Finance teams rarely struggle because they lack discipline or effort. They struggle because revenue, lease obligations, approvals and reconciliations sit across disconnected systems, often stitched together by spreadsheets and manual handoffs. As transaction volumes grow and monetisation models become more complex, those seams begin to show.

In this environment, automation is not about speed alone. It is about reducing opacity, strengthening governance and enabling finance to scale without increasing risk.

Research from the American Productivity & Quality Centre (APQC) shows that top-performing organisations close in four to five days, while others may take 10 days or more. As standards such as ASC 842 and IFRS 16 increase reporting complexity, spreadsheet-driven processes introduce higher exposure to error and compliance gaps. For senior finance leaders, the question is no longer whether to automate, but how to do so in a way that embeds control directly into the operating model.

Drivers of close fatigue

Manual month-end activities create predictable pressure points: intercompany reconciliations, revenue recognition adjustments, lease accounting calculations and journal approvals that span multiple platforms. Each manual transfer of data increases the likelihood of delay, inconsistency or error.

Regulatory expectations continue to rise. Frameworks such as the COSO Internal Control – Integrated Framework emphasise documented controls, segregation of duties and traceable audit trails. In many organisations, these controls still depend on manual review and post-close validation.

The result is a reactive closed cycle. Issues surface at the end of the period, when timelines are tight and corrective action is costly. Automation, when designed correctly, shifts finance from reactive correction to continuous control.

Finance automation best practices

Automation works best when processes are simplified and clearly defined. Finance leaders should map month-end activities end-to-end, identifying dependencies and eliminating unnecessary steps. Standardisation reduces variability and creates the foundation for scalable automation across business units and geographies.

Disconnected ERP, billing, contract and lease systems are a primary cause of reconciliation delays. Integration at the data layer ensures transactions, adjustments and contract changes flow automatically and consistently, giving teams a single source of truth.

Recurring activities such as accruals, amortisation schedules and lease calculations should be governed by predefined system rules. This reduces manual intervention and strengthens audit trails. More advanced automation flags unusual transactions or anomalies during the period rather than after close. By surfacing exceptions early, finance teams avoid last-minute surprises. Increasingly, advanced platforms use embedded intelligence to flag anomalies mid-cycle rather than after close.

Regulatory standards require not only accurate calculations but documented controls. Automated approval flows, version tracking, and role-based access controls ensure that changes to contracts or accounting treatments are captured transparently. When compliance is built into the workflow, audit readiness becomes continuous rather than cyclical.

Dashboards that display reconciliation status, outstanding approvals and exception trends provide finance leaders with visibility throughout the month. Instead of discovering bottlenecks at the end of the cycle, teams can address issues proactively. The shift from periodic reporting to continuous monitoring reduces risk and improves predictability.

Automation as a strategic lever

For organisations with complex revenue models, large lease portfolios or multinational operations, the stakes are higher. Each new pricing structure, geographic expansion or regulatory requirement adds reconciliations and control points to the close. Without automation, headcount and spreadsheet dependency grow alongside complexity.

Well-designed automation enables scale without proportional increases in cost or risk. Systems can absorb higher transaction volumes while maintaining consistent controls and audit trails. Finance teams spend less time gathering and validating data and more time analysing performance, forecasting outcomes and advising the business.

In a regulatory environment that demands transparency and precision, automation is not simply an operational enhancement. It is a governance decision. Finance leaders who take a structured approach create a close process that is faster, more resilient and better aligned to strategic growth.

The post Automate finance, end month end stress appeared first on International Finance.

However, both have one thing in common, which is a complex and time-consuming process, requiring companies to post the A-Z of their business operations, including management’s perspective on the previous year’s performance and financial condition, along with the status of pending lawsuits.

Despite legacy platforms like Workiva (aa major name in terms of providing cloud-based software-as-a-service to American companies) and Donnelley Financial Solutions doing their best in streamlining financial reporting, longtime accountants Mary Antony and Kelsey Gootnick, along with Jared Tibshraeny, a software veteran with 15-plus years of experience building and scaling web applications, felt the need of disrupting the forms 10-K and 10-Q submission-related practices in a way, where technology will simplify the practices of patching together spreadsheets, moving into bunches of word documents and back and forth emails between people within a financial set-up.

The result was the formation of InScope in 2023, an AI-powered financial reporting platform that is now helping companies and accounting firms automate a significant portion of the financial statement preparation process. InScope was launched in 2026 on a positive note, by raising USD 14.5 million in Series A funding led by Norwest, with participation from Storm Ventures and existing backers Better Tomorrow Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Tech Making Tedious Tasks Easy

Instead of fully automating the generation of income statements and balance sheets, the venture has automated a vast amount of the manual busy work, from verifying math to formatting. According to Mary Antony, InScope’s CEO, the platform is making accountants’ lives easier through simple actions, such as uniformly and correctly placing dollar signs and commas on the 10-K and 10-Q forms, ultimately saving users up to 20% of their time.

Customised for GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) financial reporting, InScope has been proven helpful for the American segment, representing small to medium enterprises, to large, multinational corporations, by eliminating 80% of manual tasks in financial reporting.

Functions like auto-roll forward, auto-formatting and linking plus syncing are allowing the start-up’s customers to get out of mundane tasks. Manual processes sometimes fail to catch errors and discrepancies. However, Inscope’s “AI Assistants” smooth out things here as well, by ensuring accuracy and internal consistency of financial statements.

For accounting firms, the start-up automates the financial statements preparation and review process by making sure its autopilot goes above the traditional functions of tagging and filing financial details, ending up automating the tiresome work of preparing accurate, compliant financials.

First-draft financials get generated in hours, not days, while AI-Assisted footing, cross-footing, and internal consistency checks slash data review time by up to 70 %. Not only can accounting firms live sync the solution with their Excel workbook, to keep numbers final and eliminate version chaos, features like consistent rounding, clean formatting and tracked changes ensure fewer audit notes and most importantly, satisfied clients, while freeing up senior industry talents for higher-value strategic and advisory works.

InScope’s smart technology and productivity-oriented solutions have helped the company grow its customer base by five times since 2025, also attracting significant American accounting firms such as CohnReznick.

As mentioned earlier, InScope is helping companies and audit firms to draft their forms 10-K and 10-Q in a better and faster manner, by instantly carrying forward prior-year financials, footnotes, and disclosures, without worrying too much about copy-paste or formatting.

Following this, the start-up’s AI takes over the preparation function by suggesting the required disclosures to its users based on their business documents, company details, and industry peers. Then all the details get inserted in SEC-ready, audit-compliant tables with a single paste.

Before the forms go for SEC filing, AI-powered “Review Assistant” scans the documents for footing, cross-footing, and internal consistency errors across the client’s entire document. The process also flags language that may be inconsistent with prior filings or peer disclosures. Also, version history, milestones, and blacklines make every change traceable and review-ready.

The McDirmit Davis Case Study

Florida-based accountant McDirmit Davis assurance practice handles complex financial reporting that legacy tools simply can’t handle reliably. The business’ workflow of linking heavy Excel files into Word Documents used to create a fragile ecosystem where broken links and file corruption, constant file crashes were constant risks. As it turned out, InScope, the start-up, moved quickly, rolling out the platform to the entire staff, from partners to associates, establishing the platform as the accountancy firm’s new standard for deliverables.

Simplifying McDirmit Davis’ experience with Excel, InScope has created an ecosystem where the accountancy firm’s team can make entry-level changes that flow through to the financials instantly, without the risk of the document crashing or links breaking.

Inscope’s AI is also acting as an intelligent second set of eyes, by proactively scanning financial data (for example, identifying long-term debt disclosure) and suggesting missing accounting policies, catching omissions that human reviewers might overlook.

When McDirmit Davis’ team of human accountants identifies a need, whether it’s better formatting controls or granular permissions, Inscope iterates immediately. The platform also automates the ticking and tying process, eliminating the manual “tabular” checking required by other tools and in the process, while freeing up senior staff for high-value review.

The team-up between McDirmit Davis and InScope has already produced wonders. Apart from eliminating version crashes by replacing the “crash and malfunction” cycle of embedded tables in Microsoft Word with a stable, cloud-based platform, the start-up has also installed a mechanism of proactive quality control for the accountancy firm, with AI agents identifying missing disclosures and policy gaps before they reach the final review stage.

Seamless review and edit cycles allow human professionals to address comments and make rapid adjustments without breaking the underlying data structure. Finally, through 100% staff adoption, InScope has successfully onboarded the entire McDirmit Davis team to a single platform.

The post Start-up of the Week: Using tech’s helping hand, InScope makes SEC filings a seamless affair appeared first on International Finance.

Growing accounting needs

The short-term rental industry has expanded rapidly over the past decade, fuelled by platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com. What was once a niche market for vacation properties has become a mainstream investment strategy for individuals and institutional players. With this growth, financial technology (fintech) has become an integral part of how operators manage their businesses.

Historically, short-term rental owners relied on traditional banking services, manual spreadsheets, and delayed payouts from booking platforms. These processes often created inefficiencies and left operators vulnerable to liquidity challenges. Today, fintech companies are reshaping the landscape by providing tools that allow operators to manage cash flow with greater precision, transparency, and speed.

New technology and services have enabled short-term rental operators to professionalise their financial operations, from embedded payment systems to revenue management platforms and real-time data analytics. For finance professionals, this shift represents more than just operational convenience. It demonstrates how fintech can transform fragmented, consumer-driven markets into scalable business models with sophisticated financial infrastructure.

Common cash flow challenges

While short-term rentals can generate attractive returns, they are inherently volatile businesses. Operators face several recurring cash flow challenges that make financial management more complex than in traditional real estate.

Short-term rental operators face cash flow challenges due to seasonal demand shifts, delayed payouts from booking platforms, and high fixed costs like mortgages and maintenance. Irregular income paired with scheduled expenses creates liquidity issues. Regulatory requirements such as taxes and insurance add unpredictability, while reliance on a single platform heightens risk—any disruption can severely impact revenue. These factors combined make accurate forecasting and financial stability difficult to maintain.

Addressing cash flow issues

Modern fintech solutions are helping short-term rental operators manage unpredictable revenue and recurring expenses more effectively. Faster payout tools offer near-instant access to guest payments, reducing reliance on credit and improving cash flow for payroll and vendor payments. Revenue management platforms use machine learning to optimise pricing and forecast income, enabling better planning for debt and capital expenditures. Expense tracking software integrates with bank and property systems to automate bookkeeping and flag budget deviations, minimising financial blind spots as operators scale.

Additional innovations include embedded lending products that offer flexible repayment tied to projected bookings—ideal for seasonal markets. Automated tax and compliance platforms handle occupancy taxes and reporting, reducing the risk of unexpected liabilities. Holistic dashboards unify financial data across properties, giving operators and finance teams real-time visibility into performance. These tools empower operators to make smarter, faster decisions and maintain financial stability in a volatile industry.

To illustrate, consider a short-term rental operator managing 25 properties across three cities. Without utilising third-party resources, this operator must manually reconcile booking payouts, vendor invoices, and tax obligations—a process prone to delays and errors. With fintech, payments are deposited immediately, revenue projections update in real time, and credit facilities are automatically extended during off-peak months. This transforms financial management from reactive to strategic.

The short-term rental sector demonstrates how third-party financial solutions such as SaaS platforms and outsourced accounting services are becoming essential infrastructure for growth. By helping operators manage the industry’s inherent cash flow volatility, these tools provide the visibility, control, and agility needed to make smarter, faster decisions.

What was once a fragmented and unpredictable asset class is now becoming more financially disciplined and operationally scalable. As the sector matures, those who adopt purpose-built financial tools will be better positioned to mitigate risk, unlock efficiencies, and build sustainable, competitive businesses.

The post Short-term rentals turn to fintech for cash control appeared first on International Finance.

There are start-ups which are trying to help accounting firms to adopt high-tech solutions and Aiwyn is one of them. Founded in 2020, the North Carolina-based venture sells software designed to address the revenue cycle side of the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) business.

Aiwyn’s platform automates and reconciles payments and invoices for both CPAs and their customers. In today’s episode of the “Start-up of the Week,” International Finance will talk about the venture in detail.

Knowing Things In Detail

Aiwyn was co-founded by entrepreneurs Pat Morell and Justin Adams. While building his first start-up, healthcare company Digitize.AI (which Morell also helped co-found), Adams had a bad experience with a CPA firm, as the latter sent him an invoice two months after he’d sold Digitize.AI, and reportedly wanted Adams to mail a check to a post office box in Pennsylvania.

The experience, however, gave Adams (and Morell), a good idea about what his next start-up will be and the result is Aiwyn, which, apart from possessing about 80 staffers by December 2024, notched USD 8 million in revenue in 2023, while serving around 130 of the top 500 accounting firms.

Aiwyn is developing what it describes as a “comprehensive” accounting practice management platform, as well as a tax-focused application. The start-up recently closed a USD 113 million funding round led by American private equity giant KKR and Bessemer Venture Partners. The round brought Aiwyn’s total raised to USD 127 million.

Aiwyn’s tagline reads, “Elevate Your Firm. Enhance Your Client Experience,” as the start-up, trusted by leading global accounting alliances like PrimeGlobal, RSM and Allinial Global, is empowering its clients to adopt automation, while saving time and costs.

The weapon here is the PracticeOS platform that unifies accounting firms’ tech stack for faster payment cycles, better revenue visibility, and a more enriched client experience.

Here Comes The Key Tech

Developed alongside CPA firms and forward-thinking technology experts, the start-up created the profession’s first open practice automation platform in the form of PracticeOS, which saves businesses time and drives revenue so their partners and staff can focus on client service.

PracticeOS has transformed itself into a modern, flexible, and integrated platform that helps firms automate manual processes and gain insight into their practice. No more rip-and-replace transitions, siloed data, or outdated client experiences. The start-up’s open infrastructure allows its clients to connect PracticeOS to their other systems and get a full view of their client’s data, eliminate inconsistencies, and provide clients with a cohesive experience.

The “PracticeOS Translation Engine” automatically updates records across the platform and to other integrated systems, saving time from manually checking records across disconnected systems.

Through PracticeOS, Aiwyn powers leading accounting firms with a smarter work-to-cash cycle. The tool’s “Payments and Collections” solution helps provide a better client experience and streamlines accounting firms’ collections process, integrating with their existing practice management system.

Their clients can see their entire AR (accounts receivable) in one view, where they can make online payments, set up recurring payments, save payment methods, and pay multiple invoices at once – even across multiple business entities, apart from automatically creating and sending statements that include all unpaid AR with a one-click option for their clients.

PracticeOS’ “Payments and Collections,” as a tool, ensures a secure and friction-free way for clients and firms to clear overdue balances and save time in payment, posting and data reconciliation. Firms can automatically create and send statements that include all unpaid AR with a one-click payment option for clients.

“Payments and Collections” automates away the manual tasks and awkward collections calls so firms get paid faster, with features like faster cash collection with online payments, ensuring improvement in client relationships, while addressing issues with custom dashboards.

Accounting firms don’t need to tap into their credit line and pay interest, while they can responsibly surcharge for credit card payments and processing fees, apart from enforcing and standardising late fees to align with best practices.

One Solution, Many Possibilities

Another feature of PracticeOS has been its “Engagement Letters,” which ensures a streamlined workflow to draft, send, execute, and renew engagements, thereby saving the CPA firms from the chaotic and time-consuming mess muddled in manual data entry with out-of-sync systems and templates stored in various places.

The solution empowers firms to standardise, optimise, and automate client engagement letters. Similar to “Payments & Collections,” the users can send engagement letters to clients with automated reminders so they can view and sign through the “Client Portal.”

The start-up enables a unified client experience by integrating with an accounting firm’s existing practice management and CRM systems, unlocking client and firm data, apart from simplifying the intake process for a better outcome for the company and its clients.

Aiwyn’s real-time data synchronisation eliminates duplication and other costly errors caused by manual processes, apart from facilitating annual renewals across all clients and letters with only a few clicks and fee increases dynamically.

Another feature of PracticeOS is its “Billing & AR Management.” CPAs want to serve clients, not labour over WIP (Work-In-Progress) analysis and debate write-downs. So WIP builds up, bills sit in draft instead of going out the door, and firms have to deal with the constant backlog. Most of Aiwyn’s customers see things like 10% of partner time lost on invoicing per month, growing frustration due to poor billing experiences and partners waiting 100 days to send clients an invoice after completing services.

“Billing & AR Management” addresses the above drawbacks by accelerating the process, ensuring accuracy, enhancing collaboration, and improving data accessibility. The start-up proactively drafts bills by pulling all relevant information into one place by gathering engagement letters, fee structures, past invoices, and more. It also effortlessly tracks billing changes and manages approval workflows between stakeholders promptly through streamlined processes and real-time collaboration.

Through the feature called “Project & Time,” Aiwyn’s PracticeOS powers leading accounting firms with efficient project and time management, by simplifying accounting project management and time tracking by integrating project tracking software and time tracking for accounting firms in a single, efficient platform. This solution combines every aspect of project management for accounting firms, eliminating the need for multiple tools, cumbersome spreadsheets, and manual tracking.

The post Start-up of the Week: Aiwyn redefines accounting activity through automation appeared first on International Finance.

“The new product suite features tools for building custom client dashboards, intelligent forecasting, industry benchmarking, AI-driven transaction categorisation and more,” LiveFlow CEO Lasse Kalkar informed the media.

Established in 2021, LiveFlow’s customer base includes international accounting firms like BDO and KLR along with brands like Wendy’s and Crumbl Cookies, as the start-up claims itself to be North America’s “Number One Financial Analysis Software Trusted by Thousands of Companies.”

LiveFlow is all about the integration of AI into accounting, as bookkeeping, tax preparation and auditing involve repetitive tasks that can benefit from the technology. In addition, the industry faces a two-front challenge: an ageing workforce and no one to replace them.

In today’s episode of the “Start-up of the Week,” International Finance will discuss in detail about the venture.

Knowing The Vision

LiveFlow’s purpose is not to hasten the flow of AI eating into accountants’ jobs, but to stem it. As per the words of Kalkar, “Our plan is to utilise AI to make accounting firms more efficient, but we think the accountant will still be there.”

As enterprise platforms gradually eat into the workflows of accountants, many are choosing to leave the industry, especially as AI automates away a lot of the core, manual work required.

More than 300,000 American accountants and auditors left their jobs between 2019 and 2021, and the number of accountants in the world’s largest economy has declined by 15.9% since 2019, according to the United States Bureau of Labour Statistics. Both younger accountants and mid-career professionals are leaving the profession.

LiveFlow is integrating AI into the accounting, streamlining repetitive tasks through the technology’s help, thereby allowing companies to sync real-time data from their accounting services, banks and payment platforms to the start-up’s platform, which in turn is generating custom reports, apart from automating workflows, consolidating company accounts, and enabling more company-wide collaboration. In this way, the venture is eliminating the practice, where accountants transfer data between systems, often manually.

“Basically, small businesses hire an accountant to feel safe. They want to know that someone has their back. We can’t replace that entirely with technology,” Kalkar told TechCrunch recently.

A few years ago, Anita Koimur led the rewards programme at fintech unicorn Revolut, while Kalkar was its country manager for the Nordic region. Later, as co-founders, both came up with the idea for LiveFlow. They then took the start-up through the Y Combinator accelerator and later raised a seed round in 2021.

Joined by former Web Summit engineering lead Evan O’Brien, Koimur and Kalkar are now planning to expand in the United States with a base in New York. The venture’s newest product, LiveFlow Next, is designed to help accounting firms do more advisory work. And the venture’s existing products, on the other hand, are helping businesses to save countless hours per month while also eliminating human error, during the accounting processes.

Here Are The Products

LiveFlow believes that today’s finance and accounting professionals are buried in tedious and inefficient workflows. The venture is empowering these individuals to reduce manual work and repetitive tasks (by automating them) so they can deliver top-notch services to drive the economy forward.

Talking about the accounting products offered by the start-up, let’s start with “LiveFlow for Google Sheets,” which connects QuickBooks (an accounting software package which mainly caters to small and medium-sized businesses and offer on-premises accounting applications as well as cloud-based versions that accept business payments, manage and pay bills) and payroll functions to Google Sheets and sync a business’ reports in real-time.

“LiveFlow for Google Sheets” helps its users to finish month-end account reporting in record time, as the solution connects to QuickBooks Online easily. The users then can choose from LiveFlow’s library of 100-plus customisable templates and in just a few clicks, create a live dashboard that updates regularly to keep the clients and stakeholders in the loop.

Accounting professionals can also drill down into their reports without logging into QuickBooks, as “LiveFlow for Google Sheets” provides easy analysis of their reports, apart from making checking for errors and inconsistencies simple and analysing spends in seconds.

The tool also performs another tough accounting job called multi-entity consolidation in just under three minutes and the process, also saves days per year in tedious manual consolidation, apart from consolidating multi-entity financials by class and location in a matter of minutes.

“LiveFlow for Google Sheets” also updates online data in Google Sheets on a real-time basis, thereby allowing human accountants to save hours per month updating dashboards and exporting files, while using that time on analysis, rather than crunching numbers.

The next product “LiveFlow for Excel” works in a similar manner to “LiveFlow for Google Sheets.” Now what sets LiveFlow’s solutions apart from QuickBooks is that when it comes to consolidating accounting data of multiple entities in one place, the users can prepare these reports on a record quick time, before sharing them with stakeholders.

Also, the users can customise their reports with their KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and metrics, while selecting from over 100 templates. LiveFlow also handles inconsistent client or business data, which can take hours in QuickBooks Online, thereby saving the users’ time and stress.

At the same point of time, it also helps companies to build impactful consolidated QuickBooks reports for their stakeholders with details like summarised financials for the board, detailed financials for finance review and financials for countries and business units.

Regardless of when a company’s fiscal year ends or what months the clients need consolidated reports for, LiveFlow allows its users to slice data in minutes, apart from assisting human accountants in effortlessly consolidating multi-currency financials into intelligent reports.

“With our platform, you can effortlessly compare the performance of multiple entities, pinpoint numbers, and dive into the nitty-gritty details, all without opening QuickBooks Online. LiveFlow makes it easy to generate reports for a specific division or location of your business in minutes, providing insights into its performance,” the start-up said.

LiveFlow’s Dashboards transform a company’s client reporting with customisable dashboards, seamlessly visualising key data from QuickBooks or Xero, without the hassle of formulae/technical skills.

“Most reporting tools limit the data you can display—not LiveFlow. We’ve built the most flexible report builder! Visualise any data from QuickBooks or Xero exactly how you want, with total customisation at your fingertips. Give clients instant access to their numbers with a live dashboard link, letting them view their data whenever they need it,” the venture described the product in the following words.

The tool combines key data with personalised insights to help clients make smarter decisions with tailored summaries of their financials. LiveFlow users can also create automated dashboards for comparing budgets to actuals, customised to their use cases. When it comes to department leaders within a company manually stitching together all their budgets, the start-up simplifies this mundane job by automatically generating the master budget from individual department budgets.

The Road Ahead

LiveFlow, which as of October 2024 is providing solutions to technology, construction and franchise industries, has got its game right. Through its integrations to popular accounting software such as QuickBooks Online and now Xero, LiveFlow has presented itself as a “One Stop Solution” kind of software, to automate mundane tasks like financial planning and analysis, financial consolidation, and advanced data visualisation, freeing the time and efforts of human accountants from these functions and letting them focus on more quality assignments.

Whereas there is a steady exodus of professionals from the financial field, amid the “AI eating into accountants’ jobs” narrative, LiveFlow’s is now enabling anyone to manage and understand their business finances with ease, through a perfect harmony between man and machine.

The post Start-up of the Week: Through intelligent automation of accounting, LiveFlow is here to make lives simple appeared first on International Finance.

During an interaction with Zaywa, Younis Haji Al Khouri, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, said, “The three new decisions aim to enhance the flexibility of UAE’s Corporate Tax regime and ensure a supportive business environment for all sectors. The decisions cover several important aspects related to private regulated pension funds and social security funds normally exempt from corporate tax in other countries.”

“Designating International Financial Reporting Standards as the applicable accounting standards and further simplifying accounting processes for SMEs reflects the Ministry of Finance’s commitment to imposing a minimal compliance burden for businesses in scope of the Corporate Tax regime. In addition, the participation exemption will prevent double corporate tax on the profits of one entity and eliminate international double taxation,” he said.

The Pension and Social Security Funds Decision establishes further conditions for the UAE’s corporate income tax exemption for private regulated pension funds and social security funds. The decision ensures alignment with international tax practices, so that the exempt status of private pension or social security funds in the UAE is also recognized for international investments and benefits from double taxation treaties can be obtained.

In addition, the decision sets out details of maximum contributions per beneficiary and annual certification of compliance by an auditor to ensure the integrity of the exemption.

The Accounting Standards and Methods Decision provides clear guidance for companies preparing their financial statements, which serve as a starting point for calculating taxable income for corporate tax purposes.

The decision confirms that the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are the applicable accounting standards in the UAE and must be applied by larger companies with a turnover of more than AED 50,000,000.

The post UAE issues three new Ministerial decisions on corporate tax appeared first on International Finance.

While ccc empowers businesses in Saudi Arabia and beyond to strategically optimize operations for various service lines including Customer Lifecycle Management, HRO, F&A for multiple industry segments, it also boosts operational efficiency through an enriched experience to achieve more impactful and long-lasting business outcomes.

ccc is the subsidiary of Saudi Telecom (stc), the largest telecommunications provider in KSA and is headquartered in Riyadh. ccc operates from three strategic locations across the country, assisted by state-of-the-art facilities and technology that ensure the best quality, consistent services to its customers.

The company has employed more than 6,000 people, including 2,300 women, so far with a very high Saudization rate. With digital technology playing an increasingly important role within the large socio-economic set-up, ccc’s approaches make it well-placed to take advantage of the opportunities it holds. The company has a wide range of solutions spanning the entire spectrum of customer care, technology services, digital businesses, consulting, back office, and all other specialized services focused on ccc’s primary aim to provide customers with an enhanced experience.

How ccc envisions the future of BPO

BPOs enable companies to streamline their operations by undertaking most of the monotonous duties from their core teams, thus allowing them to focus on important responsibilities which result in increased productivity and higher cost reductions.

The industry is currently on the evolution path and here are some other key trends ccc thinks will happen in the Saudi’ outsourcing industry going forward:

Digitization will give BPO services a new lease of life

Digitization has broadened the range of services that the future of the BPO industry can provide. ‘Traditional’ outsourcing has declined as new technologies are offering newer alternatives.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is beginning to take over, supported by Artificial Intelligence (AI), which can lead to more agile outsourcing services offering customers higher quality experiences. Technological advancements and solutions will change the way businesses interact, engage with their customers and fulfil their service obligations.

Automation will be a key driver

BPO providers will be aiming at automating first-level customer interactions and work processes with tech-like chatbots instead of completely relying on manual tasks. This will help lower attrition in the long term. Automation will greatly impact the type of services provided by BPOs.

Increased benefits of remote-work

During and post the COVID pandemic, remote/hybrid work culture has become the sort of the new normal. Going forward, BPOs will increasingly gain from utilizing part of the workforce as it can reduce a great number of physical overheads.

Push for right shoring

A combination of both onshore and offshore outsourcing models can optimize companies’ operational costs. Known as right shoring, the process involves outsourcing complex and higher-valued customer interactions onshore, while moving regular high-volume tasks to cheaper locations.

Promoting self-service systems

Traditional dialogue-based IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems with complex menu trees don’t meet the needs of the tech-savvy consumers of the 21st century. IVR systems are getting augmented with AI technology, thus significantly improving the efficacy of self-service systems.

Newer BPO specialities

The BPO sector will adopt new trends like the Outsourcing of Knowledge Processes (KPO), Outsourcing Legal Services (LPO), Research Process Outsourcing (RPO), services aided by Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES).

The BOP industry will continue to be a customer-centric one and the changes and new trends here will all be based on customer experiences. There is a growing demand for CX consulting services, thus providing new growth avenues of growth for contact centres.

While omnichannel service delivery and customer analytics solutions are the key trends shaping the future of CX, a few other important aspects for delivering top-notch customer experience and differentiating it from competitors are providing personalized services, having efficient addressing of issues, and gaining the customer trust through accuracy and follow-ups.

Enterprises are increasingly looking to partner with operators who are not only capable of embracing the customer-centric approach but also can proactively suggest innovative solutions for transforming their CX operations.

BPOS need to focus on three global trends that are improving customer experience:

CX consulting: Several operators are expanding their portfolio to offer CX consulting services – from conceptualization to integration and implementation of comprehensive customer-centric solutions to enhance CX.

Omnichannel CX: Customers are now relying on multiple interactive platforms to connect with businesses and this approach focuses on having consistent communications and engagements across all channels.

CX analytics: This is the key in getting the context on-point for every customer interaction. It also captures the most updated customer insights, helping enterprises make strategic decisions on products and services.

The current situation in KSA

Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) these days have to face immense pressures, given the economic environment and the changing global landscapes. Apart from meeting the dual mandates of leading their financial functions with digital transformation, these professionals also need to ensure that their organizations accelerate on the progress path.

This factor is guiding businesses now to use outsourcing, in order to drive transformational changes, improve business results, and create profit-driving platforms. ‘Vision 2030’ is about building a strong, thriving, and stable Saudi Arabia that provides fair economic opportunity for all. Another pillar of this vision is the determination to become a global investment powerhouse based on the idea that the country holds strong capabilities and these can be harnessed to stimulate the economy and diversify revenues.

There’s an appetite for outsourcing customer care services and the key drivers behind this are improving effectiveness and saving cost. Saudi has a price-sensitive market and this factor makes many BPO service providers enter a price-war mode to gain a larger market share. On the other hand, a large segment of the market is not quality-driven, especially retail, hospitality, and food.

Thus, clients will evaluate the BPO providers on the prices in higher weightage over the services’ quality. Industries like banking and finance (BFSI) and government services used to be the greatest consumers of BPO services. However, recently, the Council of Cooperative Health Insurance Council (CCHI) and National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) put pressure on the BFSI sector to insource the BPO services and nationalize the expertise.

Having said that, manpower-based services will witness increased adoption by the government, like facility management, paid parking management, and revenue-sharing business. These types of activities will help further BPO services by some service providers.

That apart, some of the other high-growth verticals are:

E-commerce, which has a 41.0% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) currently, will continue to grow, but not at the same pace as online shopping becoming mainstream. The market would witness increased competition and the existing platforms will become more efficient in order to deliver better customer service.

Healthcare at 31.6% CAGR as the Ministry of Health deployed several applications and services, apart from increasing its contact centre capacity to respond to citizens’ queries related to the COVID-19 medical consultation. The privatization of hospitals will drive the contact centre business both in voice and digital formats.

The government at 15.7% CAGR is looking to rebound from the fall in oil prices and the pandemic, and will invest in the contact centre to cater for the high demand for new services in tourism, culture, sports and investment.

The moderate growth verticals are:

Retail and wholesale at 9.4% CAGR were heavily impacted by COVID, as the pandemic and the resultant social distancing norms refrained consumers from visiting retail shops and diverted them towards e-commerce. Businesses in this field will be under continuous pressure, as they will be forced to opt for cost-cutting measures including renegotiation of outsourcing contracts.

Travel and transport at 7.4% CAGR will have to contend with the large contracts in aviation which will be subjected to heavy negotiation. The sector growth will be supported by the contracts for metro Riyadh and public transportation.

The energy sector at 7.0% CAGR is mainly manpower outsourcing driven. The falling oil prices will result in heavy negotiations with contact centres and BPO providers.

Others at 7.7% CAGR include automotive, pharmaceutical, real estate, manufacturing, agriculture, media, and entertainment. The drop in 2020 was majorly driven by sectors like entertainment and automotive, which will turn to digital channels to serve their clients. Currently, utility, hospitality, BFSI and telecom are the slowest growing verticals, thus needing steady revival efforts.

Talking about outsourcing, CFOs are still the key decision-makers. Saudi Arabia is currently experiencing a growing demand for front-office process outsourcing. Over 77% of the spending can be attributed to front-office processes while around 23% can be attributed to back-office activities ’outsourcing. The front-office outsourcing market will grow at a five-year CAGR of 10.2% while the back-office market, although small, will grow at a CAGR of 9.5% in the same timeframe.

The aim is to improve the business environment, so that the economy grows and flourishes, driving healthier employment opportunities and long-term prosperity. This promise is built on cooperation and on mutual responsibility, and ccc has chosen to step in to help the country attain this vision. The ccc F&A spectrum of services can provide businesses with next-generation capabilities, digital playbooks, and underlying systems that can help their clients to optimize their finance functions and create financial intelligence.

The company also leverages technology, automation, industry and domain expertise to digitally transform F&A (Finance and Accounting) into the value addition of its client enterprises so that these businesses can grow and attract global investments. ccc also offers comprehensive solutions designed to modernize financial businesses as per the outlook of the Saudi regime.

Outsourcing Finance & Accounting for KSA’s business growth

Having a CFO professional to handle the bookkeeping and accounting work is something which remains on top of any company’s priority list. The reason big businesses are choosing to outsource their F&A activities lies in the fact that this option gives them access to highly-skilled, well-trained and knowledgeable financial expertise, which in turn, helps these enterprises to ensure smooth operations, faster growth and improved cash-flows.

Having an outsourced F&A activity also helps businesses to focus on their core functions and move up the value chain ladder. The choice is between an advanced outsourced accounting team and customized controller/CFO services, but the point here is that the particular activity will transform the concerned business’s finance functions and maintain foolproof accounting, which will help the enterprise to generate a solid brand name.

Having an outsourced F&A activity gives businesses better cost-saving options and a sound ability to solve capacity issues. Some of the other advantages are:

Access to F&A expertise: Outsourcing helps businesses to access the specialized knowledge of highly trained accountants/finance professionals. These individuals have the experience and expertise to produce the best results, irrespective of whatever businesses they are working in.

Higher time and cost savings: Outsourcing is cheaper, as you don’t have to face the prospect of facing overhead expenses, which is faced by businesses in case they are hiring and maintaining a team of dedicated in-house staff to handle the bookkeeping job. Also, the employees get spared from these mundane tasks and they can use this extra time to give priority to solving other operational issues.

Increased scaling ability: Outsourcing F&A gives businesses the ability to scale up or down their operations based on the workloads. Businesses can increase or decrease the number of people working on projects and not be bound by time or cost constraints to deliver as per clients’ needs.

Better business intelligence & business continuity: An outsourced accounting team gives businesses the element of proactivity as financial experts can spot red flags beforehand and offer appropriate solutions.

The role of digital finance & outsourcing

Some of the commonly outsourced services are payroll accounting, accounts payable, and accounts receivable. However, most businesses are now eyeing more strategic and high-level functions such as budgets, forecasts and internal audits. That’s where Digital Finance & Outsourcing comes into the picture.

This solution has the technological advantage, as it brings from Robotic Process Automation (RPA), automated bill payments, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, apart from being adaptable towards global operating models that help companies save on time and resources of manual F&A.

Digital Finance & Outsourcing is, however, not supposed to replace the manual finance functions in the client companies. It’s more about the effective harmony between the man and the machine, which in turn, will help companies to work more on operations and sales while ensuring that their daily mundane and repetitive financial tasks are being taken care of consistently.

Digital finance depends on proven cloud technology solutions that provide comprehensive finance resolutions, starting from key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics, to financial reporting automation, in order to ensure timely and accurate outcomes. Digital Finance & Outsourcing simplifies and standardizes processes to enable companies to develop better benchmarks and meet regulatory requirements faster.

Digital finance advisors also leverage tech to advise clients about how to further their offerings and make them more convenient and accessible to make the digital transformations of businesses a solid one. Ideally, digital transformation through outsourcing should look at enhancing processes in three key areas: automation, analytics and collaboration. Finance companies should look towards SaaS (Software as a service) solutions, cloud migration, and other innovative technologies to assist in the digitization of their finance functions.

A digital finance department of any company brings these advantages:

Reduced error margins: With digital F&A, teams get a 360-degree view of their data which makes human errors easier to identify. Also, the data gets updated into a centralized system which makes for better compliance.

Enhanced security: A digitalized system helps businesses to store sensitive data within secure cloud-based systems, and also offers SaaS solutions devised for finance functions that offer sophisticated security processes.

Advanced analytics: Digital finance can give businesses access to advanced analytics by leveraging AI, real-time data processing and innovative machine learning.

Improved employee performance: Digital tools replace the repetitive, tedious tasks that slowdown employee performance and helps to streamline processes such as vendor management, cash flow forecasting, accruals, and audit preparation.

Irrespective of their sizes, businesses have reached a point where they have realized that it pays to collaborate with trusted, proven BPOs that can help make these enterprises optimize operations and make workflows workable, so that these businesses can stay resilient and relevant.

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The expanded engagement allows the two companies to continue to co-innovate and drive faster, smarter insights from finance data. Genpact supports Mondelēz International’s global finance operations in 75 countries, delivering simplified and standardised operations across more than 150 finance and accounting processes. Over the last three years, Genpact has helped Mondelēz International centralise its finance and accounting delivery model from a dispersed, country-based structure into six efficient, productive global centres. Robotic process automation, dynamic workflow, mobility, and other digital technologies have automated and streamlined operations to drive more strategic business decisions and speed time-to-market.

“This new agreement underscores Genpact’s success in helping us fast-track our finance transformation, harnessing the power of digital technology and deep process expertise to reimagine our operations and drive competitive growth,” said Brian Gladden, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Mondelēz International. “Genpact’s global reach, and deep understanding of both finance operations and our industry, makes it the strategic partner we need as we build the best snacking company in the world.”

Mondelēz International can achieve value-added insights faster than ever before through easy access to accurate, actionable data. The finance organisation has significantly improved the time-to-close cycle; every month and quarter close has trended better than the previous one. Mondelēz International is investing the savings unlocked through simplified, more efficient operations into innovation and special projects to drive revenue. The new contract with Genpact will extend transformation benefits across other parts of Mondelēz International’s shared services organisation.

“Driving agility and improving margins are table stakes in the competitive snacking industry to meet evolving consumer trends. To succeed, companies need to reimagine how to unlock areas for growth,” said Balkrishan ‘BK’ Kalra, business leader, Consumer Packaged Goods, Genpact. “Our co-innovation with Mondelēz International will continue to create new ways to drive profitability, including leveraging advanced technologies like artificial intelligence. Our deep domain expertise, combined with products and services powered by our Genpact Cora platform, deliver significant value to support Mondelēz International’s growth strategy.”

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Suparna Goswami Bhattacharya

October 17, 2014: When someone mentions “CFO”, the first thing to hit the mind is – a guy managing finance in a company.

However, with time, the role of the CFO has evolved. Today if you mention about the ‘managing finance’ bit to any CFO worth his salt, he will probably laugh out loud.

Once focused on cost containment, accounting and compliance, the position has evolved into that of a true business partner – someone who delivers insights and provides decision-making support.

Today, companies expect CFOs to have the ability to manage volatility, navigate complexity among other things. In fact, a recent Accenture report* — The CFO as Architect of Business Value: Delivering Growth and Managing Complexity — states that the expanded role has resulted in their growing influence, especially as a result of their involvement in growth-related and business transformation activities.

“The role has evolved over time internally because of the increasing importance of financial data and insights and externally as a voice of the company to various stakeholders,” said Christian Campagna, lead managing director, Accenture Finance & Enterprise Strategy Group.

And the biggest drivers of this change in the scope of the role of the CFO are the global financial crisis of 2008, wherein the CFO emerged as a trusted partner to the CEO and other member of the C-Suite.

The role of the CFO at present has clearly expanded. The Accenture study calls it ‘Value Architect’. Here the CFO acts as the guardian of the economic value agenda for the company and provides guidance for key decisions made across the enterprise. “Now the CFO has the responsibility to drive profitability and growth while managing constant volatility, complexity, globalisation and emerging technology. The CFO is arguably one of the most powerful executives after the CEO,” says Campagna.

“This view that the CFO is the owner of cost control, and someone else in the business is the owner of revenue growth, is not the case,” says Margherita Della Valle of Vodafone. “The CFO has a role to play across the whole of the P&L and the balance sheet. It is essential that the CFO convinces the CEO that finance has a role to play on more than just costs.”

Thanks to the expanded role, the CFO now often finds himself in middle of a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, including other members of the C-suite, the rest of the management team, the board of directors, investors, regulators and analysts. Each has their own demands, and the number of stakeholders continues to expand.

Mike McClellan, CFO, North America at Sanofi, believes that bureaucracy should not mushroom in a company in order for things to run smoothly. “The CFO’s role is to really make sure that we’re not allowing processes to become too complex. We’re really trying to keep things effective and efficient, not only from a cost perspective but also from a way of doing business,” remarks McClellan.

Industries embracing change in role of CFOs

Research by various firms shows that the role of CFO is expanding. “The role is expanding but the focus may vary from industry to industry in order to address industry-specific challenges,” says Campagna. For instance, a CFO in financial services must focus more on regulations and cost control while a CFO at a consumer goods company may be more concerned with managing complexity.

In fact, in most industries CFOs are putting a special emphasis on digital. Hugh Morris, finance expert and vice-president of business development banking at GENPACT LLC in his statement earlier, had said that technology continues to change the way business gets done.

“CFOs need an understanding of emerging technology, but also where things are headed. They must remain agile enough to change course as technology changes and be committed to governance as a way of ensuring that the organisation uses the technology as efficiently as possible,” he said

David Rowland, CFO, Accenture believes that technology is central to finance strategy and agenda. “Organisations can’t have optimal efficiency and effectiveness without focusing on enabling technologies. In today’s world, where there’s an abundance of data, it’s particularly important that organisations raise their game in managing, analysing and presenting data in a way that yields the greatest value for the business.”

*The Accenture 2014 High Performance Finance Study was based primarily on an online quantitative survey conducted between January and April 2014 among 617 finance executives.

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