Financial Process mapping- Significant way to guarantee business success
A finance team’s primary responsibility is to ensure the fiscal standing of any organization, while they also have to coordinate with other departments to ensure that day to day finance related requirements are met across various departments. A robust financial plan can work effectively and help you in meeting the requirements of your business. Finance process mapping allows finance teams to foresee problems and also help them in keeping track of all financial and accounting records.
The sequential representation of various financial processes such as reimbursements for travel and approval of budgets is known as finance process mapping. Finance process mapping helps clearly describe various financial processes at various stages, what are the special requirements and conditions that are to be taken care of and what happens after the completion of outlined tasks.
As per the study by Xero, which is a popular accounting software, financial mismanagement was the primary reason for business failure according to 65% of business owners. Hence, visual alignment and representation of the finance process is necessary for any business.
Process mapping enables managers to bring their teams together,identify where each individual fits and how the work of every individual affects the working of other individuals that are associated with the same project. This inturn creates a result oriented approach and mindset.
Benefits of Financial process mapping
Financial processing helps finance managers visualize and categorize the entire business process. This categorization inturn helps management designate a particular function to a particular individual and avoid any overlapping. The clarity that process mapping brings to a business has far reaching effects across other departments such as the HRM.
There are a number of questions such as What are the important strategic decisions that are to be carried out and are specific to their industry? What primary objectives does the department have? Answering these questions plays a key role in determining which of the existing processes should be continued and which are to be abandoned. Carefully organizing a financial business process that is specific to your industry not only ensures a smooth flow of business operations but also helps in reducing operational costs.
Automation and standardization
For any business, the automation and standardization of finance operations can ensure reduced operational costs and the time required to complete important finance processes. As the majority of the finance related tasks are repetitive in nature, businesses are better off not performing them manually. In order to introduce automation for all such processes, businesses first need to identify these processes and then carry out financial process mapping for them. Automation helps in avoiding workplace conflicts, promotes transparency and helps execute a proper chain of command for the employees at the lowest levels of business hierarchy.
How process mapping can be used
Process mapping can help any team understand how things work and what is their respective responsibility regardless if they work in an office setting or at a healthcare organization. The team members will feel valued and empowered as their jobs and responsibilities will be clearly outlined. Following are the ways in which process mapping can be used in different projects.
Business process
Process details from start to finish are outlined in a business process. A business process entails what actions are needed to be taken and what are the necessary steps that are to be taken in order to steer tasks towards completion. Business processes enable different individuals associated with a project to have a clear insight into what needs to be done.
Process mapping and its types
As every other business has its own unique needs, there is a need for different process flow for each unique business. We will now take a look at different process maps.
Detailed process map
A detailed process map provides a technical insight to inputs and outputs, team members that are needed to execute a specific task and how each member is dependent on the other. These process maps are linked to primary and high-level process maps
Document process map
This kind of process mapping outlines all that necessary information that is needed at every individual stage of the process. Document process mapping helps team members understand how they should go about their jobs and what is the expected final result. This inturn helps project managers to manage and clear any variables and make decisions that will impact the project.
Effects/Results of process mapping
Areas where efficiency has been improved will appear as a result of business process mapping. Process mapping can help any business in the following ways:
⦁ It will allow documentation of processes to be followed
⦁ Visually represent project process from the start till the end
⦁ Provide project details for the leadership
⦁ Represent project related redundancies and complexities
⦁ Enable the project managers to break processes into steps for a better understanding
⦁ Enable and promote interaction between team members
⦁ Provide project deadlines
⦁ Highlight key requirements
⦁ Help project managers to take well informed decisions
