Digitize your bookkeeping: Goodbye to paperwork and wasted time! 

Let's be honest: you have to be born for accounting. Of course, many things can be learned, but ideally you will naturally enjoy this work and have the necessary eye for detail if accounting and tax consultancy are your professional home. However, there are a few annoying time wasters that can really spoil your enjoyment of the work. 

Missing receipts and a lack of overview of open items are just two of many examples of how you spend your valuable working time trying to get to grips with paperwork. Let's not even start with overflowing filing cabinets.

In the digital age, this should actually be better, more time-saving and more efficient, right? After all, digitization is also reaching accountants. But what potential does digitizing accounting actually hold? We answer this very question in this article.

What does digitization mean in accounting?

Digitalization in accounting means, first of all, that all business transactions such as outgoing and incoming invoices, purchases or wage payments are digitalized and therefore paperless. The same applies to communication and correspondence relating to accounting: these should also be digitized in a meaningful and structured way.

How does digital accounting work?

Digital accounting documents business transactions without gaps or paper. Own invoices, for example, are created and sent purely digitally, while incoming payment requests and receipts are digitized if necessary. When it comes to archiving, the GoBD, the principles for keeping and storing books, records and documents in electronic form and for data access, are relevant. 

Tax consultants & accountants: digitization brings advantages & disadvantages - this is the bottom line

As a tax consultant or accountant, you may be wondering whether the effort involved in digitized accounting is really worth it. We can tell you this much at this point: It's not all that complicated to introduce digital bookkeeping if you approach the topic in a structured and well thought-out way. And after this first small hurdle, you will save time and effort anyway - thanks to digitization.

Our most important tip: When introducing digital tax advice, think about how your work processes run from start to finish. Only then will you recognize which adjustments you need to make and how you can exploit the digitization potential. In addition to the usual software for digitizing accounting, we recommend a holistic solution, e.g. in the form of a collaboration suite.

Digitize accounting & benefit from advantages 

First of all, we would like to present the positive results of digital financial accounting:

• Structured filing: In a well-thought-out filing system, you and your team members can navigate securely through digital accounting and access the right documents. A collaboration suite such as IURIO offers you the option of creating and archiving project-related workspaces. Then what belongs together stays together.
• Tagging: The meaningful tagging of files with so-called tags helps you to make files and documents easy to find. For example, if a file has the tag "JA" for annual financial statements, it is marked thematically and will always be displayed when you search for the tag "JA". 
• Efficient communication: How much of your working time do you spend answering your clients' questions by email? Not to mention the annoying ringing of the phone. With a chat function, you can shorten email chains by around 90 percent and save yourself and your team calls that interrupt concentrated work processes.  
• Reminder function: Your Collaboration Suite keeps an eye on deadlines, dates and missing documents so that you can keep your head clear. If work steps are due, IURIO automatically reminds the person responsible. Missing documents are also automatically reminded to your clients - saving you time and allowing you to concentrate on your core business instead of paperwork.
• Secure data exchange: Data exchange and data transfer are secure if they are not sent as email attachments - keyword GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)! With a Collaboration Suite, you are on the safe side thanks to Data Safe.
• Open items: IURIO helps you to keep track of debits and credits. As the Collaboration Suite sends reminders for missing documents, keeping a clean OPOS list is made much easier.

Disadvantages of digital accounting at a glance 

In addition to the numerous advantages, there are also some potential critical points when you digitize your accounting. We'll show you what you need to look out for:

• Get everyone on board: Your team wants to be picked up and taken along, not overrun. If you want to use digital accounting, ensure thorough onboarding and communicate the benefits (see above) clearly and unambiguously.
• Convincing clients: Experience has shown that this supposed disadvantage causes tax consultants unnecessary stomach aches. With the majority of your clients, digital accounting will open doors for you. Most people today expect digitalized financial services, and others will quickly be convinced of the benefits. 
• Isolated solutions: When it comes to digital accounting, it is important that you don't back the wrong horses. Small digital partial solutions for individual work steps often appear to make everyday work easier - at first. However, as these are ultimately not properly integrated into your work processes, their scope is limited and they create more work than they avoid.

As you can see: The bottom line is that you have far more items on the credit side - so the advantages of digital accounting clearly outweigh the disadvantages. Sounds like a good balance sheet!

Paperless accounting: How can I digitize my accounting?

Digital accounting doesn't necessarily have to start with months of scanning your paper files. To get to grips with the topic, you could start tomorrow by consistently shifting new processes to digital. 

We give you a step-by-step guide to breaking down even seemingly large chunks such as paperless accounting into easily digestible chunks: 

1. Get an overview: Which projects are starting soon and can be digitized directly? What can you digitize with reasonable effort? Think in terms of workflows so that you don't end up with countless isolated digital solutions.
2. Getting your team on board: Do you need to do some convincing here first, or are you knocking down open doors? Be sure to consider the mindset of your employees when it comes to digital accounting and the like!
3. Take your clients with you: They too should hear the right arguments so that they can take the step towards digital accounting with ease. More and more intensive advice will also convince them.
4. Rethinking collaboration: Think about where and when digitalization can be helpful for collaboration. As a collaboration suite, IURIO brings workflows into flow instead of remaining stuck in functions. This gives you valuable time for consulting, takes the pressure off your team and is easy on your nerves.
5. Question communication: You don't have to call or email about every little thing. Instead, take stock of how much time you could save with more efficient communication.
6. Data transfer: What really still needs to be in paper form and which paper tigers can be accommodated in digital form? Question traditional accounting patterns - after all, you no longer work with a slide rule.
7. Get started!

How-to digital accounting: answers to the most frequently asked questions from our clients

As our short guide shows you, digitizing accounting doesn't have to be a mammoth task. As lawyers who have developed a collaboration suite for tax advisors, auditors and lawyers, we know the workflows in your sector inside out. We know the challenges you face and answer the most frequently asked questions below. 

How can I digitize receipts and ensure that I can find them again?

Even if you still receive receipts and invoices in paper form, you can scan them. However, to ensure that the digital files can also be found, it is essential that they are properly indexed! We recommend that you use software that allows you to clearly assign each document to a process or topic over the course of a day - e.g. "P&L" for profit and loss account or "YES" for the annual financial statements.

How can I store receipts and make them available to everyone involved?

Nothing is more annoying than untraceable documents while a team member is absent. You can prevent this by summarizing and archiving processes by topic. With the right collaboration suite, you and your employees can also access the file you are looking for from your home office. Once again, the tags will help you - thanks to meaningful and intuitively understandable keywording, there is no need to ask.

What does the GoBD have to do with paperless accounting?

Whether in digital form or in a file folder: the GoBD sets the tone. The catchy combination of letters is the abbreviation for "Principles for the proper keeping of books, records and documents in electronic form and for data access". 

Proper and, above all, complete accounting is just as important in the digital world as it is in the analog world. When selecting your software, it is therefore essential that you pay attention to GDPR security and GoBD-compliant long-term storage so that you can access transactions even years later. 

How can I optimize my workflows and save time with digital accounting?

This is where the advantages of the paperless office and structured digital filing come into play. All authorized persons can access the required documents digitally. Supplemented by digital project management, all responsibilities and competencies are also clear.

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You should also ensure that processes are logical and well thought out, which should be reflected in the highest possible degree of automation, for example when requesting missing documents. Anything you and your team don't have to do manually will save you time!

Is digital accounting mandatory?

No, digital accounting is an option, not a requirement. However, if you want to move with the times and take work and collaboration to a new level, we strongly advise you to do so. With IURIO, you can rely on a collaboration suite and tax advisor platform that makes the transition easy for you. Calculators instead of slide rules is the slogan for a modern employer image. 

Positive balance: Why digitizing your accounting is worthwhile for you

As you can see, digital bookkeeping can be the magic wand to get time wasters and paperwork under control. However, it is important to think holistically and not to view paperless accounting in isolation. Rather, it should be sensibly integrated into the context of your work processes so that it is a worthwhile endeavor at the end of the day. 

Digitizing your accounting is not rocket science. With the right tools, many things work like magic and time wasters become small tasks that your software handles with ease. Would you like to know what contribution a collaboration suite can make to digitizing your accounting? We'd be happy to show you - get in touch with us!

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