That’s where automation comes in. Technological advances have made it easy and painless for finance teams to refocus their attention from time-consuming manual tasks to being a valuable decision-making partner.

So, here’s what you need to know about getting more done with less spending and fewer resources.

Top Productivity Killers

First, let’s go over the processes that are limiting productivity and preventing your team from focusing on high-value work.  

1. Manual Tasks

Using your finance team to perform manual tasks is time-consuming and increases the risk of errors. Plus, it uses up time that could be spent on more important tasks like analysis and forecasting.

2. Data Silos

When information is stored across multiple platforms, it doesn’t provide visibility into your business as a whole. it requires additional time to collect and compare data, and transferring data between platforms manually increases the risk of human error.

3. Unstructured Workflow

Without a structured and automated workflow, time is often mismanaged and communication is poor. For instance, team members waiting to be notified before they can start a task may lead to confusion and discord amongst the team. 

4. Chasing Receipts and Reports

Chasing down employees for missing receipts and expense reports doesn’t have to be the bane of your finance team’s existence anymore. It’s frustrating for both the finance team and employees to have multiple back-and-forth emails or calls about a simple expense, and it’s another huge time waster.

Automation Helps Finance Teams Focus on High-Value Work

This pyramid shows how finance teams typically divide their time. However, notice that the most time is spent on the least valuable tasks. Ideally, this pyramid should be inverted — and automation is the key to making that happen.

By automating time-consuming tasks like transacting, record keeping and reporting, finance teams have more time, energy and resources to devote to tasks that are far more valuable to the organization, like financial planning and strategic finance.

So, where should you start implementing automation? Here are some suggestions that are good starting points.

Accounting tasks like complex journal entries, reconciliations, and allocations can be automated, often right within your ERP. Financial planning and analysis tasks like building standard management reports and gathering and cleaning data can be automated. 

Accounts payable and receivable processes like expense approvals or invoice verification can be automated. And finally, payroll tasks like auditing logged hours against the schedule and calculating deductions can be easily automated with the right software.

Once these tasks and others are automated, your finance team will have significantly more time to devote to high-value work.

Overcoming Finance Automation Hesitancy 

Despite the obvious benefits of automation on productivity, it can take time to implement change and new technology within your organization. Here are some of the most common roadblocks to financial automation and tips to overcome them.

Time

Many organizations are understandably concerned about the time investment required to introduce automation. The length of time it takes to implement new software and processes should be considered, as should the time it will take to onboard and train employees with a new system.

SaaS applications with automation features are generally quick to install, and selecting an option with an intuitive user interface can go a long way in reducing the amount of time it takes to train employees. While there is time spent on the change upfront, the time that will be saved by reducing manual tasks will add up and become worth it quickly.  

Fear of Change

Decision-makers often fear change and may be intimidated by the prospect of introducing new technology. Opt for software that is user friendly and provide a demo to decision-makers early on, so they can see how easy it is to learn and start using the new platforms.

Of course, demonstrating the ROI with real-life examples and data (i.e. money saved over time) is another good way to assuage fears of change.  

Too Many Options

Before implementing any new processes or solutions, conduct a needs analysis for your team. Highlight specific problems you want to automate and then demo a few software options to see which best meet your needs. 

Once you’ve decided on software, start small so as to not overwhelm your team. You can always scale up to a more robust plan from a free trial or a starter plan, but there’s no sense in overloading your team with features they don’t need right off the bat.

Integrations

A modern tech stack should connect all of your business tools so that you are getting the most accurate and up-to-date information about your company.

For example, when selecting automation software for tasks like expense management, look into how it integrates with your accounting software and your HRIS.

Security and Compliance

Ensure that any software provider that you provide company information to is SOC1 and SOC2 compliant. It’s also important to look for additional security features like SSO to ensure that your employees are not susceptible to data breaches. 

Be sure to notify employees of any potential security threats and train them on how to properly report suspicious activity whenever you implement new software.

Cost

Finally, consider the cost of introducing automation. Although this is often top-of-mind for executives, it shouldn’t be the most heavily-weighted factor in the decision-making process. Consider how much better the integrations and security features are for a subscription that charges more versus free software that might lack the same level of sophistication. 

Final Thoughts

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to increasing productivity with automation. Conduct a needs analysis for your business to ensure that you are eliminating the most time-consuming manual tasks and freeing up time for the tasks most important to your organization. Weigh factors like time and cost against product performance to ensure you get the best return on your investment.

To learn more about modernizing your tech stack to increase finance team productivity, check out the recent webinar Doing More with Less: Increasing Productivity for Finance Teams.

The post Doing More with Less: Increasing Productivity for Finance Departments appeared first on Mesh.

The controller position is one of the most impactful hires you can make. They are responsible for ensuring the financials are accurate and complete and for managing the monthly close process. Controllers make sure that all of the financial information has been captured and entered correctly, and they need to be highly skilled and experienced in accounting.

Critically, controllers are responsible for ensuring compliance from a tax and audit perspective, and that the company is recognizing everything according to relevant accounting standards.

To say that this is one of the most important decisions for CFOs or VPs of Finance is an understatement. So I wanted to share some of my perspectives and insights on what to look for when you hire a controller and how you can ensure you find an awesome employee for the role.

How to know it’s time to hire a controller

To start, you need to ask yourself whether your business is ready for a controller. It’s common for smaller or new businesses to rely on an external resource to enter information and manage the monthly close. But even then, there still needs to be an internal employee reviewing the process — sometimes the VP of Finance, CEO, or COO, depending on the size and stage of the business.

It’s company-specific, but if you feel that your business has a good product-market fit or you’re starting to onboard customers, it’s probably time to bring in an internal resource, and that might be a controller or VP of Finance, who will then start building out the finance team.

You might think those external resources could be sufficient, but in my experience, I would recommend hiring a controller sooner than you think you need. This is especially true for high-growth companies. You’re going to want to have someone in place who can build the processes you need to manage financial reporting. If you wait too long, you can end up in a challenging situation with tons of work catching up and cleaning up reporting that wasn’t done properly but could have been had the role been filled in time.

Bottom line, If you see the need for a controller on the horizon, it’s actually right around the corner, so be proactive.

Finding a great controller that’s right for your business

The controller is critical to the finance team, and because of that, the CFO or VP of Finance is naturally going to lead the process. You will of course collaborate with HR, and they will usually do an initial screening, so it’s important to clearly pass along the criteria you are looking for so that you can focus on the best candidates. Keep in mind that you aren’t just hiring a controller – you’re hiring a controller specifically for your company.

You need to understand if they have the experience to solve the pain points they are going to experience at your organization. Ask yourself what tools does the candidate have to not only accomplish the general goals of their role but also deal with the unique challenges of your organization.

So, in interviews with candidates, I asked questions about how candidates would solve the problems we were facing at Mesh, not just theoretical questions about what a generic controller would face.

The controller is responsible for month end, so I would ask what their ideal month-end close process looked like and that helped me see if they truly understood the different steps in the process and how valuable they are, and the sequence they would follow.

What to look for in candidates

There are lots of different ways to evaluate candidates, but I like to look for three main skill sets when interviewing for the controller position.

1 – They need amazing accounting skills

It was a top priority for me to find someone who understood the fundamentals of being a controller, who understood how to produce accurate financials, and who understood GAAP. So that meant I was looking for someone who was a CPA and had prior experience either at a public accounting firm or as a controller.

CPAs have the training and appreciation of relevant accounting standards — whether that’s GAAP in the US or IFRS internationally. They will be able to understand those rules and implement them in the financials.

2 – They need great technical skills

For anyone I hire, it’s important they have exceptional technical skills — to be comfortable with Excel, to be comfortable with data, and how to drive insights from the data. And the best hires I’ve made in my career have all excelled (pun intended) in those areas.

In practice, this means being hands-on, writing formulas, pulling data into a pivot table, and deriving insights that way. With Asaf, when I interviewed him, he took the lead to show me spreadsheets and reports he had created, as well as describing how he would build the reporting infrastructure. That familiarity and technical skill and his initiative were the main factors in our hiring decision. I left my call with him and wanted to hire him straight away.

3 – Team and interpersonal skills

It’s easy to say that every employee should be a team player, but the controller is a critical role, and not just for the finance team. There are some roles in a company that are siloed away from other departments, but the controller is the opposite of that.

They work with all the departments. They need to understand the requirements, in terms of reporting and building KPIs and metrics, of marketing, sales, and R&D — the whole company. So it’s important to have someone who has the right personality. Someone who can communicate with teams, and help them communicate results.

They also need to find ways to illuminate how the spend of the different departments has helped them accomplish their goals and achieve KPIs. That ability, to help teams understand their goals and what they need to be successful, is key.

Those are just the criteria I use in evaluating candidates. You will of course need to find criteria that work for you as a hiring manager and fit your company.

Culture fit

To set the candidate or any new hire up for success, they should understand the challenges of the company. Don’t try to paint a rosy picture, be honest. Share the good parts and the negative ones — and we all know every company has its challenges.

The best candidates will be prepared and ready to tackle those challenges with all the energy that comes with knowing the path that lies ahead. Transparency is an incredible value in any relationship, and the relationship between a candidate and a company, or an employee and a manager, is no exception.

So show both sides; the opportunities and the challenges. You don’t want someone to start and then realize they aren’t prepared for the challenges they will face. Beyond that, challenges are opportunities — especially to the right candidate. If your company is just getting started, the right candidate will leap at the chance to build something new. If your company is older and set in its ways or saddled with bureaucracy — the right candidate will be excited about streamlining processes or bringing new ways of thinking.

These are just a few of the lessons that I’ve learned from hiring controllers. But I’ve come to all of them through experience and by following my instincts. You know your business and the most important single lesson is finding the person who is the best fit at your company, and who can match that with experience and the necessary skills to help your business succeed.

FAQs

The post How to Hire an Amazing Controller for Your Company appeared first on Mesh.