Keeping track of all of the tasks that need to be routinely completed in your organization’s finance department is no small feat. From invoice payment to revenue forecasting, the majority of finance processes include an element of approval and authorization. Managing this activity manually can be inefficient and time-consuming.
The purpose of the finance department is to coordinate and manage an organization’s finance approval process flows that relate to its money, including both revenue and costs. The finance team is a crucial part of a business–if it runs smoothly and efficiently, it can underpin wider business success.
A finance department with labor-intensive, poor quality manual processes can negatively affect your organization’s ability to manage its finances, pay its suppliers and employees, and plan its costs. Finance approval is a cornerstone of the many tasks that a department has, and there are many opportunities to make improvements in this area.
The finance department is home to a list of finance processes, the vast majority of that is carried out on a regular or semi-regular basis and are also subject to a process of finance approval. Ensuring the implementation of such processes is as streamlined as possible is crucial for success in the finance department.
Some of the most important finance processes include the following:
The purpose of finance approval is to ensure that the data involved in the request is checked for accuracy and complies with the vision and goals of the company. Finance approval processes do data validations to ensure accurate information, keep management informed of major purchases, and are a way to provide a budget and cash flow check.
Finance approval processes are meant to catch mistakes in early stages and increase transparency and communication. Once the information is considered accurate, it is passed to the individual who is responsible for signing it off. Depending on the complexity of the finance workflow process or the value of money involved, there may be multiple sign-off levels within a particular process, with the data moving from a team leader to a senior manager, for example.
After the data has been approved by the appropriate individual, it can be confirmed or paid as necessary. By following such a structured process of finance approval, the organization can be confident that money coming into or out of the business is managed in the most effective way possible.
This finance process management flows work best when the finance approvals happen quickly and accurately, with minimal errors or need for additional communication between approving parties to clarify or query information. Such interventions have the potential to not only cause delays within finance process flows, but also to add room for error.
Carrying out finance approvals manually increases the chances of this happening. Thus, there is an increasing appetite for a smarter way to manage finance approval and to use technology to support an organization with this objective.
Plenty of opportunities exist to make finance process improvements. First, replacing manual tasks (using spreadsheets and human labor) with automation and software means that many parts of the finance process flow can be completed without intervention, often eliminating redundant tasks along the way.
Automation is also a great way to ensure that the individual who is responsible for finance approval has all of the relevant information that he or she requires in order to sign it off quickly and confidently.
Kissflow offers businesses a unique and proven approach to their finance approval activities. Its easy-to-use applications can be customized to handle your organization’s workflows to validate and authorize financial tasks and requests at the touch of a button.
What’s more, you are able to set multiple authorization levels and attach monetary sign-off limits to each, ensuring that approvals get sent to the most appropriate level of authorization. Kissflow’s expert reporting functionality also gives you the power to analyze the speed, accuracy, and overall effectiveness of your finance process automation.
There’s simply no need for organizations to struggle with outdated, cumbersome manual finance process flows when they can benefit from the automated functionality that Kissflow offers to add order and efficiency to finance approvals.
