Great Resignation Ushers in Era of Finance Automation with 30% Reduction in DSO

Gaviti, an A/R collections automation system designed to help companies collect and manage client invoices, conducted a flash report to assess the state of the Accounting and Finance Departments during the Great Resignation. Their findings suggest opportunities for these teams, even as applications to fill their open positions plummeted 36% year over year between July 2021 and July 2022.

According to the US Department of Labor’s July report released on August 30th, 4.2 million people quit their jobs, while another 1.4 million were laid off or discharged. This same report showed how employers are struggling to fill the 10.7 million open positions across the country. These numbers are especially grim for accounting and finance departments which are seeing fewer candidates in the pipeline. The 36% drop is expected to only get worse, with the American Institute of Public Accountants (AICPA) seeing Accounting degree enrollments drop by 2.8%, Masters enrollments down 8.4%, and CPA examination candidates plummet by 17%. The same report estimates that it will cost an additional $50 billion for companies to attract new candidates– an expense that will disproportionately affect finance departments.

Part of the challenge in attracting new talent to Accounting and Finance teams is the tedious nature of the work, with 90% of expenses coming from the tedious manual nature of these departments, which have yet to undergo the same digital automation revolution experienced by many other sectors until recently. “33% of Americans say they'll consider switching companies after a single bad experience,” said Yan Lazarev, Co-founder and CEO at Gaviti. “These difficult times are seeing teams utilize automation tools with huge ROI in addition to greater job satisfaction. That translates into happier customers and greater revenue, allowing companies to grow during this time of great caution.”

Ushering in an era of automation for these otherwise left-behind teams comes with greater employee retention opportunities for employers. Automation and increased training can lead to a 218% income increase per employee, according to the Association for Talent Development. This is in line with Gaviti’s customers, who have seen a reduction in day sales outstanding (DSO) by 30% as a result of easier, more automated processes that keep operations transparent with greater accuracy. “This ability to retain qualified employees is something that managers have been craving for years,” said Alex Komarovsky, Co-Founder and CTO of Gaviti. “Our hope for this report is that once team leaders understand the full challenge and solutions landscape, they can modernize their teams to counter the alarming resignation trend.”