Accounting Leaders Lack Efficient Technology for Rising Business Demands
Many revenue teams are being asked to aid business transformation alongside their daily duties, but don’t feel like they have the right tools.
A company’s integration of technology can be a deciding factor in whether employees stick around. It can also, of course, impact performance. New data suggests accounting teams may be falling by the wayside as their companies push for greater technology integration and growth.
Zuora, a recurring revenue software provider, recently surveyed more than 500 accounting and finance leaders for their 2023 state of revenue accounting report. Almost 7 in 10 surveyed (68%) said they don’t have the right technology to address the growing demands from their counterparts in sales, marketing, operations, and other departments.
Pressures Increasing
Data shows that many accounting teams, already slowed by the industry talent shortage, feel they can’t keep up with the pace of their workflows. Over three-quarters (76%) of all respondents said they are experiencing increasing pressure from their business to support new go-to-market models and product pricing. An identical percentage said these new models are growing in complexity.
While the pressures affect workflows, accounting teams said the biggest thing holding them back was technology. More specifically, just under three quarters (74%) said that although they believe their teams need to focus more on analytics and business partnering, a lack of automation prevents that.
The Case for Automation
Whether they are bogged down by manual processes, trying to free up time for growing business needs, or trying to lessen workloads, most accounting teams are pushing for more automation. Over half (53%) of finance and accounting leaders said the lack of automation is hurting their productivity because they waste time on manual, repetitive tasks. Seventy-four percent said their team must perform manual interventions on a daily basis to process transactions.
