Guide to Continuous Accounting: A Smart Approach to Better, Faster Decision-Making

The standard accounting processes most organizations employ are based on practices developed hundreds of years ago, before the
Industrial Revolution, when the only tools that existed for balancing a merchant’s accounts were a quill pen and paper ledger. And just as then, today’s accounting professionals spend an inordinate amount of their time performing repetitive, manual tasks rather than looking for ways to improve financial performance.

While today software can complete many of these tasks faster and with greater accuracy, many finance and accounting leaders are hesitant to implement new technology, preferring instead to stick with processes and systems they are already familiar with. That’s unfortunate, because traditional approaches to managing the accounting cycle not only drive up costs and increase the risk of errors but also delay access to critical financial data.

Rather than maintaining the status quo, companies that want better, more timely financial insights must replace the traditional record-to-report process with a continuous accounting approach.