Accounting documents and accounting data are core for the success of your Accounting Team. To keep these documents from going missing or becoming inaccessible, it is a good idea to store them in accounting software that you can easily access later. This blog post will discuss how to store accounting paper documents and data by utilizing Accounting Document Management Software Solutions.
The accounting team may often feel pressured due to tedious manual tasks and an ever-growing document filing system. Slowly but surely, document-related challenges start creating problems for specialists if they lack powerful software for document management. However, if someone is unsure whether it is time for accounting automation, accounting firms’ electronic document management system helps identify the problem timely.
The cost of human error is significantly high in the accounting sector, where mistakes can cost a company’s reputation and significant financial losses. For example, a few years ago, an accounting error cost Uber almost 50 million dollars. Because of various manually completed tasks and amounts of paperwork, accounting teams and accountants may duplicate invoices, make data entry and tax reporting errors, conduct false income reporting, etc. However, robust electronic document management systems in accounting firms assist in eradicating such human errors.
Keeping and managing documents secure and compliant cannot be achieved with a physical document filing system, unsafe file sharing, and the absence of data backups. Without a proper software solution for firm management, accountants might face document loss, misfiled papers, and compliance issues with industry regulations.
Since every accounting team and firm’s requirements, needs, and challenges differ, there are no such things as a perfect DMS functionality that fits everyone. However, certain core features are a must for any powerful accounting department management system.
Workflow
It enables users to create, edit, archive, approve and store documents efficiently. It simplifies the entire cycle of document creation and management. It automates repetitive activities, provides better visibility for document-related processes and increases productivity.
Audit trail
It allows the accounting team to track the exact path of the document lifecycle, including dates of changes, the editor’s name, the type of the performed action, etc. It enables better visibility into the desired changes.
Version Control
Versioning helps the accounting team to track content changes and allows to go back in history and restore a basic version. It enables users to trace all amendments easily, helps to undo changes and improves control over different document-related processes.
Role-based control access
It enables setting permissions to the particular documents and provides access to the files depending on their roles and responsibilities. It ensures an additional security layer, helps in decreasing error rate and enables more efficient and productive document management.
Advanced document search
It allows fast and convenient search by format, keywords, index, file name, document content, and additional metadata. It improves employee performance helps in keeping documents organized and easily accessible.
Collaborative file sharing
It enables users to exchange documents, leave comments, and work simultaneously with documents. It improves the performance of the accounting team and enhances cooperation between accountants.
Tagging
It ensures that users can categorize documents for better search by adding the relevant information, such as keywords. It improves the accessibility of all documents and allows retrieving necessary documents rapidly.
Although it may not seem like the most pressing concern:
How you store your accounting documents and data.
It can significantly affect your ability to plan for the future; when accounting documents are hard to restore or go missing, it inhibits an organization’s ability to generate detailed plans and budgets. With a Document Management System – DMS to store their accounting documents and data, secure file sharing, client portal, finance departments can effectively manage and meet legal requirements.
Utilizing an Electronic Document Management System: DMS to store accounting documents/data assists the department in five ways –
All five of these things would be made possible with a Document Management Solutions – DMS installation that helps create excellent control over your organization’s data, records, and files.
Preparing for Audits: Utilizing an accounting practice management system will allow the finance department to make your transactions more transparent. When you’re audited, the auditor can request all of your invoices from 2011. So you would give them access to your filing cabinets in another room, and they examine the documents.
Implementing a document management system –DMS to store accounting professionals’ documents/data will improve your business information/documents and help you respond quickly to internal and external auditor requests.
Creating Audit Trails: Accounting documents financial and data information is highly confidential, and it’s essential to see who accessed what data and when.
Enabling Accurate Document Withholding:
Paper-based systems make document retention time-consuming and too complex.
You manually sort by date, then cancel the files on a schedule. A document management system for accounting makes it easy to capture document information such as the invoice date and storage date. Document metadata is features include in your database storage.
From there, you tell the system how many months to keep financial statements, invoices, and more.
There are various document types, such as financial statements, invoices, and more. With a cloud-based Document Management System – DMS in place, the system takes care of when to discard outdated documents.
These old electronic documents are exported and deleted from the company’s archives.
Detailed Cost Analysis is Supported: You might need to access records outside of your ERP platforms when you’re performing cost analysis.
When you store your accounting documents and data in a Document Management System – DMS, instead of folders or archival storage, you can easily make cost analyses and access the information for planning.
Delivering Precise Budget Planning: When figuring out your budget, you need access to more information than just the numbers. A Document Management System will help with that.
CPA firm’s Financial statements show how much you spend in a given year. But if you want to know where that money is coming from, you need to look at the invoices and evaluate them closely.
The ability to see how much has been spent this year compared to the budgeted amount allows executives to make well-informed decisions about where their company needs extra spending.
Naturally, when you store your accounting data in an organized and well-categorized manner, it will positively impact your ability to orientate details as needed.
Utilizing a DMS system will permit instant restores for all your documents, creating a smoother audit process with a more manageable budget and cost analysis.
Furthermore, contact our team today to learn more about the benefits of implementing a DMS for accounting firm.
