Automation: Streamlining payroll, invoicing, inventory management and more

For decades, technology has been transforming industries — but perhaps never faster than right now. From artificial intelligence and generative technologies like ChatGPT through to a cornucopia of automation solutions, business owners are in the best position to supercharge their operations.

For SMEs in sectors like retail, manufacturing, construction, wholesale and more, integrating automation tools can lead to huge efficiency gains across payroll, invoicing and inventory management. Here’s how.

Leveraging automation for your financial planning

Many owners are already reaping the rewards of AI-powered automation in their financial operations. And according to Bruno Baptistella, senior product manager at MYOB, it’s giving them a jumpstart on the competition.

“There are three areas in particular where automation products can help owners better plan ahead financially,” he says. “There’s the productivity cost, where business owners waste valuable time duplicating tasks, manually entering data or fixing errors after transferring information between systems.

“There’s the strategic cost, where owners have limited visibility across the business, meaning decisions are made without a clear picture of the organisation’s current status. And then there’s the monetary cost, where automation is now able to eliminate human-prone errors and reduce the time that’s usually wasted on addressing them — which could be something as small as paying an employee incorrectly, to a large mistake that costs you a client.”

Small changes lead to big efficiency gains

Beyond the sheer power and potential of automation technologies, digitising your payroll, invoicing and inventory management processes can instantly streamline your operations.

“Good digitisation can improve business efficiencies with a deeply integrated and seamless experience — one that creates value for your business through simplified and connected workflows,” Baptistella says.

“It’s when the work just happens — there’s no start and stop, no do-over and do-again. The technology almost goes unnoticed because it just does its job and, crucially, adds value to the business.”

How exactly can it lead to efficiency gains? Baptistella says platforms like MYOB can help with:

• Payroll: “Payroll isn’t always easy,” he says. “In fact it’s often a burden for most small business. MYOB helps to automate most of it, giving owners more time to focus on running their business.”
• Invoicing: “Ultimately, it’s all about getting paid faster! How can you speed up your whole sales process – from quoting to invoicing? We’ve seen that business that have enabled online payments can get paid up to three times faster.”
• Inventory: “Digitising your inventory management can improve your visibility across what is and isn’t in stock, as well as the product mix itself. By that I mean you can accurately know the cost, and therefore the margin, of every product you sell – as well as the volume of sales.”

The core advantages of digitising your financial processes are that it helps your business become more profitable, it empowers more informed, data-driven decision-making, and it can even adapt in tandem with your business to help it grow and scale.

Embrace automation solutions today or risk falling behind

It’s an exciting time — albeit trepidatious for some — in terms of how technology is transforming industries. Baptistella advises business owners to not stick their heads in the sand when it comes to AI and automation. On the contrary, now is the time to adapt or risk a slow demise.

“AI is here to stay, and it will impact how we do work,” he says. “For any labour-intensive tasks associated with running a business, most will be somewhat — if not completely — automated. This will translate to a reduction of costs while improving efficiency and accuracy.”

Take inventory management as an example. AI algorithms can already analyse historical data in conjunction with market trends and other macro-economic factors, providing an accurate demand forecast. This level of accuracy is something the human mind simply cannot achieve, especially at the speed AI can output it. The result for owners is more optimised inventory levels with more efficient supply chain management, reducing – and potentially even eliminating – stockouts and overstocking, as well as their associated costs.

Baptistella says that business owners who haven’t already started integrating automation tools into their operations, particularly around inventory management and payroll, are missing out.

“Business already automating their work have a tremendous competitor advantage,” he says. “Digitisation is now critical to the success of businesses of all sizes, from sole operators to larger enterprises. Research has shown that SMEs with advanced levels of digitisation are 50% more likely to grow revenue, eight times more likely to create jobs and seven times more likely to scale.”

And those figures will only increase in the years to come.

MYOB helps businesses power through admin with a business management platform that is designed to save time. MYOB Business enables businesses to deal with customers, supply chain, accounting, tax, employees, finances and projects; all on a simple cloud-based solution. Find out more about MYOB Business here. 

Read now: How automation can help your business thrive in 2023 and beyond