Good controllers are providing their accountants with the latest tech. But the great ones are getting them to actually use it

“It’s better to have less technology with a workforce that accepts it than to have the cutting edge of technology and resistant employees,” Mallory Barg Bulman, senior director, research in the Gartner Finance practice, said in a new report.

Take, for instance, accounting. Gartner Inc., a research and consulting firm, found that 18% of accountants make financial errors at least daily, with about a third making at least a few financial errors every week, and 59% making several per month.

The findings are based on a recent survey of 497 controllers who oversee a firm’s accounting operations. The errors were closely correlated with companies having to operate with smaller staffs as economic and regulatory pressures keep rising. To address staffing deficits, technology like automation is increasingly being implemented, but, according to Gartner, those gains have proved underwhelming.

Experts at the firm ran some tests with accounting teams and found that companies where technology is more readily accepted saw a 75% reduction in financial errors, according to the report. So is it fair to blame some firms’ mistakes simply on a lack of employee engagement? I reached out to Bulman to find out more. 

“Employee engagement is directly tied to the trust employees have in their manager and work environment,” Bulman told me. She shared “critical steps” for controllers as they automate the work of their teams: 

—Highlight how technological tools will positively affect accountants’ day-to-day work. “Accountants instinctively understand technology’s potential to disrupt their job, and downplaying possible workplace changes will likely build skepticism rather than acceptance,” Bulman said.

—Ensure that the technology made available “meets a minimum threshold” for acceptance. “New technology must allow accountants to access the data they need and minimize the time they need to switch tools or views to achieve necessary tasks,” she said.

—Listen to accountants at critical decision points so employees have opportunities to influence decisions. “Controllers often ask for employee feedback too late to meaningfully inform decisions,” Bulman explained. “At the other end of the spectrum, controllers may include too many people involved across too many stages, slowing decision-making and causing opinion overload.”

How are you preparing your teams for new technology? Send me an email.

Sheryl Estrada
[email protected]

Leaderboard

Ajay Gopal was named  CFO at the luxury reseller TheRealReal (Nasdaq: REAL), effective March 18.  Gopal currently serves as CFO of Outside Interactive, and previously served as CFO at Good Eggs, Helix, and StubHub. He has also held senior leadership positions in finance at eBay and GE Healthcare.

José Molina will leave his position as CFO from the Spanish Broadcast System (SBS), one of the largest media companies specializing in Spanish radio stations.  Molina returned to SBS in January 2019 as CFO. He first joined the company in 2001 as director of finance and advanced to senior VP of finance. He left SBS in 2015 to join MundoMax Broadcasting as CFO. Molina reportedly resigned almost two weeks ago, according to Inside Radio. 

Big deal

More than half of U.S. Workers (53%) feel their paychecks are not keeping up with the pace of inflation, according to a new American Staffing Association (ASA) Workforce Monitor study. Just 47% of U.S. Workers do think their paycheck is keeping up with the current rate of inflation.

The research also found that 38% percent of U.S. Adults said their overall financial situation is more stressful than it was 12 months ago. “The data may project a soft landing for the economy, but the bank accounts of America’s workers are telling a different story,” Richard Wahlquist, chief executive officer at the American Staffing Association, said in a statement.

 The findings are based on a Harris Poll, on behalf of ASA, 2,094 adults ages 18 and older.

Going deeper

"How I worked my way to the top in the 200-year-old, male-dominated cruise industry–and brought other women on board," is a new Coins2Day opinion piece by Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, the vice chairman of external affairs at Royal Caribbean Group and the former president and CEO of Celebrity Cruises.

Lutoff-Perlo writes: "I took the helm of Celebrity Cruises in December 2014, 30 years after I started in the company as a sales rep. So much had changed in the cruise industry and our company over that 30-year period. New and innovative ships, explosive growth, and tens of millions more consumers opting for cruise vacations. But one thing hadn’t really changed in all that time: the gender imbalance in the key operations and leadership roles on board ships. Especially on our bridges–where the captain steers the ship. And it was my mission to change it."

Overheard

“Bertie understands the power—for good or bad—of incentives, the weaknesses of humans, the ‘tells’ that can be recognized when observing human behavior. She knows who is ‘selling’ and who can be trusted. In short, she is nobody’s fool.”

—Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett writes about his younger sister, Bertie Buffett, in his annual letter to shareholders.  Buffett wrote of his sister’s thinking, emphasizing that financial pundits are often motivated by greed, rather than a genuine love of helping others. "For Buffett, Bertie is the 'perfect mental model' of the intelligent, thoughtful, but somewhat risk-averse Berkshire shareholder—and he is always trying to provide advice, and invest capital, with her in mind," Coins2Day's Will Daniel writes in an article detailing Buffett's letter.