Organizations are gradually moving toward automated workflow systems. Larger organizations are more likely to integrate automated workflow software, but smaller organizations are also prioritizing this migration.
Workflow automation benefits all organizations across every industry and in every department. It replaces manual work with automatic processes that make tasks easier for team members to complete. Studies have shown that it quickens organizational operations and improves communication between team members.
What Is Workflow Automation?
Some manual tasks are tiresome and time-consuming, and can eat away at your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency. Workflow automation is the process of introducing technology and systems that increase productivity and reduce errors. Automating mundane manual tasks frees your team members to focus on the work that matters and makes a difference to your organization. As a result, more and more organizations are prioritizing workflow automation.
Workflow automation uses rule-based logic that replaces the tasks a team member would follow in a process. As an organization, you determine the rules and logic that the automation procedure should follow.
After implementing these processes, tasks such as sending follow-up emails, scheduling reminders, managing contacts, and nurturing leads can be automated, eliminating the need for team member involvement. Marketing teams can use workflow automation to nurture leads or schedule social media posts. HR teams can benefit from workflow automation during payroll and onboarding processes. Finance teams utilize these processes for tasks such as budget and expense approvals.
Two types of workflow automation are available to organizations: business process management (BPM) and robotic process automation (RPA). In BPM, the organization’s primary focus is to create a structure that best serves both its customers and its strategy. A system coordinating team members’ behavior, technology, and data can successfully integrate BPM. In RPA, bots take over team members’ manual tasks. Alongside your IT department, these bots can support administrative tasks and improve processes.
What’s the Problem With Manual Workflows?
Workflow automation helps your team work smarter, whereas manual processes slow down your organization and are often tedious. When you manually complete tasks, you will likely have to repeat them a few times. Workflow automation efficiently completes these repetitive tasks with greater accuracy and consistency. Manual workflows may be hindering your organization in a few other ways:
- Diminishes donor satisfaction: When manual processes create internal inefficiencies, these also affect donors. A seamless and easy user experience enhances how donors interact with your organization. Automation holds your team members accountable for a seamless donor experience.
- Hinders organizational growth: Manual workflows make it difficult for your organization to scale and grow. In a world that is becoming increasingly technologically advanced, it’s essential that your organization can keep up with these changes. Automating your workflow enables you to stay ahead of your competitors.
- Increases compliance risks: Team members are more likely to make errors or miss crucial details in manual workflows. Mistakes resulting in noncompliance can jeopardize your organization and lead to financial or legal penalties. Workflow automation ensures that processes in your organization remain compliant with industry and legal standards.
- Creates inconsistencies: When each team member uses a manual process, inconsistencies may arise in how tasks are completed. Besides errors, each team member may have their own methods of inputting data or compiling information. Your organization can maintain consistency among teams and departments through automation that follows specific rules and guidelines.
- Reduces visibility: Manual workflows make it challenging for an organization to access team members’ data entries or track the work that has been completed. Automatic workflow software enables you to store all your data in a single, accessible system.
Benefits of Workflow Automation
When implemented well and used correctly by teams, workplace automation software can help improve productivity, efficiency, and the overall operation of your organization. Here are seven benefits of workflow automation:
1. Reduce Errors
Manual tasks are prone to errors. The longer it takes to complete the task, the more likely it is to have mistakes. A task such as data entry can be long and tedious, but it is one of the easiest to automate. An automatic workflow helps improve the accuracy of the information shared across your organization.
2. Save Costs
Some errors come with significant financial risks. Workflow automation reduces costs associated with workplace errors and enables team members to complete tasks efficiently. Your organization can also reduce the cost of administrative labor with workflow automation.
3. Better Communication
When team members communicate well with each other, team synergy and the workflow of your organization improve. As team members complete tasks, workflow automation can eliminate the need to send reminders to one another and decrease frustration because tasks will be completed more accurately.
4. Increase Accountability
Workflow automation lets you automatically assign responsibilities to each team member. Each person understands their expectations and the processes for which they are responsible. Inefficiencies in your workflow are easier to spot when you use automated software.
5. Improve Efficiency
It’s more manageable to assign tasks, approve processes, and monitor access to information with workflow automation software. You’ll cut down the time it takes to complete these tasks manually.
6. Boost Productivity
Removing manual tasks frees up your team members to focus on their roles and the work that matters most to your organization. Repetitive tasks, such as data entry, can drain teams of the energy they need to dedicate to more meaningful tasks.
7. Enhance Work Quality
When team members have more time to do the work they are passionate about and focus on the core of their role, they perform better and increase job satisfaction.
How to Implement Automation Processes
You’ve chosen your process. Now, how do you begin? Automating systems can take time, but you’ll reap the benefits with patience and careful planning. These simple steps will help you get ready.
- Select a process owner: Each process will need someone with authority to make changes to the workflow and bring clarity.
- Remember the goal of automation: Focus on your main priority and try to make only a few changes at a time.
- Understand the workflow: Ask the process owner about the methodology to help you maintain workflow accuracy.
- Gather data: To improve the manual process, knowing how it works is essential. Understand who was involved and the timeline of the process.
- Collaborate with involved team members: Workflow automation should keep teams at the forefront. Ask them about any inclusions or improvements they want to see.
- Test the automation: Run several processes to ensure the path yields the desired outcome.
Get Started With MIP Accounting
Workflow automation systems have many benefits for your organization. It helps you save on costs, communicate better with team members, reduce errors, and strengthen relationships with donors. At Momentive, we’ve tailored our workflow management systems to serve the needs of nonprofits. We keep security and compliance at the forefront to streamline your processes and ensure the security and integrity of your information.
Our flexible, scalable, and secure workflow automation software offers everything your nonprofit organization needs for fund accounting. Request a demo today to learn more about MIP Accounting and see it in action.
