Abstract
Financial accounting is a function of business that is riddled with large data sets that require processing at high speeds, over a short period of time to allow organisations to report on their performance within specified timelines. Financial accounting professionals find themselves at a crossroad between maintaining traditional accounting systems or venturing into new methods to meet their daily objectives, one of these new methods being technological tools. Technology plays an important role in the value that organisations generate in the current business landscape by offering solutions to automate processes. Automating processes allows accountants to perform their day-to-day tasks with limited human intervention while maintaining the same or even better quality of results as opposed to traditional methods of accounting. This study aimed to provide insights on the role that automation plays in enhancing efficiency in financial accounting processes. A qualitative case study was conducted with the financial accounting department employees of a company operating in South Africa, that has implemented automation in their processes. The study found that with automation there was a significant reduction in the errors reported in the outputs, less time was spent in performing routine tasks as well as an overall improvement in the efficiency and productivity of teams. This research contributes to the importance of ensuring that organisations align their automation strategies to the organisational needs as well as identifying guidelines to selecting financial accounting processes that could be fit for automation.