The finance department is an essential part of any organization, responsible for tasks like sending invoices, handling contracts, making payments, ensuring compliance, and preparing reports. These tasks often involve a lot of paperwork, which can be time-consuming, lead to mistakes, and depend on getting approvals quickly. In the past, finance teams were hindered by manual, paper-based processes that made their work less efficient.
In today’s world, eSignWS can significantly improve the way finance departments work. By automating the process of managing documents and helping with the smooth signing of contracts and agreements, eSignWS allows finance teams to work faster and more accurately.
This article will explain how eSignWS makes it easier for financial teams to enhance efficiency, save money, and better adhere to important rules and regulations.
The Challenges of Traditional Finance Processes
Finance departments often face challenges due to traditional, inefficient, risky methods. By understanding these problems, we can see how eSignWS can significantly improve the situation.
- Manual Paperwork: Finance teams handle many types of documentation, such as vendor contracts and employee expense claims. These documents must go through several stages of approval and be signed by individuals, needing printing, scanning, mailing, and storing physical copies. This process is time-consuming and prone to errors and delays.
- Long Approval Times: Documents such as purchase orders, contracts, and loan agreements often require signatures from multiple stakeholders. When these individuals are in different locations, obtaining signatures using traditional methods can take days or weeks, causing delays in cash flow and decision-making.
- Compliance Risks: Finance departments must ensure that all documents adhere to legal regulations. Managing signatures and storing paper copies increases the risk of losing essential records, which can lead to legal problems and costly fines.
- High Costs: Printing, mailing, and storing paper documents can be expensive. Finance teams spend considerable time on these tasks, adding to overall costs. These expenses can diminish the company’s financial resources.
- Lack of Transparency: It’s often difficult for finance teams to track the approval process, leading to delays and inefficiencies due to a lack of real-time visibility into the status of essential documents.
By adopting eSignWS, finance departments can overcome these challenges, enhance efficiency, and reduce costs.
The Benefits of eSignWS for Finance Teams
eSignWS is a tool designed to solve common problems faced by finance departments by providing a more accessible, digital method for managing signatures and approvals. Here are the main ways eSignWS enhances the efficiency of finance teams:
Faster Document Processing
Finance departments often need to handle critical paperwork quickly, such as contracts, payment requests, and bills. To expedite processes like paying suppliers or approving loans, obtaining signatures promptly is essential. With eSignWS, documents can be signed electronically, eliminating the need to print or mail them. Stakeholders can sign using their phone, tablet, or computer anytime, speeding up document completion and helping finance teams meet deadlines. For instance, a contract that used to take two weeks to sign can now be finalized in just a few hours, accelerating cash flow and improving relationships with suppliers.
Fewer Mistakes and Better Accuracy
eSignWS automates financial document workflows, reducing common mistakes like missing signatures, incorrect information, or lost documents. It ensures that all required fields are completed before sending a document for approval, preventing the submission of incomplete or incorrect paperwork. Additionally, finance teams can use templates and automated reminders, further minimizing errors.
Better Compliance and Record-Keeping
Adhering to legal regulations is crucial in finance; non-compliance can result in fines or legal issues. eSignWS tracks every step in the approval process, creating a detailed record of who accessed, modified, or approved each document. This record is vital for demonstrating compliance with laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in the U.S. or the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe. eSignWS also ensures that all digital signatures are legally valid and meet international regulations, eliminating the need for physical copies.
Cost Savings on Paper, Printing, and Storage
One of the main benefits of using eSignWS is the cost savings. Finance departments can significantly reduce expenses by switching to digital processes, which reduces paper, printing, and physical storage costs. For example, a finance department that handles 5,000 documents a year might spend about $0.10 per printed document, totaling $500 yearly. When you add the costs for mailing, maintenance, and employee time, the savings quickly increase.
Increased Productivity Through Automation
By automating document workflows, eSignWS allows finance teams to focus on more important tasks rather than time-consuming administrative duties. Instead of manually checking approval statuses, eSignWS sends automatic reminders to all involved parties, ensuring timely signatures. It also allows teams to create templates for commonly used documents, reducing the time spent preparing paperwork. These improvements give finance experts more time for strategic tasks like financial planning, budgeting, and risk management, ultimately benefiting the company’s growth.
Real-Time Visibility and Tracking
A common challenge for finance teams is the lack of clarity regarding the status of essential documents. Real-time visibility makes it easier to track a document’s approval process and identify who needs to take the next step. eSignWS allows finance teams to monitor progress, see who has signed, and pinpoint the next approver in in real time. This transparency helps prevent delays and enables finance teams to be more proactive, leading to faster decisions and improved financial management.
Use Cases for eSignWS in Finance Teams
- Accounts Payable and Receivable
eSignWS streamlines the approval process for invoices and payments. By enabling vendors to sign purchase orders electronically, finance teams can expedite invoice processing and ensure timely payments. Similarly, eSignWS accelerates obtaining signatures for payment authorizations, reducing the time required in the accounts payable cycle.
- Loan Agreements and Credit Approvals
Securing signatures on loan agreements, credit approvals, and financial contracts is essential for finance teams, whether collaborating with internal stakeholders or external partners. eSignWS speeds up this process, guaranteeing timely approval of loans and credits.
- Compliance Documents and Reporting
Numerous financial regulations mandate the need for documented approvals for audits, risk management reports, and compliance activities. eSignWS guarantees that these documents are signed, stored, and monitored with an audit trail, simplifying compliance maintenance and regulatory inspections.
- Vendor Contracts and Procurement
eSignWS simplifies contract management by enabling vendors to sign contracts digitally. This efficiency prevents delays in procurement and ensures that vendor relationships are effectively managed.
How to Implement eSignWS in Finance
- Identify Pain Points: Identify the specific areas within your finance team that experience the most delays and inefficiencies, such as the invoicing process or vendor contract approvals.
- Choose the Right Plan: eSign Workspace offers subscription options tailored to document volume and user needs. Select a plan that aligns with your department’s transaction volume and document management requirements.
- Train the Team: Provide training to finance employees on using eSignWS, focusing on creating templates, managing approvals, and monitoring documents.
- Monitor and Optimize: After implementing the platform, monitor its performance to further optimize processes, such as automating daily workflows.
Try eSignWS Today!
eSignWS is a powerful tool for finance teams seeking to increase productivity, reduce costs, and simplify compliance. By transforming paper-based processes into digital ones, finance departments can avoid the challenges associated with paper and focus on more strategic tasks. The benefits of eSignWS, such as faster approvals and improved visibility, are clear, making it an essential tool for finance teams aiming to remain competitive in today’s fast-paced business environment.