Ebenezer Scrooge, from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," is one of the most famous literary characters of the holiday season. Known for his signature phrase - "Bah! Humbug!" - he has become closely associated with hostility toward Christmas in particular. Although Scrooge is very wealthy, he is skeptical of the holiday and unwilling to participate in its celebratory traditions.
In the story, Scrooge only becomes kinder after he is visited by several ghosts showing him scenes of Christmas past, present, and future. If Scrooge had lived a century and a half later, perhaps these apparitions could have also shown him the problems his miserly ways would have created if he hadn't implemented cloud accounting software.
Here are three ways Scrooge would have benefited from such a solution:
Scrooge infamously worked his clerk Bob Cratchit to the bone, forcing him to manage a vast money-lending business (Scrooge and Marley) by hand. This cruelty would have been avoidable if Scrooge had respected his workers more and given them powerful tools such as Intacct cloud financial software, which obviate the need for repetitive data entry.
Instead of producing redundant spreadsheets and risking a major error with each transaction, employees can use Intacct to take advantage of automated operations and create reports on the fly. Cratchit et al. would have had superior visibility into the finances of the entire firm. Accordingly, they would have been able to make more informed decisions, while also reducing their monthly close times.
Scrooge's money-lending business could have benefited from fewer manual processes.
The Christmastime situation at Scrooge's counting house is typical of Victorian England, in that it involved a vast amount of work assigned to workers who were ill-equipped to handle it. The overwork at Scrooge and Marley was also a symptom of Scrooge's inability to sufficiently invest in labor and technology as his business evolved.
"Cloud financial software is backed by scalable infrastructure as well as numerous straightforward integrations."
Cloud financial software is tailor-made for such scenarios. Backed by scalable infrastructure as well as numerous straightforward integrations with other applications designed for tasks such as customer relationship management, it can be customized and adjusted to support growth. The company can also avoid having to over-invest in IT resources or make itself vulnerable to costly upgrade cycles and maintenance – both highly appealing options to the cost-conscious Scrooge.
The Scrooge and Marley firm was the epitome of tedious manual accounting, with processes that left neither its management nor its workers happy, even during the holiday season. It is easy to see why no one was content: The drawn-out counting operations took a lot of time, could only be done in the office, and were prone to mistakes.
Software like Intacct addresses all of these issues. Secure remote access is available, along with crucial integrations with Salesforce for CRM. The web-based interface is easy to use by all members of the team, in addition to being accessible from multiple devices.
RKL can help your company capitalize on all the possibilities of cloud accounting and planning. Learn more about the steps to project success today and how RKL will work with you to realize your financial goals.