A fiduciary and a startup explain how they have been able to meet their accounting obligations normally despite the pandemic, thanks to 4.0.
How can we continue to work together during containment and complete accounting formalities on time?
For its part, FinCorp has continued to communicate with its customers – from very small companies to large international groups – and serve them almost normally in real time.
FinCorp is the accounting and tax department of Finimmo Luxembourg, a digital fiduciary specialising in company domiciliation, accounting and taxation, as well as fund administration.
In 2017, it launched FinConnect, a digital platform facilitating the electronic management of documents as well as the exchange of information between clients and accountants (see our article “FinConnect: Your accountant 4.0“).
“We have been able to note a much more in-depth analysis of our clients’ financial data thanks to the use of the dashboards.”
The objectives of the tool are to channel the information needed to prepare client accounts, optimise their collection and management and to facilitate access to them.
“The idea was firstly to facilitate the transfer of these data flows, using current digital tools,” explains Frédéric Depireux, Director Domiciliation & Accounting of the fiduciary. “The idea was also to provide technological added value in terms of invoice processing, through a character recognition system (OCR), followed by automated document analysis, encoding and accounting”.
Once all the financial information has been inserted and validated in the accounting system, dashboards updated in real time offer customers a view of the state of its accounts, its performance and financial data. Moreover, they can access the documents saved on the platform 24/7 via a secured access.
Collaborative tool
“We have been able to note a much more in-depth analysis of our clients’ financial data thanks to the use of these dashboards,” adds Frédéric Depireux. “In addition, the platform allows them greater autonomy thanks to our payment module and the generation of customized reports.”
In addition, FinConnect is intended to be a collaborative tool: the fiduciary can exchange information with its customers directly via the platform.
During the containment and health crisis, the application proved its reliability, according to Frédéric Depireux: “Thanks to our platform and our technology, we have not had any forced work interruptions, and have been able to continue to serve our customers remotely and provide them with financial information essential to the management of their companies,” says the CFO.
“We have been using the tool for more than a year; our processes were well in place and well-established, even before the containment.”
Business and accounting as usual
“The platform was there to ensure the transfer of information and documents. We could see that the tool was really adapted to the new situation of containment and teleworking”. The startup DataThings only uses Finconnect on a quarterly basis, for VAT declarations in particular (see our article “One year gone by fast for DataThings“).
The spin-off from the University of Luxembourg, which currently employs eight people, develops software for the real-time processing and analysis of large volumes of data, based on machine learning and artificial intelligence, on behalf of industries among others (see our article “DataThings: From university spin-off to trusted innovation partner of major clients“).
“The platform offers ease of transfer and electronic management of accounting documents, where small businesses still work with paper documents and cardboard filing cabinets,” explains Grégory Nain, its co-founder and head of operations. “It also allows us to save time and increase the reliability of our accounting declaration formalities”.
For the startup, the containment period has not changed anything technically, either in terms of using the tool or managing the accounting: “We have been using the tool for more than a year; our processes were well in place and well-established, even before the containment,” says Grégory Nain. “During the pandemic, we did what we normally do, which above all allowed us to avoid an additional problem that we did not have to solve.”
Photo: Frédéric Depireux, Director Domiciliation & Accounting of the Finimo © Finimmo Luxembourg
