Auditoria: Many corporate finance back office systems are not automated

Even as industries increasingly embrace automation, corporate finance departments still rely on manual processes. That is a finding from the State of Automation in the Back Office Report from Auditoria: Nearly 60 percent of financial professionals said current back office systems are not sufficiently automated.

Nearly 60 percent of finance feel there is a tipping point within the back office, as current back office systems are not meeting their needs. While other departments are embracing advanced technologies, finance is stuck in the early aughts, wasting precious time and resources on manual tasks that could be automated.

Accounts Payable is the most manual back-office process. Almost a third of finance professionals believe that the Accounts Payable involved the most manual work within the
finance back office, followed by Accounts Receivable.

The results clearly indicate that finance is fed up with the current status quo, with manual tasks taking up the majority of their day. Time spent on repetitive tasks is the top challenge for finance professionals, followed by time spent checking and updating data. Additionally, more than 50 percent of finance professionals want a reduction in these types of tasks. Many are ready to embrace automation, as a third of professionals indicated that an investment in new technologies to improve business processes within the next year was a top priority for them.

In short, the results of the Tipping Point: 2021 State of Automation in the Back Office report indicate that the corporate finance back-office must embrace automation to survive in the digital-first corporate environment. Now more than ever, finance must shed the reputation that they are slow to adopt new technology and utilize advanced systems, allowing the back office to contribute more directly to the strategic growth of an organization.

Auditoria conducted an online survey of 622 US-based finance professionals in spring 2021 between the ages of 30-60+. Titles included Chief Financial Officer/Chief Accounting Officer, Controller, VP/Director/Manager in Finance or Accounting, Finance Specialist/Professional (Accounts Payable, Receivable, Collections, Treasury, Tax, Audit, etc.) or IT/ Finance Support.

Read full Tipping Point: 2021 State of Automation in the Back Office Report from Auditoria.