Improve Your Work Flow: Automate

By Ronald D. Kranzler, CPA, and Stephen Barrett, CPA, CITP
April 20, 2006
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After obtaining assistance from an external source, Kiesling enjoyed substantial efficiency improvements in the financial statement report process. If the firm had to do it over again, though, it would do things differently.

“I think there is so much value in hiring someone who has done it themselves and really knows the software and how to best implement it in practice,” Harms advised. “We tried to do it all ourselves and experienced a lot of dead ends.”

As for the implementation of automation within your firm, expect to use the same steps required in the adoption of any other new technology. Assemble an “early adopters” team to learn and champion the new efforts. Then, launch a pilot program, allowing certain staff to use the automation technology in a live setting before a firm-wide release. This test launch allows programmers to find any flaws and iron out any bugs that could cause user frustration down the road.

Keep in mind the process of adopting automation technology is a long and tedious one. However, the resulting benefits should provide early return on your investment while setting up the firm to be highly efficient for the future.

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