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Article Dean Dorton

There are two ways to think about the digital data pouring into today’s organizations.

First, as an opportunity. The quantity and quality of data now available, along with powerful analytics capabilities, allows us to answer questions that have always been a mystery and forecast the future with remarkable accuracy. With data, organizations can know and do things that seemed utterly impossible just a few decades ago.

Second, as an obligation. As more and more organizations start using data to their advantage, the ones that don’t will become less competitive as a result. They will miss out on opportunities to grow more productive, efficient, innovative, and effective overall, which will make it harder and eventually impossible to remain relevant, even in industries not typically associated with “tech.”

Both these ways of thinking about data make one thing clear: priority number one for all organizations needs to be turning the information they have into the informed decisions they need. The burning question is how?

Say Goodbye to Spreadsheets for Housing Data

The core concept of spreadsheets (a grid of information) is centuries old, and the digital equivalent (Excel or otherwise) has been around for over 50 years. Spreadsheets have been one of the most important business tools of all time, and they remain as ubiquitous as ever…for now.

The era of spreadsheets is coming to a close as companies develop new expectations for data. Why? Because working with spreadsheets requires copious amounts of manual data entry. In most cases, numbers must be entered, organized, and analyzed all by hand. Various spreadsheet tools can automate parts of these processes, but not everything, and not at high speed or large scale. Consequently, people have to spend hours or days working inside of spreadsheets just to turn modest amounts of data into limited insights. And if the data is wrong due to typos or the sheets break as they grow larger, the insights may not be trustworthy or even accessible.

In that way, spreadsheets are an obstacle to data-driven decision making. Instead of relying on the wrong tool any longer, organizations need to switch to something better. The future depends on it.

Sage Intacct – More than Just Accounting Software

Sage Intacct is a comprehensive financial management platform with many powerful and industry-specific features. More than just an accounting tool, however, it’s the engine of organizations that run on data.

Across the platform, Sage Intacct uses automation to collect, store, organize, analyze, and distribute data to stakeholders inside and outside the accounting department. The weaknesses of spreadsheets are the strengths of Sage Intacct. So not only can decision makers find the insights they need faster, more reliably, and with less input; they can also probe deeper into information to know the unknowable.

If priority number one is turning data into informed decisions, the first step is to take a closer look at Sage Intacct. Contact Dean Dorton about a demonstration or consultation.

Philip Massey,
Software Services Director
pmassey@ddaftech.com • 919.796.5408

Article Dean Dorton

Technology has taken accounting to new heights, but the most exciting advancements and trends are yet to come. We will see the emergence of some game-changing financial innovations in 2022 that, by all predictions, will have a deep and lasting impact on business as we know it. Here are some trends to keep on your radar in the next 12 months.

  • Automation – As a discipline that relies on many recurring, predictable processes, accounting is ripe for automation. Smarter AI makes it possible to automate more of the work that accountants traditionally spend hours on each month. Expect more accounting departments to leverage various forms of automation in 2022, and for early adopters to find new and novel uses for it. This year could be the tipping point when the fundamentals of accounting start running on autopilot.
  • Platforms – Financial management tools work significantly better when they work together, sharing features and data as seamlessly as possible. That will compel many accounting leaders to abandon older, outdated, disconnected software in favor of comprehensive financial management platforms that handle everything under one umbrella. It’s clear to all that technology can be an asset or a liability. Getting on the right side of that equation will be a major priority this year.
  • Cloud – The Covid-19 pandemic emphasized the need for anywhere, anytime access to everything a team uses at work. The cloud excels in terms of accessibility. But it also helps keep costs and IT complexity in check at a time when both are accelerating fast. Late adopters will start their cloud migration soon, while everyone else will continue their migration, especially if their financial management system (and all data) doesn’t already live there.
  • Analytics – Collecting and then analyzing data is helping accountants and decision makers of all stripes answer previously impossible questions. Analytics will henceforth play a much bigger role in accounting as it becomes easier to collect data on a massive scale and explore the insights inside without needing specialized training. Alternatively, analytics is now becoming an obligation as companies leverage data to gain competitive advantages.
  • Blockchain – Though still in its infancy, blockchain technology has huge implications for accounting. This distributed ledger technology could lead to greater efficiency, transparency, and trust on a massive scale. Expect to see wider blockchain adoption in the near future as this technology migrates from the largest firms down to the rest of the accounting industry.
  • Culture – Attitudes are changing around accounting. Financial professionals are transitioning from number crunchers to strategic partners. And they are replacing spreadsheets with smart, dynamic upgrades. Throw in the X-factor of the pandemic, and it’s all but inevitable that accounting departments will undergo a deep culture shift over the short-term. This year is a great time to start.

How well is your organization prepared for these trends? Don’t rush to select the wrong kinds of upgrades. And don’t resist new tools either. Rely on Dean Dorton: An accounting technology partner that can help you accomplish big things in 2022. Use accounting to your advantage in the year ahead – Contact us.

Philip Massey,
Software Services Director
pmassey@ddaftech.com • 919.796.5408

Article Dean Dorton

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a fascinating conversation about the future of work, automation, and the end of the traditional office. It seems all but certain that remote work will play a bigger role than before. Most see this as either inevitable or obligatory. What often gets overlooked, however, is that remote work comes with many advantages, too – and not just because you can skip the commute.

The same technologies that make remote work possible also make the work that remote employees perform superior in almost every way. The cloud, for example, gives people anywhere, anytime access to data and business tools. But cloud-based software also comes with stronger, smarter, and faster features that improve upon existing workflows. So by shifting to remote work, companies don’t just get more flexible, they get more efficient and productive as well. This blog will highlight how.

Automation: The New Accounting Standard

Accounting is a time- and labor-intensive process requiring excellent attention to detail. The average accountant spends a large part of her career moving around numbers and cross-checking figures. It’s not the most interesting part of the job. However, keeping the data in order is vital for maintaining an accurate, updated, in-depth financial record.

Not anymore. Automated accounting and finance promises to revolutionize how companies manage their money. Key processes can go on autopilot so they complete fast, accurately, and with little to no input from accountants. It doesn’t matter where an accountant works from because they aren’t the one’s dealing with mountains of financial data – the technology does that and delivers remote accountants the finished product. In that way, remote accountants aren’t just working in new locations; they’re working in new ways and, thanks to automation, accomplishing much more in the process.

Key Benefits of Automation in Finance

Automation has many positive impacts on accounting:

  • Save Time – Automation can close the books (and more) in a matter of minutes, condensing a process that typically takes accountants hours or days to do manually into one that completes almost instantly.
  • Prevent Errors – There’s no risk of typos, omissions, or other errors when automation is moving data and running calculations instead of accountants doing it by hand. The financial record improves both immediately and immensely.
  • Focus Elsewhere – With automation handling key duties and answering deep questions, accountants can spend their time on high-level financial planning and analysis rather than routine data management.
  • Pivot Fast – Accountants can rely on automation to supply the insights and time they need to pivot a company when financial circumstances change unexpectedly. With automation comes flexibility.

These benefits clearly make it easier to work from anywhere. But they also illustrate how the shift to remote work makes companies better equipped for everything the present and future has in store. If you’re ready to embrace automated accounting and optimize remote work along the way, contact Dean Dorton to put a plan in action.

Philip Massey,
Software Services Director
pmassey@ddaftech.com • 919.796.5408

Article Dean Dorton

Success In Today’s Healthcare Industry Takes Great Accounting

Today’s healthcare industry faces numerous challenges, from the ongoing pandemic to sudden staffing shortages to declining revenues. And beyond these immediate forces, the healthcare industry as a whole is undergoing a transformation driven by things like technology, legislation, and consumer demand. So much changing all at once makes successes harder to sustain, even for providers and practitioners that have been secure in the past. An industry in flux will create new winners and losers. The question is how to stay on the winning side?

The Increasing Importance of Healthcare Accounting

Accounting is becoming increasingly important (and challenging) for everyone in healthcare. The economic disruption caused by the pandemic can’t be overstated. And while many providers have seen revenues fall, others have seen them surge, and in all cases they have defied expectations. Exceptional financial management becomes vital when costs and revenues continue to be unpredictable and forecasting of any kind feels unreliable.

Important as accounting may be, it comes with some significant challenges over and above those caused by Covid. There are massive compliance obligations at major hospitals, small medical offices, and everyone in between to keep data complete, secure, and transparent – and anything less leads to huge penalties. Keeping compliant while conducting accounting not just successfully but strategically becomes harder for anyone with multiple locations or multiple-entities of any kind. Other factors like staff turnover and manual processes only add to the hurdles of healthcare accounting.

It’s an overstatement to say that accounting determines success or failure in today’s (and tomorrow’s) healthcare industry. That said, every success will excel at accounting.

Effective Healthcare Accounting – 2 Key Components

More than just “getting good” at accounting, providers of all kinds will need to emphasize two key components. They help navigate turbulent, transformational times while being largely immune to staff and budget changes. Get these right:

  • Processes – The right accounting processes, policies, and procedures ensure that accounting meets the highest standards no matter who is conducting it or what’s happening around it. Clear and comprehensive policies will be important for keeping accounting compliant, efficient, and strategic even as the broader organization undergoes change. Policies will also keep accounting updated, integrated, and organized so that decision makers have the best financial insights available.
  • Tools – The right accounting software equips healthcare accountants with tools tailored to the challenges and opportunities of the present. More than a basic accounting toolkit, it has features relevant to the healthcare industry specifically and capabilities appropriate for any organization with mature financial responsibilities. Automation saves time, data integration extends visibility, and powerful analytics answer the unknown. This may mean replacing the outdated, under-powered, or irrelevant software in place right now.

Even knowing what needs to be done, improving accounting processes and tools won’t be easy for healthcare accountants with few resources to spare right now. That’s where Dean Dorton comes in. Our team includes experts in healthcare accounting, finance, and technology, any or all of whom can help healthcare providers take their accounting to where it needs to be – and beyond. Contact us.

Philip Massey,
Software Services Director
pmassey@ddaftech.com • 919.796.5408

Article Dean Dorton

The line between finance and IT gets blurrier by the day. What’s crystal clear, however, is that accounting and finance departments require tech like never before. Everything from routine accounting to strategic finance runs better with technology – and runs worse without it.

Which puts a lot of pressure on the tech stack to perform. No single solution is a panacea. The combination of tools and capabilities encompassed by the tech stack determines, to a large extent, the effectiveness of the professionals who depend on it. It can be an asset that generates insights, sparks innovation, and multiplies productivity. Or it can be an obstacle that causes errors, uncertainty, and inefficiency.

For CFOs and the teams they lead, fine-tuning the tech stack is perhaps the single biggest priority right now. No two tech stacks will look exactly alike because it’s crucial to customize the contents based on the needs of users. That said, there are best practices everyone should follow:

  • Digitize everything – A tech stack is meant to address all the work done by accounting and finance departments, all under one umbrella. Any process or paperwork that hasn’t been digitized yet is overdue for an upgrade.
  • Automate extensively – The speed and scale of modern finance makes it imperative to remove manual-processes from the equation. Look for ways to automate how data gets recorded, integrated, and analyzed. The tech stack should do the heavy lifting of data management.
  • Minimize Excel – Spreadsheets will always be a part of accounting, but Excel should never be the centerpiece of the tech stack. Work to move anything that relies entirely or partially on Excel into a system that’s both technologically superior and equipped for high-level accounting and finance.
  • Expand capabilities – The tech stack shouldn’t replicate the status quo in digital form. Rather, it should improve and expand upon existing capabilities, empowering accountants to do things they couldn’t do before.
  • Think strategically – A tech stack should reflect the strategic priorities of the accounting and finance department, and, by extension, the company as a whole. Select pieces to add or subtract based on how they contribute to strategic objectives.
  • Pick a platform – The term tech stack implies verticality, but it’s better to think horizontally. Instead of stacking tools on top of one another, look for solutions that integrate the widest number of capabilities onto a single platform, becoming the “hub” for all things accounting and finance.
  • Choose confidently – Fine-tuning the tech stack isn’t the same as tinkering. There can be real consequences for adding the wrong tools to the mix. Therefore, it’s vital to feel confident that any addition will make an impact that’s immediate, lasting, significant, and quantifiable.

One final best practice: Partner up. Even when following best practices, perfecting a tech stack isn’t easy without abundant experience and expertise – exactly what the team at Dean Dorton is here to provide. Contact us to get your tech stack right.

Justin Hubbard, CPA, CGMA | Accounting and Financial Outsourcing Director
jhubbard@deandortonstg.wpenginepowered.com
859.425.7604

Article Dean Dorton

The Covid-19 pandemic challenged every assumption in healthcare. Systems that were supposed to be redundant and resilient were pushed to the breaking point and beyond. Problems that seem unthinkable became realities, one after another after another. No matter how the pandemic affected a healthcare provider, all of them think differently in the wake of it.

We can expect swift and sweeping changes as a result. Preventing a repeat of recent events will be the industry’s top priority. Every facet of healthcare will respond to this mandate in their own way, but none will ignore it. Continuing with the status quo represents too great a risk.

What will the new normal look like? Expect outsourcing to play a much greater role, especially in healthcare accounting and finance.

Why Outsourcing Make the Most Sense
Without receiving much notice, healthcare accounting teams were some of the hardest hit during the pandemic. They had to deal with a financial crisis that appeared out of nowhere while adapting to sudden remote work requirements and unpredictable staff shortages. Arguably, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Most teams adapted admirably and kept their organizations afloat through unprecedented difficulties. Nonetheless, it’s clear that most teams aren’t equipped for the next pandemic in terms of staff, technology, visibility, or expertise. Complicating matters even more, adding these missing pieces requires time, money, and other resources that are in short supply right now.

Outsourcing offers a shortcut between what healthcare accounting teams have and what they need. Outsourcing partners can introduce cloud-based accounting systems that facilitate remote work. They can step up to handle routine accounting obligations whenever necessary or deliver specialized financial insights on demand. They can also free up the in-house accounting team to focus on urgent objectives or long-term initiatives.

The new normal calls for healthcare accounting teams to be agile, informed, and robust. Building out those capabilities in-house involves a huge cost and a complicated, time-intensive effort. But not with outsourcing. Any healthcare accounting team plus the right outsourcing partner equals an elite unit prepared for whatever the future holds, good, bad, or unexpected.

Healthcare Accounting After Outsourcing
The greatest argument for outsourcing, especially under the present circumstances, is that it insulates accounting teams from uncertainty. Teams have whatever resources they need to keep the financial situation stable in the midst of chaos. They run on technology that makes powerful capabilities and the entirety of financial data available from anywhere. And they have a partner to consult with on the most complicated and critical financial questions of the day.

A tidal wave of change was already headed towards the healthcare industry before the pandemic started. Outsourcing increasingly looks like the best – even only – way to say ahead of this transformation. Prepare for the new normal sooner rather than later by contacting Dean Dorton.

Justin Hubbard, CPA, CGMA | Accounting and Financial Outsourcing Director
jhubbard@deandortonstg.wpenginepowered.com
859.425.7604