Survey: Digitization of accounting processes

The study revealed that the much-cited digitization push has barely arrived, if at all, among smaller companies, the backbone of the Austrian economy. Even the pandemic has done little to change that.

"From my point of view, during the pandemic, SMEs were struggling to maintain operations under constantly changing conditions and had no resources to take care of converting processes." says Michael Dessulemoustier, partner at Mazars Austria.

This is particularly evident in the implementation of the home office. While 38% of the companies with more than 100 employees offered home office to their administrative staff during the pandemic to the extent of more than 51%, only 18% of the companies with less than 50 employees did so. 44% of these smaller companies even stated that they had offered no home office at all.

Although small companies with fewer than 50 employees also attach great importance to the digitization of accounting processes (84% stated that the topic is of very high or high importance), relatively few processes have actually already been digitized. As the size of the company grows, the importance of digitization also increases.

Only 49% of all companies with less than 50 employees have already implemented the digital capture of receipts, 11% of them during the pandemic. 42% stated that this step was not planned.

When it comes to setting up a digital workflow for approving incoming invoices, only 33% of companies with fewer than 50 employees have digitized the processes, but 12% still have plans to do so. The vast majority (55%) see no need for action here.

Overall, differences can be seen above all between companies with 20 to 49 employees and larger companies. Here, the numerous possibilities of digitizing accounting processes do not seem to have penetrated yet.

Michael Dessulemoustier sees the reason for this primarily in the organization and coordination of the numerous, already existing, support measures for digitization. "Companies are overwhelmed with getting an overview of these subsidies. At the same time, even companies with only a few employees could free themselves from many activities, especially in accounting, payroll and HR topics," Dessulemoustier said in the current issue of the business magazine Trend.

Mazars IT Services provides the right solution to digitalize your processes, individually adapted to the needs of your company. Our IT specialists look forward to hearing from you and will be happy to advise you.