For DATEV’s annual business report, DATEV interviewed Mr. Klaus Schaefer, CEO at Gekartel, and Karsten Schmidt, INAA member in Germany, on how digitalisation is transforming businesses.
Who Are DATEV?
DATEV provides accounting, tax and audit software to more than 40,000 companies across Europe including members in Germany, Italy and Austria. As the biggest supplier of professional software for tax consultants, lawyers and auditors, DATEV are in a unique position to explore some of the industry’s hottest trends.
“Digitalisation makes all business processes faster, more efficient and simpler. Digital documents enable faster business analysis and the preparation of annual financial statements."
Karsten Schmidt
Chartered Accountant / INAA Member
So, What Did They Talk to DATEV About?
Implementing digital solutions helps everyone stay on the same page and reduces human errors for more accurate record-keeping. Karsten Schmidt and Klaus Schaefer explained how digitized receipts could help companies achieve more efficient accounting.
Keeping online versions of a receipt provides more accurate and up-to-date records about company finances, which are accessible with the click of a mouse. With more accurate insights, companies could then make savvier business decisions. "A long search in various paper folders is simply out of the question for us," said Klaus Schäfer.
Karsten Schmidt agreed as his company also uses digital bookkeeping to track invoices, record payments and create financial reports on bank account information. Digital accounting also makes it easier to pay outstanding invoices.
With digital bookkeeping creating so many opportunities, Karsten Schmidt doesn’t understand why companies are still hesitant. He occasionally has to convince clients to implement digital software and, in these cases, often uses examples based on the clients’ actual processes of the clients.
"The optimisation of processes, transparency and high efficiency are convincing in most cases," he says. "At the end of the day, the client saves a lot of money through digitization, because analog processes will have their price in the future.”
Klaus Schäfer supported this sentiment by saying, "digitized processes are simply the future of business.”
Medium-sized companies can take advantage of DATEV solutions to quickly get up-to-date with digitizing their processes. "DATEV Unternehmen online is relatively inexpensive. It can be introduced gradually in small steps and integrated into day-to-day business without interrupting processes too much. Plus, with a good tax consultant at your side, the digital transformation of your business processes is child's play."
Read the full article here and watch the video interview !