Tag: Efficiency

April 30 – Going Paperless: What You Need to Know

NPFM

Presentor: Anne Healy, Director of Finance & Administration, at Match Education
Anne has many years of experience as the CFO at various organizations. She shared her experience with paperless solutions that help tame and organize the back office.  She also provided information about several applications used for this purpose, including DocuSign, salesforce, bill.com, and tallie.

Anne Healy, Director of Finance & Administration, at Match Education, shared her experience with paperless solutions that help tame and organize the back office.  Anne has many years of experience as the CFO at various organizations, including Rosie’s Place.  She also provided information about several applications used for this purpose, including DocuSign, Salesforce, Bill.com, and Tallie.
Anne stated that many organizations are trying to get out using paper for the AP function – heading toward a paperless finance operation.  She first spoke about bill.com, which can be used to pay to process invoices and receivables electronically.  It is easy to use and synchs with Quickbooks.  The bill.com files can be uploaded into some accounting systems in CSV format. Bill.com allows you to store AP files and vendor files in their system and it can be used to issue w-9s to vendors.  You can set up a schedule of monthly bills for payment.  You can see all bills outstanding, who has approved the invoice for payment, where it is being charged, and when payments are made.  You can easily separate the duties of paying bills and the ability to input bills into the system. You can have your vendors send their invoices directly to your bill.com account and a manager can approve them for payment. You can just give the bill.com file to your auditors when they review your AP operations.
Tallie is a program that can be used to reimburse employees and to pay your AMEX accounts.  You can upload picture of receipts and it syns with Qucikbooks. Approvers can be set up centrally and documentation is easy to save.
You can use DocuSign to sign your documents – digital signature are now well-accepted in business.   You can cc. others that need to know and filing is easy.
Anne stated that she uses Salesforce to store her organizations personnel files.  It can also be used for program tracking.  It is easily customizable and access and settings can be set up.  For all of the electronic payment, storage, and signing programs, security is very important.  You have to be very careful about deciding who get access and implementing and enforcing the correct and secure settings.

Presentation can be found here: NPFMhandoutpaperless

December 2015 Meeting: Using Technology to Gain Efficiency and Internal Control in Major Business Processes

NPFM

Summary: Robin Kelley and James Jumes, partners at AAFCPAs, will present and discuss ways in which technology may be used to gain efficiency and internal control in major business processes. Improvements and thoughtful implementation of technology solutions have the ability to reduce process costs, increase quality, reduce the number of errors, reduce the risks of fraud and more.  Attendees will be able to:

  • Better understand how technology can be used to accomplish greater process efficiency, effectiveness, and internal control.
  • Learn how to get started, plan for, and implement technology solutions.
  • Learn the key considerations and the benefits.

 

Write-up from the session:

Robin Kelley and James Jumes, partners at AAFCPAs, presented and discussed ways in which technology may be used to gain efficiency and internal control in major business processes. Improvements and thoughtful implementation of technology solutions have the ability to reduce process costs, increase quality, reduce the number of errors, and reduce the risks of fraud and more.  Robin and James presented ways to better understand how technology can be used to accomplish greater process efficiency, effectiveness, and internal control; discussed how to get started, plan for, and implement technology solutions; and covered the key considerations and the benefits.

When is a good time to assess using technology to enhance operational efficiency and the effectiveness of internal controls?  One occasion is when the organization is going through a rapid growth.  Others are when your current financial system is old or when your system’s existing capabilities are not being fully utilized.    Changes in regulations, a slow system in place, and inefficiencies in internal controls are all occasions to assess technology improvements.  When thinking about improvements to make, look at your major business processes for areas of opportunity. First look at the purchase to pay cycle.  Maybe you could use electronic purchase orders.  Next, consider workflow technology – approvals don’t have to be in paper format.  Next look into ACH (automated clearing house – electronic bill pay) and EFT (electronic funds transfer) to reduce paperwork.    You can also use Positive Pay to send the bank a list of epays, and you can request debit blocking, to make sure that no one is withdrawing funds from your organization without proper authorization.  All of these measures involve the use of software, sometimes through the cloud or sometime you can use your internal server.

Another area that you can use technology to increase efficiency is in the area of payroll and human resources.  For payroll, use can use workflow technology, direct deposit, debit card/pay card, positive pay, and electronic timesheets.  Electronic timesheets need to integrate with the payroll system that you are using and with your financial system.  When assessing financial operations, you should do a flowchart of your current systems to look for inefficiencies and bottlenecks.  Some options are to use automatic allocations and check scanning for bank deposits.   It is very important for new systems to integrate with each other.   Increasing reporting efficiencies will help management get information to program managers in a timely manner.

When making major technological changes and upgrades, there are some key considerations.  First, since everyone is probably already very busy, hire an outside consultant to plan and implement the changes.  Next, some management staff that are resistant or oppose the changes may have to go or be transferred.   Also, you will have to manage the expectation of the users, the executive team, and the Board of Directors.  The IT department should not be the driver of these changes.  You need to determine what the management team wants to get out of any new system, and then look at software solutions.  Examine your business processes – walk through them with everyone who has a stake in them.  Look for opportunities to make the processes more efficient.  You may have to balance the need for internal controls with the need for efficiencies – they are not always the same.  For successful implementation, you will have to appoint a process owner and facilitator, with an outside consultant providing a “third party push.”