While businesses of all shapes and sizes have experienced significant disruption over the past few months, executives are taking initiative to learn from these experiences. This slow emergence from the pandemic is an opportunity to radically rethink both business and operating models, and look for new ideas, technologies, and capabilities that can drive the path to recovery.

While it’s easy to say, “When we get through this, we’ll do things differently,” it’s a little more difficult to put into practice. Finance executives aren’t looking to improve an already optimized system; they need to fix—or in some cases, completely rework—a struggling one. Traditional elements such as planning, accounting, compliance, control, reporting, analysis, and advising are on the “needs improvement” list. Many of them could be easily improved with automation, though only about a third of finance activities are currently automated for most organizations.

With past focus on growth, CFOs and Finance teams now need to train their sights on their organization’s future.

Adapting to the Now

Agility has come to the forefront during the pandemic, feeding business’ need to nimbly adapt to a constantly shifting economy. Driving this agility are accounting and reporting software solutions that give real-time insight into performance so leadership can make the right decisions to adapt to the now and prepare for the next.

Reopening guidance will give companies clearer vision into planning the physical reopening of production and operations, allowing more accurate forecasting for revenue, margins, and cost. However, agility will continue to serve as futures will remain uncertain. Some states are rescinding their reopening procedures as infection rates spike, and businesses may need to be prepared to scale back down again just as quickly as they ramped up for reopening. These four tips can help businesses prepare to reemerge in the midst of uncertainty.

Four Tips for Reemerging in the New Now

• Automate, automate, automate. Crisis situations that forced teams to remote working uncovered a great number of activities that finance could have (and should have) automated a while back. This includes transaction processing, compliance, controls, and reporting. Automating these activities frees up employees for more planning and analytics to support decision-making processes.
• Digitization = resiliency. Similar to automation, digitizing to virtual operations sustained business continuity during the pandemic. Many organizations who were not already digitized fast-tracked their digitalization to empower remote work. This move will only benefit teams as businesses roll out their own reopening plans and build out additional support for continued remote work.
• Re-think leverage. Leverage is a form of risk that CFOs want to limit, doing so by restructuring borrowing frameworks as the world moves back toward “normal.” This involves finding ways to generate more cash, such as by accelerating payment cycles by monitoring payment terms within accounting and reporting software.
• There may be no “normal” anymore. While most everyone has at least once wished for things to return to “normal,” or discussed what the “new normal” will look like over the next few months, the fact is this crisis has highlighted that perhaps nothing ever was or will be “normal.” Instead, agility, alertness, and the capability to shift on short notice are becoming hallmarks of successful businesses, from current survival through future thriving. Accounting and reporting software can support this with scenario modeling, rapid simulation, and data-driven forecasts.

Rethink Your Software Needs With PositiveVision

Adjusting and reemerging will look different for every company. But no matter your industry or business, your organization can prepare for whatever’s next with the help of robust accounting and reporting software. These solutions can support automation, harness data, drive analytics, and provide the deeper insights that finance and leaders need to push the business into the future.

This pandemic has forced businesses to fundamentally rethink traditional operating and business models. It’s a transformation that will be challenging but necessary for finance. With the addition or optimization of accounting and reporting software solutions, businesses will be better positioned to anticipate tomorrow while delivering today, building the necessary capabilities to thrive in whatever comes next.

If the COVID crisis has uncovered a need for accounting and reporting software in your organization, the team at PositiveVision can help. Our full-service consulting firm ensures you get the software you need to reduce inefficiencies and grow revenue, while staying within budget and time restrictions. You can be confident that you’ll be connected to the accounting and reporting software that you need to improve business performance. Get a free consultation now.