By Mike Skelly, Chief Financial Officer at AbacusNext

For finance professionals, remaining compliant is a crucial part of the job—and that pressure is only amplified by Brexit and its still-unknown economic impacts. Since the economic crash in 2008, the spotlight has been firmly placed on experts to ensure history does not repeat itself and to prevent another recession.

The financial workforce is feeling the burden of the growing complexities of compliance, which can sometimes lead to mistakes. Employees must spend inordinate amounts of time triple checking legally binding contracts, draining time and resources and reducing job satisfaction.

Data entry has been named the ‘most hated office task’ in research recently conducted by LinkedIn. Yet many professionals are still using manual processes for document creation, such as copying and pasting from old documents into the latest version, and then entering the new data. The problem with this method is that it creates opportunities for data entry mistakes, inconsistencies, and out-dated information accidentally remaining in the document.

Fortunately, automation technology can help lift this burden from your workforce.

Introducing automation

Document automation can significantly enhance productivity and support employees’ ever-growing workloads. By functioning as a template, with the user inputting all the data in an interview-like process, document automation tools generate a document that is consistent, accurate, and contains and all correct legally binding information.

For finance professionals, a wide range of documents can be created via document automation software, including:

• Loan applications
• Employee contacts
• Non-disclosure agreements

Here are the top three reasons why financial professionals should automate these repetitive document creation tasks whilst ensuring that contracts are watertight.

1. Ensures legislative accuracy

Laws in the current political climate are subject to change at a rapid pace. It’s increasingly difficult for finance specialists to stay ahead of the curve and up to date with the latest regulations.

Document automation software allows all documents to be updated from one central location. This means that any new laws and regulations that must be included in current documentation only need to be updated in one place for it to appear in any new documents going forward, saving time and improving accuracy.

2. Eliminates human error

Mistakes happen, but decreasing the amount of interactions humans have with a document eliminates the chance of human error.

When finance experts use manual processes such as copy and paste, it can lead to inconsistencies and omissions within a document. If this happens, a loan application could potentially be rejected, as it will be non-compliant. This could lead to intervention from the Financial Services Authority.

Switching to automation means consistency in the input information and minimal opportunities for mistakes to be entered.

3. Guarantees efficiency

Using this technology has been known to save companies up to 80% of the time they would usually spend on these kinds of documents.

Many document automation technologies have built-in proof reading capabilities. By cutting down the review process, automation can save the workforce time and brainpower that could be spent on other business critical tasks.

Implementing this technology can also help businesses distribute team resources more evenly. By standardising the document creation process, senior experts can delegate to junior team members with confidence that the work produced will be of the same quality.

Compliance tied up

By centralising regulations, standardising processes and documents across the company, finance specialists can navigate complex finance landscapes with ease and confidence that their documents are watertight and compliant.

The time and brainpower saved by integrating automation software into everyday tasks can completely transform the way in which finance experts practically do business. Employees can be confident that the documents created meet compliance standards without spending hours upon hours reviewing and proofreading. This in turn helps companies grow, by allowing the people at the heart of the business to concentrate on tasks that need more of a human touch such as client support, innovation and creativity.