Improve Your Work Flow: Automate

By Ronald D. Kranzler, CPA, and Stephen Barrett, CPA, CITP
April 20, 2006
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Don’t get confused — Automation isn’t about replacing staff with robots or replacing the value of a human’s intellect by using a one size fits all, fill-in-the-blank program. Automation is an extraordinary vehicle for streamlining inefficiencies by eliminating taxing redundancies like those mentioned above. In essence, automation will make life easier by minimizing human labor with mechanical or electronic machines or processes.

Put simply, automation is the Holy Grail of maximizing efficiencies.

What can be automated?
Automation does not mean the end of CPAs as we know them. A computerized process is never going to replace intellectual capital, especially in the field of accounting.

Automation will not decide the quality of the numbers used, nor will it say a single-year statement will be more beneficial for clients than a comparative statement. However, automation will allow collaboration with other partners to create a library of pre-edited footnotes, opinions, stylistic guidelines and other processing-related functions that can be drawn from as needed.

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