Navigating the financial landscape can be difficult. Key accounting challenges in 2024 make dealing with uncertainty especially hard.
Preparation for these accounting challenges can help companies navigate and grow. The following are some challenges to get ready for.
Discover key accounting challenges to prepare for in 2024 to help navigate the financial landscape.
Cash Flow
Softening consumer spending is causing some companies to improve cash flow in 2024. Many companies are implementing cost containment and deferring planned investments to increase liquidity.
Steps to improve cash flow include:
- Improving the efficiency of accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AR) processes.
- Focusing on expenses, past-due invoices, and operating cash flow.
- Make informed business decisions by looking for changes or fluctuations in daily cash reports.
Financial Forecasting
Accurate financial forecasting amidst a mixed economic outlook and market volatility is difficult. However, financial forecasting is especially important to help businesses navigate through challenging times.
As a result, business leaders should take the following actions for financial forecasting:
- Use financial statements to evaluate and predict business performance.
- Use real-time analytics to build financial models.
- Factor historical trends, current conditions, and best-case, worst-case, and most likely scenarios into financial models.
- Engage in scenario planning.
- Reexamine forecasts for sales, expenses, and cash.
- Test and retest assumptions.
- Model cash flow, burn rate, and liquidity under multiple scenarios.
Payroll Management
Changing federal and state laws and regulations impact tax withholdings, filings, and payments. Also, managing state income taxes for remote employees in different locations can be challenging. Violations can result in audits and tax penalties.
To resolve these issues, consider automating your processes with a cloud-based payroll platform that calculates the following:
- Earnings
- Deductions
- Company contributions
- Taxes
- Paid time off
The payroll platform should also provide support for multiple jurisdictions regarding:
- Taxes
- Forms
- Direct deposit
- Related issues
Upskilling
The increasing use of automation requires accountants to increase their skill sets to provide additional value for employers. Upskilling in areas that require the human touch helps improve career growth.
Hard skills to develop include:
- Financial modeling
- Financial forecasting
- Cloud-based payroll
- Data Analytics
- Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
Soft skills to develop include:
- Adaptability
- Flexibility
- Attention to detail
- Communication
- Creativity
- Independent work
- Virtual collaboration
- Ongoing learning
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