Multitasking is a staple of virtually all job postings, and a word that often comes up when talking about the process of switching between applications on a PC, smartphone or tablet. It may be part of everyone's vocabulary today (not to mention a key selling point of devices such as the iPad Pro), but what does it really mean to "multitask"?
The ability of a person to effectively focus on two things at once is widely disputed. Speaking to National Public Radio's Ira Flatow a few years ago, Stanford psychology professor Clifford Nass explained that constantly trying to take on more than one task is a recipe for distraction.
"People who multitask all the time can't filter out irrelevancy," Nass told Flatow. "They can't manage a working memory. They're chronically distracted. They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand."
Unfortunately, most accounting teams have to attempt multitasking whether they want to or not. They have to keep their eyes on multiple entities, regulatory frameworks and currencies from moment to moment, which naturally heightens the risk of a mental mistake that will mess up the company books and slow down processes.
In the context of Nass' remarks, this workload by itself would be daunting. But its difficulty is greatly amplified by the widespread reliance of SMB accountants on pre-Internet tools like QuickBooks and Microsoft Dynamics:
As we can see, when it comes to accounting, the status quo involves humans who have to multitask — with QuickBooks and Excel mostly — in order to make up for the shortcomings of their financial software. If anything, this situation should be reversed. Cloud software, which can perform many tasks in concert, should be multitasking to take pressure off of actual humans.
One big issue remains before cloud financial applications can ride to the rescue, though: How can your company select the best platform for its requirements? This challenge is a multitasking exercise in its own right, as potential buyers have to analyze costs, user interfaces, deployment options and other characteristics, often on very short timetables that cause details to be overlooked.
The sheer amount of information to comb through can seem overwhelming, which is why it needs to be broken down into discrete categories. The first thing to decide on is a delivery model:
There are more details to each of these categories, but settling on one of them will immediately simplify your purchasing process and save you the trouble of multitasking as you decide between a bunch of possibilities. Given the financial limitations of many SMBs as well as the common need to seamlessly manage multiple entities and obtain real-time financial information, cloud is more often than not the soundest option.
For a human, the main drawback of multitasking is that it makes it hard to give your full attention to tasks that require it. So you end up moving numbers between Excel sheets and logging in and out of QuickBooks, but you might make a few data entry errors along the way. On top of that, you cannot get the reports you need, when you need them, because your financial software is too limited to effectively multitask between entities.
Multitasking is easier said than done.
Enter a cloud accounting application, such as Intacct. While a person can strain the limits of their patience and concentration juggling tasks at the end of each month, cloud software can automate crucial processes such as consolidations, collections and period closes. This efficiency can result in a substantial payoff. According to Nucleus Research, cloud-based accounting implementations see an average of 1.7 times the return on investment as on-premises alternatives.
The exhausting multitasking of traditional accounting workflows is not confined just to closing the books or reconciling transactions, either. There is sometimes the need to find and set up special hardware, software and/or VPN connections while you are getting started, or to figure out how to integrate your accounting tools with Salesforce.com and other popular business applications. This is a ton of extra work that has to be done in conjunction with actual accounting responsibilities.
"Simplicity is baked right into cloud software."
With cloud ERP software, in contrast, simplicity is baked right in. It does all the multitasking for you behind the scenes, using automation as well as out-of-the-box integrations and APIs to simplify your workflows. Need a custom report on the spot? It is available on demand. Trying to view another entity's transactions? Doing so is as straightforward as connecting to the Internet and logging in.
You may still think of yourself as a multitasker, and of course there will still be situations in which you will have to navigate multiple challenges simultaneously. Even so, you and your team can save precious time, money and concentration by using cloud software to get a handle on complex processes.