Driving profitability with finance automation: insights from a new Forrester Consulting study
- Effective automation increases employee autonomy
- Intelligent automation integrates systems and processes
- Successful automation improves employee experience within
- Upgrade your finance automation to drive greater efficiency and profitability
The pressure is on: Business leaders are being asked to squeeze more out of every minute and dollar in 2023 as companies scale back on headcount and downsize their growth plans. They're looking to their finance chiefs for help: What channels lead to the most favorable burn multiple or capital intensity ratio? How can the business further lower its unit economics?
In theory, finance automation should give all employees within your organization access to this kind of business intelligence. But results have been mixed. One in two finance teams struggle to translate insights into actionable outcomes. Over half battle to identify real-time cost-saving opportunities for their organization.
How are leading organizations using finance automation to create leverage and drive better decision-making? We commissioned Forrester Consulting to find out. Their study, “Design Finance Automation To Drive Operational Efficiency and Profitability,” shares actionable insights on how leaders can sharpen their automation to drive better margins in 2023.
Effective automation increases employee autonomy
Forrester conducted an online survey with 407 finance operations technology decision-makers for the study, with the majority of responses coming from mid-market and enterprise companies ranging from 150 to 999 employees. The report finds, “Successful finance transformation occurs when agility is a core principle.”
What does agility look like in practice? 73% of survey respondents point to autonomy for employees to make spending decisions for their work. It’s not enough to automate paperwork like invoice processing. The best automation enables better information flow between finance and business teams. It allows employees at all levels to easily request project funds and for finance teams to get full context on how those funds will be used before spending takes place.
Intelligent automation integrates systems and processes
Plenty of automation point solutions exist but the lack of integration between solutions has been burdening teams with additional work rather than insights. Over half of survey respondents say their companies struggle to integrate disparate systems for a more holistic view of finances. Nearly 60% agree integration is necessary to align finance teams and other employees for better efficiency.
As a result, 74% of respondents are looking for finance automation partners that provide a comprehensive suite of solutions in the coming year. For instance a spend management platform that consolidates card expenses, reimbursements, checks, ACH, and wire payments allows finance teams to track spending with far better precision and keep expenses within compliance. When everyone has the same real-time visibility into company spend, they’re able to make better and faster decisions together.
Successful automation improves employee experience within and outside of finance
Savvy finance leaders know it’s not enough to just equip employees with insights; they need to help their teams act on those findings as well. But Forrester notes, “Existing processes and tools position finance more as gatekeeper than trusted partner.” One in two finance leaders reports current tools waste time for non-finance employees and don’t provide an easy user experience.
Business leaders who prioritize ease of use in their automation can expect greater efficiency over time. For example, modern expense management tools allow employees to submit receipts and memos via text and automatically match them to transactions. This eliminates the need for redundant expense reports and speeds up monthly close for the finance team.
Upgrade your finance automation to drive greater efficiency and profitability
In the face of scarce headcount, finance automation can be the difference-maker for your organization's productivity. The best automation opens up information flow between teams, connects systems for richer insights, and serves everyone in your organization, not just your finance team. These are the principles behind the automation we’ve built at Ramp. Download the Forrester Consulting study to get the full set of insights on future-proofing your enterprise's finops.
“We’ve simplified our workflows while improving accuracy, and we are faster in closing with the help of automation. We could not have achieved this without the solutions Ramp brought to the table.”
Kaustubh Khandelwal
VP of Finance, Poshmark
“Our previous bill pay process probably took a good 10 hours per AP batch. Now it just takes a couple of minutes between getting an invoice entered, approved, and processed.”
Jason Hershey
VP of Finance and Accounting, Hospital Association of Oregon
“When looking for a procure-to-pay solution we wanted to make everyone’s life easier. We wanted a one-click type of solution, and that’s what we’ve achieved with Ramp.”
Mandy Mobley
Finance Invoice & Expense Coordinator, Crossings Community Church
“We no longer have to comb through expense records for the whole month — having everything in one spot has been really convenient. Ramp's made things more streamlined and easy for us to stay on top of. It's been a night and day difference.”
Fahem Islam
Accounting Associate, Snapdocs
“It's great to be able to park our operating cash in the Ramp Business Account where it earns an actual return and then also pay the bills from that account to maximize float.”
Mike Rizzo
Accounting Manager, MakeStickers
“The practice managers love Ramp, it allows them to keep some agency for paying practice expenses. They like that they can instantaneously attach receipts at the time of transaction, and that they can text back-and-forth with the automated system. We've gotten a lot of good feedback from users.”
Greg Finn
Director of FP&A, Align ENTA
“The reason I've been such a super fan of Ramp is the product velocity. Not only is it incredibly beneficial to the user, it’s also something that gives me confidence in your ability to continue to pull away from other products.”
Tyler Bliha
CEO, Abode
