Cloud technology is still changing a lot of things in our society. This is especially true for several business tasks, such as financial operations. A company’s finance operations may be a good fit for cloud-based lending solutions because they need to be flexible, keep costs down, and work efficiently.
So, how can a company move different parts of its financial operations to the cloud? And how exactly can cloud-based tools make the different steps of running a finance business easier? Below, we answer these questions.
Benefits of Cloud-Based Lending
1. Collaboration:
With cloud-based workflows, it’s much easier for the finance team and the whole company to work together. On the cloud platform, you can get to and share documents. The cloud can also be used for the request-and-approval processes that are so common in finance operations. Employees from anywhere can take steps in these processes. This means that processes that used to be complicated and time-consuming, like approving vendors and asking for money to spend on capital projects, can now be done more easily and quickly.
2. Greater Efficiency And Accuracy:
Your finance processes will naturally become more efficient as you work together more and use automation more. Another benefit is improved accuracy, which is obviously very important for finance teams that deal directly with money. Automated workflows can reduce or even eliminate mistakes made by people, like doing the same thing twice or making a wrong calculation.
As important, an automated process can make sure that internal controls are followed. So, if approvers need to be reminded of pending requests or request needs to be sent to a higher level for approval, the cloud-based factoring software can do those things automatically. This is another example of how cloud technology improves both accuracy and speed without having to choose between the two, as is often the case with manual workflows and server-based software.
3. Scalability:
Another benefit of cloud-based solutions is that they give finance teams more room to grow. With cloud technology, the finance team can quickly increase the amount of storage space or add more users. The finance department can help where it’s needed most, improving the company’s bottom line because it can grow quickly and at a low cost.
4. Secure:
People who don’t want to use cloud-based tools for finance operations often think the cloud is not as safe than on-site software. Cloud platforms are usually just as safe as software that runs on a server, and sometimes even more so.
According to a Gartner report, the security of cloud providers is usually the same as or better than the security of on-premises data centers. Traditional software only sometimes has robust security features like data encryption and two-factor authentication, which can be found in cloud-based solutions. The automation that cloud platforms make possible also has another benefit: it makes it less likely that people will make mistakes, which is what leads to cybersecurity attacks.
5. Transparency:
The cloud also makes financial processes more open and clear. Cloud-based solutions let you see different parts of your financial operations in real time because they report on them. Cloud-based automation also makes it possible to create audit trails, showing where each request or approval is in the process.
6. Automate:
One of the best things about cloud-based lending software is that it lets you take advantage of automation. When your finance team stops using manual tools like Excel spreadsheets and paper-based tools, the whole finance function can move forward in a big way. When cloud computing makes it easier for people to work together, automation can make even the most time-consuming tasks go quickly. Think about how many administrative tasks, like accounts receivable and travel and entertainment reimbursements, are done over and over again in many finance functions. When these tasks are taken care of by computers, the finance team has more time to work on long-term goals and plans.
