Going Digital: How CFOs in German-speaking Markets Can Benefit From Automated Workflows


Digital automated workflows can proof a huge asset when wanting to keep up with the rapid speed we work at in finance today. Around the globe, CFOs tend to need faster and automated processes to deliver relevant and accurate financial data to the management.

Data-driven decisions have become a vital part of managing a business today. Actual data lays the foundation for good decision-making across industries and has done so for many years. That is no news. The digital transformation of the finance function has made it increasingly possible for management to base their decisions on actual data. digital automated workflows

How can you improve your decision-making to be more data-driven? 

This blog post will explain how digitalizing the finance function can help you:

speed up the supply of relevant data
better use and evaluate collected data
increase the automation of processes

How groups in German-speaking markets can benefit from the digital transformation within finance

According to the survey Performance Management in Dynamic Markets from BARC in Germany, the top concerns for CFOs and Controllers in the German-speaking markets include:

A small budget, 48%
Poor data quality, 47%
A heterogeneous system landscape, 54%

You can overcome these challenges by thinking about how you can improve the efficiency of your finance function in the long term. The way to do so is by digitalizing the finance function.

By digitalizing certain tasks within your finance department, you are able to make decisions or recommendations based on solid financial data. Additionally, automating the data structuring process through software speeds up the entire workflow and reporting process. 

But what is the cost of digitalization?

It does not need to cost an arm and a leg to optimize your finance function digitally. Digitalization is possible to do within a reasonable pricing range and it can take many forms. One way is to search the market for good financial software Cloud-based software is often based on a monthly subscription, which is a rather flexible and affordable pricing model. Even small- and medium-sized companies can find cloud-based financial tools that fit within their price range. digital automated workflows

Digitalization will increase the efficiency and quality of data

When looking to optimize their finance function, top priorities for CFOs in German-speaking markets include:

speeding up the supply of relevant data, 60%
better utilizing and evaluating the collected data, 50%
increasing process automation, 43%

These targets each highlight the importance of incorporating digitization into the finance function. 

A benefit of digitalization is a more agile workflow. When you replace manual, repetitive processes your workflow becomes automated. Workflow automation frees up time for you to focus on the most value-adding tasks, such as data analysis rather than error searching and maintenance of spreadsheets.

Automation of workflows makes you capable of delivering more relevant financial reports to the management because you have the time to analyze the figures in-depth and extract relevant data.

Digitalization can also benefit your finance function by ensuring higher data quality. For example, instead of doing financial consolidation and reporting in Excel, you can do financial consolidation and reporting in financial consolidation software. Choosing financial software to get a complete consolidation done will eliminate the number of human errors and minimize the time spent on verifying that everything is accurate.

Read more about how to optimize your financial consolidation and reporting from Excel to financial software here.

Ultimately, a digital transformation of your finance function will increase efficiency. It will reduce errors and time spent on financial consolidation and reporting processes resulting in more streamlined workflows. These automated, more efficient workflows will, over time, create a better result when considering the time used and the quality of the output. Your financial team will be able to deliver valid financial data to internal stakeholders faster. A faster process in delivering solid sets of financial data will enable management to make the best decisions for the business. digital automated workflows