting software automates reconciliation with your bank and automatically synchronises your accounts with the platform.

Sales processes

Just like purchasing, sales processes involve the creation of a number of procedures, documents and accounting entries.

For example, you can automate

• tracking a quotation through to customer approval,
• generate a purchase order from a quotation,
• generate a customer invoice from a purchase order,
• create accounting entries from invoices,
• archiving invoices in the accounting software,
• alerts for overdue invoices.

Payroll management

Payroll is an activity which, in addition to being recurrent and compulsory, does not create value. Automating it therefore offers many benefits.

For example, you can automate

• calculate salaries (gross, net payable, deductions at source),
• the creation of payslips
• recording payroll-related accounting entries,
• electronic filing of social security contributions using the Déclaration Sociale Nominative (DSN),
• checking the consistency of entries, etc.

🔎 See our directory for examples of payroll software.

Financial management

Whether you keep conventional, cash or commitment accounts, connecting your accounting software to your bank account can be a great help.

For example, you can automate

• retrieve bank statements
• make accounting entries in the cash journal
• real-time cash flow monitoring
• bank reconciliation.

🔎 Examples of software:

• IPaidThat automatically retrieves invoices from an email inbox or customer area, and imports the data directly into the software. It then performs the bank reconciliationto match your documents with your bank transactions. You can monitor your cash flow in detail using precise reports and graphs, in real time or over a given period.
  
  
• Superindep.fr is the perfect accounting software if you are a self-employed entrepreneur. Thanks to its tailor-made features, it anticipates administrative problems such as late payment or forgotten declarations, so you can concentrate fully on your business with complete peace of mind. No more long hours spent managing your accounts, the platform automates your turnover and VAT declarations for even greater efficiency!

Tools to automate your accounting

The digital transformation of businesses is not sparing accounting, and it is gradually changing the way accountants work. How can this be achieved? While locally installed accounting software has been assisting business managers and chartered accountants for a long time, what's new is elsewhere. Online software, or SaaS software, makes it possible to :

• Real-time data updates,
• access to accounts at any time and from anywhere with just an Internet connection or a mobile application, all thanks to the cloud,
• better overall monitoring thanks to monitoring dashboards.

There is a wide range of online software to help businesses and their accountants manage their accounts. In addition to the examples illustrated in this article, these include :

• Indy Comptabilité is designed for the self-employed under the BNC regime: do away with bank data entry and automate your accounting with an intuitive, modern tool.
• Mister Compta saves you time and gives you peace of mind with a secure online solution (for VSEs and the self-employed).
• Sinao does away with the superfluous in a tool that concentrates on the essential functions for start-ups, VSEs and SMEs.