What's the best way to reduce compliance costs & increase efficiencies in your organisation?

Posted 4 February 2019

Article by Andrew Bingley, SRJ Walker Wayland

‘It is estimated that the total cost of compliance to the Australian economy is in excess of 250 billion dollars annually.’

The team at SRJ Walker Wayland work with a diverse client base across numerous industries, all with differing compliance and reporting requirements.

They regularly see higher-than-necessary costs and inefficient processes that can be greatly improved.

So, what’s the best way to reduce compliance costs and raise efficiencies in your organisation?

Andrew Bingley from SRJ Walker Wayland shares some insights…

Reduce compliance costs with the right software

With a plethora of new software flooding the market, there are real opportunities for you to take advantage of it to reduce compliance costs and to improve efficiencies across your organisation.

For starters, well-chosen and correctly implemented cloud-based accounting software (such as Xero or MYOB) can dramatically improve efficiencies and therefore reduces costs.

There are also specific software solutions for heavily regulated industries, where compliance can be particularly challenging.

We’ve worked with clients that have implemented software specific for their particular industry. This is custom-designed to remain compliant with the relevant reporting bodies that these industries report to.

Industry-specific software packages are one of the best ways to reduce compliance costs, as they can greatly reduce the time taken to maintain required records and speed up the audit and reporting process.

In addition to packages designed for specific industries, software is available for making different processes within organisations more efficient.

Some of the software that we’ve experienced in this area includes:

• Expense management
  
• Receipt and payment management
  
• Payroll approval and processing including timesheets
  
• Engagement and billing 

Benefits of using the right software in your organisation 

The potential benefits of using software either specific to your industry or to manage a particular process within your organisation are:

• Transparent audit trail
  
• Segregation of duties through defined roles
  
• Possible cloud-based software giving the benefit of remote/portable access for the user and for the audit team
  
• Having regular developer updates to help to maintain compliance with changes to legislation. 

Before you implement software 

While the improvements from this software can be extremely helpful, it needs to be implemented in a strategic way.

Consider the following points before moving forward with any software implementation:

• Does the software actually comply with all relevant legislation applicable to your organisation? (The onus is on you to ensure that all compliance requirements are met)
  
• Does the developer offer ongoing support and regular updates?
  
• Does the software integrate with other software already in use?
  
• Do the intended benefits received from implementing the software exceed the cost of implementation and the ongoing costs?
  
• Would a trial period be useful prior to full implementation? You could run the new system in parallel to the existing one before making a final decision.
  

Security considerations in your organisation 

It is important to note that, with advances in technology and software systems, software security must be front of mind.

Some of the key points to consider here are:

• Passwords should be kept unique
  
• Passwords should be changed regularly
  
• User access should be regularly maintained
  
• Software access could have two-step authentication. 

Find out more

For more information about compliance or reporting requirements for your business, get in touch with the team at SRJ Walker Wayland.

Back