These are the five digital transformation trends to look out for in 2024 and beyond.

1. More widespread digital adoption: Early adopters of cloud-based technology are now reaping the benefits, and others will have little choice but to follow suit to stay competitive.

2. The end of reporting cycles: With technology adoption and digital transformation accelerating – paired with the ability to access live data and insights – finance teams may decide to forgo traditional reporting cycles altogether. After all, why wait for a report when you can access the information on demand?

3. More focus on insights and services: As automation streamlines basic administrative tasks, such as the workforce will be able to focus their resources on providing financial advice and consultancy to their clients, opening up a whole new potential profit stream.

4. Data and insights remain key: Digital transformation can only deliver advantages if the information available is clean and accurate. For businesses that are currently struggling to manage their data, it can raise a whole range of complications. Investing in quality digital solutions and industry expertise to clean up existing data and continuously maintain data integrity, will be key to leveraging any of the benefits promised by digital transformation.

5. The finance workforce will shift: While not necessarily a direct result of the COVID pandemic, those working in finance teams have shifted to new ways of working. As a result, customer service, flexibility, and collaboration skills will be in greater demand and finance professionals must be prepared to develop in their careers.

How digital transformation can improve your finance operations

Deploying technology for its own sake is rarely useful. However, when implemented correctly, the right finance technologies can improve and streamline your processes and move to reduce duplication and complications. While there are a whole range of benefits with digital transformation, here are just a few to get you thinking:

Providing strategic analysis

When finance professionals have the right tools and necessary capabilities, they can quickly understand and predict market trends. For financial management, the digital transformation path to follow should be as little of a gamble as possible.

With world-class financial management software – be it accounting solutions or cloud-based software – data generated throughout the business can be collected and analysed to create powerful reports and actionable insights that help identify issues and opportunities. Some software solutions even allow for insights to be displayed in real-time to help management make effective decisions in the moment.

Automating operational processes

Digital transformation via automation has sometimes been positioned as the enemy to finance teams, with claims that it’ll take away jobs in the finance and accounting sectors. This isn’t correct as using technology can help do away with tedious, repetitive, and inefficient manual tasks – a critical need that is essential for businesses to free up finance teams to focus their time and skills on more complex and commercially significant activities.

Supporting the wellbeing of your workforce

Digital transformation throughout the business, and the visibility that it offers, means that its benefits stretch beyond core accountancy functionality. Particularly in terms of staff wellbeing, as it allows human resources (HR) and admin teams to monitor working patterns of teams to provide support when needed. This can include how long projects are taking and what resources are needed. In today’s more enlightened workplaces, avoiding employee burnout is key to keeping a business’ efficiency and productivity at its peak.

Seamless updates and lower capital investment

Thanks to cloud technology, instant and ongoing updates to security and functions mean finance teams operate with the latest protective measures at all times. By comparison, more traditional systems can only be updated at specific intervals, if at all, and that leaves many security gaps and functionality issues unaddressed.