Digital Accounting with Frederik Sandgrav
January 18th, 2018
”Processes and workflows are crucial when talking about digital accounting. It means that work processes are effectively run without the interference of humans,” Sandgrav says. He thinks that accountants should let technical solutions solve the basic problems automatically, and instead take the role as controllers that investigate discrepancies and approve the work of the technical bookkeeping solutions.
Time saved is money earned
Dansk Industri recently published a rapport stating that digitalised companies earn up to 2.5 times more per employee than non-digitalised companies and Sandgrav Solutions estimates that their digital setups are able to save businesses up to 80 % of the time they spend on accounting.
“Contrary to manual solutions, companies win the right to chose how they spend their time and resources. Digitalisation basically frees resources in the companies.”
Sandgrav explains that they can help the directors to save time on budget control, and sales departments to spend less time on billing. But at the same time, all the new digital solutions create the challenge of separating the wheat from the chaff. 20-30 years ago, only the largest companies could afford automatic and technical solutions, today even one-man companies are able to invest in accounting apps and programs.
“The recent development has lowered the prices,” Sandgrav states. “There are so many solutions, and they are cheap. At present, the challenge is to assess which solutions to use,” he explains. Sandgrav Solutions helps companies to navigate through all the new offerings.
New situation, new challenges
“We test the new best solutions on the market continuingly,” he explains: “When we have found a solution that we find interesting for our users, we introduce it in a pace that suits their temper. Our solutions are not static. We are not satisfied with the status quo and we are always looking for solutions that eventually surpass us as bookkeepers,” he concludes and mentions Pleo, Roger and Farpay as his favourite tools for bookkeeping.
The digital age also means new challenges with data security. When the General Data Protection Regulation enforces in May 2018, the European Union introduces a new setup for data privacy, which is something that bookkeepers should be aware of. Unsurprisingly Sandgrav also thinks that using digital solutions like Contractbook is the way to go.
“I expect my industry association FFB to come up with suggestions regarding the GDPR. For now, I concentrate on having all my contracts with Contractbook and I ensure that all my costumer credentials are kept there. I also use Zenegy as a payroll system which gives me options to do things right.”
