Accountants urged to skill up with data-driven accounting

BlackLine APAC vice president and general manager Todd Hunt said businesses increasingly rely on data to make decisions.

“Businesses use data generated and verified by accounting staff to know how they are performing, to manage operations, and to make key business decisions,” Mr Hunt said.

“With the accelerating pace of business today, accurate, up-to-date data is more essential than ever.”

Considering this, Mr Hunt emphasised the need for companies to ensure their accounting systems are up-to-date.

“It is imperative for companies to modernise their accounting functions to remain competitive,” Mr Hunt said.

“This begins by eliminating manual processes and digitising operations. Once done, accounting and finance executives need access to performance data to improve their processes.”

In turn, this has a positive impact on the accountants themselves.

“Visibility is even more critical when it comes to the financial close, to enable accountants to deliver process-optimising financial data that is still relevant to the company’s future, instead of creating a picture of the past,” Mr Hunt said.

“But with most accounting tasks still performed using spreadsheets and through manual processes, this simply isn’t happening.”