What is a business process give two 2 Examples of processes for functional areas of the business and one example of a cross functional process?

Every business is able to deliver its goods or services to its customers because of its business processes. There are many types of business processes to optimise, but the first step in being able to is to answer, “What is a business process?”

Here, we will outline what business processes are, share their importance, and help to better understand the different types through definitions and examples. We’ll also touch on how automation tools can help you overcome inefficiencies that often plague business processes. You’ll better understand how automation can help streamline processes, increase transparency, improve compliance, and more.

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Coming Up

1. What is a Business Process?

2. Why is Business Process Important?

3. What are the Benefits of Business Process

4. What are the Steps in the Business Process Lifecycle?

5. What is an Example of a Business Process?

6. What are the Types of Business Process?

7. Business Process vs. Business Procedure and Business Function

8. What are the Essential Attributes and Components of a Business Process

9. What are Terms Related to a Business Process?

10. What are the Benefits of Business Process Software?

11. Wrap Up

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What is a Business Process?

In the most simplest of terms, a business process is a set of steps taken to achieve an outcome. The outcome could be to deliver a product, assemble a product, bring on new employees, pay invoices, or anything else of this sort.

For a business process to be completed, it’s common for many people to be involved. The process can be broken down into each task, and each task is generally assigned to its respective stakeholder. Each step or resource needed for completion is considered an input. The end result is the output.

The concept of a business process can be dated back to Adam Smith, in the same year that America signed the Declaration of Independence (1776). Since then, this concept has evolved to be the focus of many who study operations, management, and business.

With the aid of technological solutions like automation, business processes no longer have to be performed manually. Automation has allowed for a reduction in errors, an increase in speed, and an easier way to manage and measure business processes.

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Why is Business Process Important?

Although it may at first seem cumbersome to delineate and organize business processes, it ends up being in the best interest of everyone involved (from business owners to customers and those in between).

Business processes help to ensure that resources are being allocated as efficiently as possible. Business processes also streamline activities.

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What are the Benefits of Business Process

Any activity that requires inputs in sequential steps to obtain an output is a process. Life is filled with processes, but within business, measurement and management of such activities will certainly impact the bottom line.

Beyond the bottom line, both customer and employee satisfaction are affected by business processes and how they are carried out.

Benefits of business processes are wide-ranging and include:

• Resource management: Time and resources are allocated according to needs and goals, thereby minimising waste
  

• Optimised performance: Employees are assigned to tasks based on their maximum value, helping them to achieve their full potential and utmost level of satisfaction  
  

• ‍Accountability: Everyone is aware of their responsibilities and inputs/outputs are measurable

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What are the Steps in the Business Process Lifecycle?

No matter where you stand in your business’ lifecycle, you can implement the following steps to create a business process. By doing so, you’ll be empowering your team with a roadmap, your managers with oversight, and your customers with a clear understanding of what they can expect from your business.

Here are the 7 steps to follow:

1. Goal-setting: Define and outline the process’ purpose. Answer questions like: How can I measure success? Why does this process matter for our overall business goals?
   

1. Process mapping: Map out the process. You can do so by hand or using software to develop a flowchart. This is like a blueprint that details each task along the way.
   

1. Assignment: Who is involved? Allocate your team members according to their abilities and/or design the system in an automation solution if you can minimize manual effort.
   

1. Testing: Before rolling out the process department-wide or across the organization, test it out on a small scale to ensure you achieve your desired results.
   

1. Implementing: Once you’ve made sure the process is designed successfully, then you can implement the process in its live environment. Be sure that everyone involved has what they need to complete their steps. If you’ve chosen an automation solution to run the process, you’ll have to provide user access to those who may have to provide approvals for the process to reach completion.
   

1. Reviewing: Monitor the results of the process to ensure that it’s optimised. It’s also a good idea to store process history should you need it for reference. With an automation software, this is already part of the solution because the process is defined and stored in the system. All process run history is immutable.
   

1. Repeating: Given that the process delivers the intended results, you can repeat the process ad infinitum. Automation solutions can carry out processes without the need for human intervention, thanks to robotic process automation and artificial intelligence.

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What is an Example of a Business Process?

To best understand, “What is a business process,” it’s helpful to have a concrete example. Out of the countless business processes to choose from, let’s take a look at one that has immense financial implications for a business–invoice processing. Businesses receive invoices from vendors, be it suppliers, service providers, and the like. It’s in everyone’s best interest to pay invoices on time to maintain good relationships and maintain proper financial records.

Invoice processing often looks like this:

• Verify an invoice for accuracy
• Automatically or manually code the invoice into the general ledger (automation solutions help to reduce human error greatly at this step)
• Invoice needs approval before payment is sent

Experts have estimated that paper-based invoice processing costs anywhere from $12-$30 to process, which includes the human labor involved. Automation solutions can expedite invoice processing with accuracy and reduce this expense.

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What are the Types of Business Process?

Business processes come in different shapes and sizes, depending on their intended purposes. When approaching, designing, and optimizing processes, it can be of use to approach them within their categories.

Operational Process

Operational processes (core business processes) are those that bring direct value to customers and the company itself. They are the processes that directly create revenue. Examples include: product manufacturing, order to cash process, and delivering products to customers.

Supporting Process

Core business processes are rarely completed in isolation. Supporting processes help to ensure that operational processes are carried out as planned. These types of processes are those that take place in departments like: accounting, call centers, sales, human resources, marketing, and technical support.

Management Process

Amongst the layers of supporting and operational processes, management processes exist to make sure that rules and procedures are being upheld. These processes monitor, measure, and report. They include things like: budgeting and governance.

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Business Process vs. Business Procedure and Business Function

Business process management is filled with some terms and concepts that sound similar but are nuanced. To help clarify, let’s define a business procedure and business function to distinguish them from a business process.

• Business Function: Business functions are operations to achieve organizational end goals. They are carried out by people and typically determined by structure. They fall in line with the departments of your business. For example, functions may be: sales, accounting, or marketing.

• Business Procedure: A business procedure is the prescribed way for a task to be carried out on behalf of an employee. They answer the question as to “how” something should be done.

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What are the Essential Attributes and Components of a Business Process

For a business process to be designed ideally, there are four essential components. These are:

1. Repeatable: The process can be carried out as many times as desired without having to change inputs or outputs.
   

1. Finite: There are a clear number of steps, with a defined beginning and end to the process.
   

1. Flexible: The certainty in business is that things are uncertain and change is constant. As such, business processes should be adaptable and malleable to be adjusted and improved on an as needed basis.
   

1. Value-driven: Each step of the process is included with intention. If there’s a step with no value-add, then it shouldn’t exist as part of the process.

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What are Terms Related to a Business Process?

Automation solutions and automation software help to streamline and optimise business processes. In this endeavour, there will be other related key terms worth noting and addressing. Let’s take a quick look:

• Business process management: Business process management refers to the ongoing and systematic approach to constantly improve business processes. It is performed with the utilisation of software solutions, both on-premise and in the cloud.
  

• Business process improvement: Business process improvement aims to develop more efficient business processes through dramatic measures as opposed to incremental, small steps. It involves process mapping and the use of IT expertise (or automation solutions) that are aligned with business goals to carry out.
  

• Business process reengineering: After conducting analysis on current business processes, business process reengineering may be initiated to completely rehaul processes. It’s a top-down approach for organisation-wide change aimed at optimisation.
• Business process analysis: Business process analysis identifies solutions to solve business problems. It involves policy development, organisational change, process improvement, and strategic planning.
• Business process flow: Business process flow is a visual representation of a business process. It tends to be drawn as a flowchart or form in which each stage outlines necessary steps.

• Business process monitoring: To gain oversight and better control of a process’ activity, business process monitoring is the active tracking of a process.

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What are the Benefits of Business Process Software?

Business process software and process automation tools are purposefully designed to be goal-oriented and data-driven solutions. There are an array of benefits that business process software delivers to an organisation of any size.

Consider these stand-out upsides of implementing business process automation:

• Streamlining: Automation solutions reduce redundancies, eliminate bottlenecks, and remove key person dependencies so that processes can flow smoothly and in a timely manner to deliver results.
  

• Decreased costs: With transparency and oversight of processes, wasted resources (money, time, energy, etc.) can be accurately allocated. This helps businesses cut unnecessary costs and save more.
  

• Increased collaboration: With software, processes are clearly drawn out and accessible to those involved. This allows for both internal and external stakeholders to retain visibility into the current status of a process and take action if necessary.
  

• Enhanced agility: With automation, a process can not only be actively monitored, but it can also be adjusted in real-time if the situation calls for it. This type of agility allows for organisation to continue to deliver to its customers without having to slow down or shut down to make adjustments to a process.
  

• Maximised efficiency: Dashboards and real-time analytics provide the insight your team needs to know if processes are running as best as they can.

• ‍Improved compliance: Automation solutions document every action they take, making it easy to pull audit reports and adhere to regulations.

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Organisations around the world are filled with their own set of business processes. Business processes are what allow inputs to be transformed into outputs that deliver value to customers and generate revenue.

Now that you know how to answer, “what is a business process?”, your next step is to dive deeper into how automation solutions can be used to optimise business processes.

Page 2

Reporting often relies on "data pipelines" to collect, combine and transform source data. With 62% of people relying on others to supply their data, here are 10 data sourcing best practices.

The 10 practices, explained in more detail below include:

1. Letting the desired business outcome dictate what data you need.

2. Profiling your data.

3. Getting as close to the source as possible.

4. Consolidating sources and keeping it simple.

5. Setting and managing data quality expectations.

6. Catching issues early in the data journey.

7. Measuring and acting on data quality issues.

8. Embracing change.

9. Implementing change management controls.

10. Allowing for data collaboration - in a controlled way.

Data Source Meaning

Before we get started on best business practices for reporting and data, let’s take a look at the data sourcing definition.

If you’re wondering, “what is data sourcing?” the answer first comes from defining a data source. A data source is where that data that is being used to run a report or gain information is originating from. For a database management system, the source is the database. For computer programs, the data source is a spreadsheet, XML file, data sheet or hard-coded data within the program. Depending on the computer system or program, data sources will differ. 

When it comes to data warehousing, a primary concern for the accuracy of information is where the data comes from. In such cases, and to help businesses run more efficiently, it is imperative that data is accurate, clean and properly protected. Data sourcing is the first step in any data warehousing project because without the data, you can’t do anything. After devising the right plan to obtain accurate information (data), the next step is to figure out how to store it consistently and in the same format so that when you run reports, you will be able to receive the right outcomes for decision-making.

1 - Let the desired business outcome dictate what data is required

The term most suitable to this topic would be 'Analysis Paralysis'. Companies often over-analyse their data sourcing issues, so-much so they forget to act.

Another common issue is when the data determines what reporting you produce. This dynamic should be the other way round. The desired business outcome for reporting must be the starting point in determining:

• What data you source
• How and where you focus your data sourcing and quality efforts
• Rules and controls around how you manage and maintain the supply of data.

Companies must focus on data sourcing activities that have the most impact. To do this, you need to have a clear and concise understanding of the desired business outcomes.

Our data sourcing recommendations:

• Always start data sourcing activities by asking what you want to achieve.
• The first question should NEVER be "What data can we get?"
• Start with "What do we need to achieve through our reporting?"
• Follow up with "what data do we need to support this outcome?"
• Final question should be "How can we source it and ensure it is of a high quality?"
• Prioritise your data sourcing activities based on the business outcomes that the data supports.

2 - Profile Your Data

Do the providers of your source data know who you are? Do they understand (or even care) what you intend to do with their data? It's OK (and normal) if the answer to these questions is NO.

Finding the provider of the data is step one. Once found, you will need to ensure that the data you are sourcing has the profile that meets your needs. That is, the structure, granularity, age, frequency and availability of the data.

One company we worked with had requested a daily extract from their general ledger. After working their way to the front of their IT queue, the day finally arrived - a GL extract was now available each morning. Unfortunately, the extract was not granular enough for the transactional level insights required.

When it comes to data sourcing, you must communicate with the providers of the data. Take the time to ensure the data provider can answer critical questions like:

• How often do you need the data?
• What format does the data need to be in?
• How granular must the data be?

Doing this early on can also help mitigate risks around data quality.

Our data sourcing recommendations:

• Take the time to profile your data. This includes the granularity, frequency, structure, format and method of delivery.
• Meet with the providers of the data. Ensure they can provide data AND that they understand what you intend to do with their data.
• Identify potential issues and inconsistencies as early as possible. Put plans in place to either enhance the source of data or find an alternative source. Otherwise, recalibrate your expectations for reporting.

3 - Get as close to the original source as possible

It is common to source data from another report or spreadsheet - which is being prepared manually.  For example, a sales performance report may rely on sales data prepared manually by other members of the finance team.

Each instance of manual intervention introduces risks to data quality. Inconsistent or erroneous upstream processing can have unexpected consequences for your reporting,

While you may sometimes not have a choice, it is always worth taking the time to survey what data is actually required for your reporting. This may highlight opportunities to remove manually prepared data sources or switch to system extracts.

Our data sourcing recommendations:

• Be cautious of using a manually prepared report or spreadsheet as a source of data.
• Look for opportunities to use the inputs into the manually prepared report or spreadsheet rather than its outputs.
• Collect the data you need from the earliest possible point of the data supply chain. This will limit exposure to uncontrolled manual intervention.
• Establish data quality expectations with suppliers of manually prepared data. Communicate with data providers to ensure early warning of upstream changes that may impact your reporting.

4 - Keep it simple and consolidate sources. Avoid the temptation to hoard data.

The principle of hoarding extends to data. Companies often duplicate data sources. They also have a tendency to collect and store all data "just in case" they ever need it.

For example, a finance staff member enquires about data relating to sales for individual channels. They are told that data is available across several extracts. In addition to the data they require, these extracts also contain information relating to inventory and taxes. Instead of focusing on what is really needed, the staff member attempts to accommodate all of the data that is made available.

As the volume and variation of data increases, so does the complexity, effort required and the general level of headaches.

Our data sourcing recommendations:

• Focus on what you need. Don’t fall victim to the allure of hoarding data.

5 - Set and manage expectations around data quality.

Some data, as you’d expect, is more important than other data. The tolerance for error will differ from report to report. Your data sourcing must be lead by where the focus of your audience lies.

For example, management may focus on a particular ration, movement or comparison in your report. Ensuring the supply of high quality data to these specific areas of interest is paramount.

It is critical that you understand the decisions that are being made from your reporting. This will allow you to determine the potential business impact of data quality issues. Ultimately, this will allow you to prioritise your data sourcing efforts.

Our Recommendations:

• Determine and rank the business impact of data quality issues for each source of data.
• Distribute your time, energy and focus on defining and measuring data quality in proportion to the business impact.

6 - Catch data quality issues as early as possible.

The cost of data issues increases the further the data has moved along the supply chain. A common phenomenon observed is the 1-10-100 rule. That is, a data issue will cost:

• $1 to fix at the beginning of its journey.
• $10 to fix when identified in the middle of its journey.
• $100 to fix when identified only after the data has been output for reporting.

The 1-10-100 rule is highly relevant for data sourcing. This is because data is often transformed several times during its journey. The effort to unravel these transformations late in the journey can be substantial.

Start by defining the business impact of potential data issues. Next, identify metrics to measure the quality of data along its journey. Finally, implement controls as early as possible into the data journey.

Our data sourcing recommendations:

• Implement quality controls as early in the data supply chain as possible.
• Always check/vet the source data. Basic checks for format and structure can dramatically reduce the cost of errors.

7 - Measure and act on data quality issues.

After you identify potential data quality issues, you must start measuring for quality. This will help ensure you alert to errors and can act on them going forward.

Create metrics to increase the visibility and oversight for data quality issues. You will also need a way to ask simple questions when collecting data such as:

1. Is the data in the correct format?
2. Is the ordering and structure of fields consistent with expectations?
3. Are the number of records within acceptable tolerances?
4. Are there any duplicate records?

The purpose of these measures is to catch errors and allow for corrections to your data. Recurring data quality issues will need an automated solution for cleansing the data.

Our data sourcing recommendations:

• Always define measures or metrics for the data quality.
• Implement processes to check source data against the metrics you have defined.
• Define tolerances and expectations and trigger alerts to the appropriate people when necessary.
• Address consistent data issues through automated data cleansing.

8 - Expect and embrace change.

The landscape you are operating in will most likely change. Examples of changes that impact data sourcing include:

• Mergers and acquisitions
• New systems
• Change in management

The direct impact of such changes is often changes to source data and evolving needs for reporting (outputs). For example, a management restructure may result in a new business hierarchy. As a result, KPI reporting will need to adapt to the new hierarchy.

Whilst nobody posses a crystal ball, we should all expect and prepare for change. Reporting is undermined when it is not able to react to changes. Likewise, rigid and brittle data collection and processing can be the achilles heal for a finance department.

Our Recommendations:

• Write a shortlist of expected or possible changes to the reporting requirements and supply of data. Score each item for the likelihood of it occurring and the impact that it would have (Low – High). Ensure that you have a plan in place to mitigate the impact of changes that rank Med – High.
• Facilitate communication to ensure that you are aware of changes ahead of time.
• Define tolerances and expectations and trigger alerts to the appropriate people when necessary.
• Manage expectations of sponsors around the ongoing maintenance and cost of adapting to changes.

9 - Establish change management controls and encourage knowledge transfer to simplify changes.

Having accepted and embraced the likelihood of change, what happens when it is time to act? In particular, how will you ensure changes don't result in data quality issues? The answer lies in good planning and change management practices.

For example, imagine your company changes its CRM, a key data source for your reporting:

• Who will be responsible for transitioning the supply of source data for your report?
• How will you ensure the same data profile is available from the new CRM system?

It is imperative that you embed controls for managing change. You must also ensure stakeholders have easy access to the knowledge they will need to implement changes. Staff must first be able to understand the data supply chains used for reporting. Next, those with permission should be able to make changes and have them reviewed and approved by stakeholders. These changes must also be documented for future knowledge.

Our data sourcing recommendations:

• Ensure that knowledge of the data supply chains is readily available through documentation.
• Establish procedures and rules for change. Specify who is responsible to request, make and approve changes.
• Ensure approved changes are recorded and logged. Document changes for accurate knowledge transfer in the future.

10 - Create a controlled and audit-able environment for business users to adjust or manipulate data for reporting.

Collaborative data analysis is a double edged sword. Human expertise and experience, when introduced into reporting, ensures relevancy of the reports. That said, the more people involved, the greater the risk of data quality issues.

Recurring data quality issues resulting from human error will reduce the impact of your reporting. The alternative - a "black box" reporting environment, void of collaboration, is simply too rigid. You must have a balanced approach to data sourcing.

The focus must be on facilitating human interaction in a controlled and auditable manner. Ensure that staff can access data at controlled points in the supply chain. When they do access data, create discrete ways for adjustments and manipulation that are:

• Logged with audit trails; and
• Have version control.

Doing so will allow you to achieve the best of both worlds in your data analysis and reporting.

Our Recommendations:

• Avoid uncontrolled manipulation and adjustment of data.
• Define points along the data supply chains where human interaction is expected and allowed. Define rules around what can change and who can change it.
• Encourage workflow within the organisation to review and approve or decline changes to critical data. E.G. a change that will impact the report should be reviewed and signed off by a responsible person.
• Ensure changes are logged and auditable so that the reporting can be traced back to the individual changes that have been made. This will facilitate the changes/adjustments while maintaining credibility.

You can watch a recording of a webinar that we presented on data sourcing best practices below:

(How to source good data from SolveXia)

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Page 3

Account reconciliation is a mandatory business process. While every business has its procedures, it follows a pretty standard process of matching transactions across ledgers and bank statements to ensure financial accuracy of accounts. Reconciliation tools help teams maximise their productivity and save time in what would otherwise be a very timely process of account reconciliation. 

But, how do you find the tool that is right for your business? It begins by understanding what account reconciliation software is and then comparing the features/pricing of the best tools on the market. This guide aims to help you cover all the bases! 

Table of Contents

1. What is Account Reconciliation Software?

2. What Features Should Be Included?

3. Making a Choice: 5 Best Reconciliation Tools

4. Benefits of Automation Reconciliation Software

5. Wrapping Up

What is Account Reconciliation Software?

Bank account reconciliation software centralises the financial close process and automates it for businesses. The software pulls data from the general ledger and compares it to bank statements and invoices to quickly reconcile accounts. Then, the software allows the preparer to electronically sign off upon completion and send it over to the approver for a final review. Once it’s approved, the software stores the data in the centralised database and provides your business with a secure audit trail. 

Most software systems allow for teams to upload supporting documents, view company policies, electronically sign off on reconciliations and leave comments, if needed. It also allows for controls to be set up so that processes are gated between employees for audit and compliance requirements. Additionally, the tool may provide users with a dashboard or a visual representation of current financial standing. 

What Features Should Be Included?

When looking for reconciliation software tools, you’ll want to make sure the following features are included:

• Reporting: A statement can be produced to highlight any records that are unmatched between the GL and bank statement. The system should also be able to compare financial reports from previous historical periods in time. 
  

• Issue management: If there’s an issue, the tool should identify the exception and be able to roll the forward problems into subsequent periods until it’s been resolved. You can also leverage a clean-up method to resolve issues manually. 
  

• Transaction matching: This is the crux of the tool. Here, the data can be pulled from various sources, compared and matched. You can establish matching rules for each account separately or create company-wide matching policies. You should also be able to define tolerance levels for a variance. 
  

• Classification: Records should be able to be classified and attributed to their type classes during the matching process. This could be performed manually or automatically. 

Making a Choice: The 5 Best Reconciliation Tools

Choosing the right reconciliation tool means considering both the upsides and the downsides. Let’s take a look at what some of the best tools on the market have to offer. 

SolveXia: 

SolveXia is a Digital Work Platform for Finance Automation. Many organisations use SolveXia to automate their account reconciliations, with a critical benefit being significant (10x) gains in team productivity. SolveXia’s enterprise-grade automation suite provides data processing, reporting, data persistence, audit trails and more. It can pull information from your general ledger and disparate data sources like banks, suppliers and more to reconcile your accounts quickly. 

SolveXia is powerful with an ability to ingest data in any format and perform complex data matching. Your team can instead spend their time analysing and investigating exceptions rather than manually preparing data for the reconciliation. The software will also provide alerts and notifications for variances and exceptions and allow for workflow for staff, to correct and adjust for exceptions. 

SolveXia runs securely on the cloud and can seamlessly integrate into your current set-up. The software can be up and running fast, in less than 30 minutes, with the ability to add new users instantaneously, and can be managed and updated without tech support or coding. If you need to run SolveXia in-house and host it internally, that is also an option, but not a necessity. Furthermore, SolveXia is uniquely extensible, with an ability to automate any data-intensive Finance task or workflow.

What sets SolveXia apart most from other tools is it is more extensible than financial close vendors because it has data transformation and enrichment capabilities. You go beyond just your GL or Bank data and produce analytics using more integrated data, for example, overlap with rebates and commission calculations or management dashboards. 

You can request a free SolveXia demo and get a customised quote to meet your business needs. 

Xero: 

Xero’s online accounting software allows you to see your cash flow in real-time through an easy-to-use interface. Some of its features include bank reconciliation, online accounting, invoicing, tracking inventory and paying bills. It also provides your team with reporting and links to all transactions. Xero can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection and uses encryption to secure your data. 

The tool is well-made for mid to large-sized businesses. One of its most significant advantages is that it has unlimited users on every plan. In contrast, many other software tools will require a minimum amount of users and can cap maximums. Users can try Xero with a free trial and begin paying for a plan for as low as $27.50 a month. 

Blackline: 

Blackline is a cloud financial close software system that aids in supporting continuous improvement in your business. Blackline has features that cover: financial close process management, including reconciliations and accounting automation. You can set up approval and review processes to ensure that your global company’s financials are accurate across different currencies and geographies. 

Blackline has helped businesses comply with industry regulations because of its capability to hold a massive amount of data and store information in various formats. To learn more about pricing, you have to get in touch with their team. 

Bank Rec: 

Treasury Software’s product Bank Rec reconciles accounts automatically through transaction management. You can set up matching rules and allow the system to do the work so your team can focus on human analytical tasks and decision-making. Unmatched records will get rolled forward until they find their match. Some of the tool’s features include: identifying, tracking and resolving matches, recording type classification, importing and automation and high-speed matching of accounts. 

With Bank Rec, there are no set-up fees, and the product can be paid for monthly through a subscription model starting at $99.95/month or purchased entirely upfront. Either way, you can include five users. 

ReconArt: 

Like SolveXia, ReconArt is entirely web-based and can be hosted on-site, if desired. ReconArt is reconciliation software that helps businesses with bank reconciliation, credit card reconciliation, balance sheet reconciliation, financial close, accounts reconciliation, variance analysis, journal entry and intercompany reconciliation. 

You can purchase ReconArt with five minimum users starting at $1,500 a month. Unlike SolveXia, ReconArt is a software system designed for the single solution of reconciliation. SolveXia offers more automation benefits beyond reconciliation. 

Benefits of Automation Reconciliation Software

Account reconciliation software saves your team time. More than saving time, it offers many necessary businesses like providing consistency, accuracy and clarity plus it reduces compliance risk, which can ultimately save you money, prevent fraud and maintain your entire company’s reputation. 

Here’s a look at some of the significant benefits of account reconciliation software. 

• Fully automated and fast: One of the essential benefits of reconciliation software like SolveXia is that it is fully automated. This makes it easy to complete the financial close process in no time. Many finance teams spend the majority of their time inputting data, trying to understand variances and wasting time on manual and repetitive tasks. With account reconciliation software, the process is managed automatically, freeing up your team to focus on high-level work, while improving accuracy and insights while improving controls and reducing audit risks. 
  

• Uniform approach / standardised process: The reconciliation process should happen monthly. At the very least, it will take place quarterly, so it helps to standardise the process to ensure its accuracy. With account reconciliation software, the system will run reconciliations according to the automated process the same way, every time. This is particularly useful if your reconciliations take data from different systems, and there is complex and varied mapping and data cleansing involved. Reconciliation software removes automated this process, saving time and improving accuracy. 
  

• Reduce errors & enhance internal controls: Reconciliation software allows for enhanced internal controls because leaders and stakeholders can see how the process is functioning and rest assured that it’s running smoothly every time. It also prevents any actions outside the process, while alerts can also be set-up for any unusual variances or activities. By reducing manual human inputs, and with automatic mapping, you are also able to reduce errors. The software is trained to be accurate, which will prevent many potentially costly mistakes from occurring, while alerts will help identify problems as they happen in real-time. 
  

• Recorded history: The software stores all data history and reconciliations. This is useful not only for audit trails and compliance but also for historical information. You can check in on how much something costs in the past and help to forecast future expenses. This way, you can better budget and manage financials in your business. 
  

• Delegated responsibilities: With account software, you can assign roles and manage access controls. In this way, every person on your team is aware of their position and responsibilities. When reconciliation needs to go through an approval process, then the system will automatically assign the next step to the approver as required. 
  

Ultimately, any business will have to perform financial close and account reconciliations. As a public company, these processes are highly regulated, and if done incorrectly, could cost you your business. For small and large companies alike, performing accurate reconciliations can reduce fraudulent charges and help identify mistakes in financial processes. Having an up-to-date view of your business’ cash flow is directly correlated to making wise business decisions. 

All in all, using an account reconciliation tool will save your team time, allow every person to understand their role and responsibility better, and provide you with a convenient and secure location to store recorded financial history.