Accounting entry: how to reduce the risk of errors?
Accounting is an essential department within a company. Indeed, it concentrates a large number of activities that are essential to the smooth running of the company: accounting for incoming and outgoing financial flows, drawing up the tax return, managing customers and suppliers, settling disputes, paying employees, etc. The responsibilities of accountants are thus very numerous and the risks of error are just as great. This can range from a simple error in entering an amount to a duplicate transaction or one entered in the wrong account. But it is entirely possible to improve the performance of your accounting department by adopting the right solutions.
Here are some tips to help you minimise accounting entry errors.
Digitalisation of the accounting department to the rescue
Identify sources of error
In accounting, there are several sources of error:
- Human errors,
- The volume of data is constantly increasing,
- Forgetting or losing data,
Most of the time, these mistakes are fixable, but they can waste a lot of your time. Identifying them is therefore the first step to avoiding them.
Digitalising to reduce the risk of accounting errors
Première solution : vous équiper d’un logiciel comptable qui répond vraiment à vos besoins. L’offre est aujourd’hui très large mais tous les logiciels ne sont pas adaptés à votre entreprise. N’hésitez pas à vous faire conseiller avant d’adopter définitivement l’un de ces outils. Veillez également à ce que le logiciel propose certaines fonctionnalités comme la sauvegarde programmée des informations, la possibilité d’importer et d’exporter facilement l’ensemble de vos données, ou encore des mises à jour régulières afin que l’outil soit conforme à la réglementation fiscale en vigueur. Identifiez bien vos besoins en amont afin de déterminer les fonctionnalités qui vous seront nécessaires.
Second solution if you already have accounting software:automate as many manual, repetitive and low value-addedtasks as possible. This means having the software do what is usually done manually. For example, this makes it possible to avoid common errors such as the inversion of VAT and the inversion of accounting entries. Automation allows your staff to have more time to deal with complex tasks. This will significantly reduce their stress and also limit the risk of errors on tasks that cannot be automated.
Save time on supplier invoices
Between collection, processing, validation and payment, processing supplier invoices can be an extremely time-consuming task for some companies. To save time in this area, you can use tools such as Freedz.
A unique platform for centralising 100% electronic invoices, Freedz helps you to manage your suppliers' invoices efficiently and automatically. This way, you reduce the risk of input errors and duplicate processing and can more easily validate the invoice for entry into the accounts.
By 2026, all companies will be required to receive and generate electronic invoices. This is a good opportunity to move away from paper and manual invoice processing now.
Connecting accounting and management tools
Pour aller plus loin dans l’automatisation des tâches, les nouvelles plateformes SaaS, comme Freedz, permettent de facilement s’interconnecter avec vos autres outils de gestion comme votre ERP. En effet, tout l’intérêt de faire appel à des logiciels spécialisés est la possibilité que ces derniers puissent communiquer et échanger des données entre eux. Cela constitue un gain de temps très important et peut avoir un effet très positif sur la performance de l’entreprise. Pour cela, il faudra peut-être revoir votre système d’information, une étape essentielle dans la transformation digitale d’une entreprise.
Outsource or train your staff
It may seem obvious, but accounting errors are often due to a training problem. There are two solutions:
- Externaliser la comptabilité,
- Proposer des formations complémentaires à vos collaborateurs
There are several advantages to outsourcing:
- The employees, as well as the manager, can concentrate on their core business.
- External accountants can provide additional expertise and advice on the company's financial strategy.
- Calling on a specialised firm allows you to benefit from a quality service.
- Depending on the size of the company, outsourcing accounting can be cheaper than having your own department.
Néanmoins, dans de nombreux cas, la présence d’un service comptabilité est plus rentable pour une entreprise. Et même avec l’aide d’un prestataire externe, la formation des collaborateurs est essentielle. Elle leur permet notamment de mieux maîtriser les outils de comptabilité mais aussi d’être à jour sur la réglementation fiscale. Comme nous l’évoquions dans un autre article sur la fraude au faux fournisseur, la sensibilisation, la formation, sont souvent les premières armes pour limiter les erreurs.
And as one benefit never comes alone, training also helps to reduce turnover in the department concerned.
Vous l’aurez compris : pour réduire les risques d’erreurs, la digitalisation et l’automatisation constituent des solutions efficaces et très rentables sur la durée. Cela permet aussi à vos collaborateurs d’avoir le temps de traiter les tâches complexes et à forte valeur ajoutée.
Accounting seizure: what is it?
Accounting entry is a legal obligation for any company. It consists of translating into accounting terms all the financial operations carried out by the company or which concern its assets. It also allows the tax authorities to obtain information on the management of the company. Accounting is generally the most reliable way of finding out about a company's performance.
Several journals are used to keep track of an organisation's financial activities. Transactions are listed in chronological order to facilitate monitoring. In this context, several documents must be entered:
- Sales and purchase invoices,
- Payroll logs,
- Bank statements,
- VAT declaration,
- Tax notices,
In fact, each line of an account journal contains several pieces of information such as :
- The date of the operation,
- The amount,
- The purpose and/or reference of the operation,
- The account involved in the transaction,
Bookkeeping is usually carried out by people trained in bookkeeping but this is not essential. It is nevertheless important to have a sufficient level of knowledge to carry out the accounting of a company. It is a demanding job that requires a great deal of rigour. As in any profession, the person or persons responsible for this task must meet a certain number of obligations and may be held criminally liable in the event of intentional misconduct.
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