Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.20 2012.04.01 Takahashi Minoru

How to deal with accounting staff who insist on manual processes

Thank you for your interest and continued support.
This is Takahashi from the Marketing Plan Research Laboratory.


The other day, I visited a certain company
under the pretext of "creating a company-wide operations manual" and conducted surveys in various departments.
This was merely a pretext,
as the president’s actual request was, “Identify all unnecessary work.”


Prior to the visit, the president had
a general idea of what kinds of waste existed
before our visit.


The results of the investigation largely matched the president’s understanding, but
but in one department, the extent of waste was revealed to be far greater than expected.


It was the unnecessary work in the accounting department.
Our initial assumption was that “communication with other departments and business partners regarding document preparation and closing procedures tends to be delayed,”
. While that is certainly a valid operational challenge in itself,
separately, we discovered that they were routinely performing a wasteful task: “handwriting every single journal voucher.”


The volume amounted to about 100 slips per day, or approximately 2,000 per month.


Of course, the employees in the department, including the head of accounting, were all hardworking individuals,
and they continued this handwritten work under the pretext (?) that “it’s always been done this way” or “we’d be in trouble without it.”
However, upon hearing the results of the investigation, the president seemed quite shocked;
frowned deeply, closed his eyes tightly, and let out a groan that lasted several seconds.


In this day and age, employees who continue to work without questioning their methods
or seek ways to improve them
will inevitably be labeled “status quo people,” no matter how well-intentioned they may be.


If they would just voice their doubts,
before the friction of labeling or being labeled arises,
we may be able to help.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.


That's all, Thank you for reading.

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