Which Technologies Have the Biggest Potential to Positively Impact the Job of the Controller? Professionals Weigh In

It would be hard to find a job that hasn’t been impacted in the past 10 years by improvements in technology, and jobs in accounting departments have been no exception. For financial and accounting experts, improvements to legacy technologies and the emergence of new software solutions — cloud ERPs and close management software in particular — have resulted in drastic changes to the way work is conducted.

In a study conducted by Dimensional Research and sponsored by FloQast, every controller surveyed said that technology had changed their jobs, and for most of them, the impact has been huge. 96 percent reported that technology has had a “big impact” on their jobs. Sometimes change can be a hassle, but in accounting, it has been overwhelmingly positive.

According to 98 percent of finance and accounting professionals surveyed, technology has helped them make better decisions. On top of that, 91 percent said that technology has dramatically increased the quality of financial statements.

But with new and improved solutions constantly rolling out promising faster processes, more accurate results, and streamlined implementations, identifying which software has the biggest potential to positively impact the organization can be confusing. The survey of 300 financial professionals asked: Which of the following solutions has the potential to positively impact the job of the controller?

The answer might not be exactly what you would think.

According to the survey, 71 percent of respondents reported that financial close software — not cloud-based ERPs — was the innovation that has the most potential to positively impact the job of the controller, reflecting how important it is to streamline the close process to provide more accurate numbers, consistently.

The survey also revealed that people might not know what they are missing out on. Among controllers that use close management software, 81 percent said that the software has a positive impact on the controller. Additionally, the report also revealed that colleagues of controllers who use close management software are perceived to be doing their job better than those that do not.