May 25, 2017

Forbes Finance Council ,  

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Execs in accounting, financial planning & wealth management share tips 

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Forbes Finance Council

Successful accounting, financial planning & wealth management executives from Forbes Finance Council share trends and tips.    

There's been a lot of talk about the use of automation and with good reason. The computer process allows for easier sorting and analysis of large sets of data, as well as handling everything from driving cars to basic customer interactions to company logistics. But what about the accounting industry? How can the ability to set automation to work on increasingly complex tasks help financial experts? Will this process be a sea change for the industry, or something more incremental?

Below, six members from the Forbes Finance Council talk about what they see coming in the next five years, ranging from easing the workloads of financial teams to giving business owners access to virtual CFOs.

1. Web-Based Coaches And Software Will Be The Future 

As technology drastically increases and older accountants hesitant to use these tools retire, we'll likely see software take a bigger role in this arena. For example, we'll probably see a trend of web-based coaches replace your brick-and-mortar accounting firms. - Justin Goodbread, Heritage Investors 

2. Finance Professionals Will Be More Strategic 

Today even great financial teams get bogged down in laborious manual activities: reconciliation, chasing A/R, managing cash application or cutting checks. The future is finance that auto-reconciles, contract and payment terms that auto-execute, AI routing cash applications, and smarter billing. These innovations will free up time for the finance team to be less stuck in the weeds and more strategic. - Jeremy Almond, PayStand 

3. Business Owners Will Have Access To Virtual CFO Services 

Business owners need financial data at their fingertips to run their firms effectively, but hiring a controller-level professional isn't always feasible. Virtual CFO services will leverage online finance tools to seamlessly integrate payroll, billing, financial statements, financing and more at a fraction of the cost of traditional CPA firms, freeing business owners to do what they do best. - Erik Christman, Oxford Financial Partners