So let\u2019s dig into some of what they shared with event attendees.<\/p>\n
The product pillars that define Silverfin (and where AI comes in)<\/h3>\n
1. Working with real-time client data<\/span> Along with ensuring our platform synchronises data from leading systems used by accountants, we are also looking at how AI can help. In particular, the mapping of data when it is centralised in Silverfin. This is normally a very time and labour intensive task for accountants. Not to mention boring and repetitive. Not with Silverfin. By utilising AI, we\u2019ve made the process of mapping real-time data to your chart of accounts as quick and easy as possible. With all client data in our platform, you don\u2019t have to worry what system the client is using: no more manually transferring data from one system to another or logging in and out of different systems. What would have taken hours per client file in the past can now be completed in minutes and clicks. Plus once it\u2019s done, it\u2019s done. Future data is uploaded or automatically synchronised and mapped for you.<\/p>\n 2. Analytics and reporting<\/span> For firms expanding into advisory, Silverfin also lets you go even deeper into the data with our Insights module. Create powerful queries across the entire portfolio to benchmark your clients, track sector performance trends or spot opportunities to improve your client\u2019s financial management.<\/p>\n All of these tools ultimately mean you now spend less time crunching numbers, and more face-to-face time with your clients.<\/p>\n 3. Workflow automation <\/span> That\u2019s why we place such a huge emphasis on workflow automation. By automating mundane, data-heavy tasks, accountants can then use their time and expertise to dig into what the numbers mean \u2014 and to offer up their strategic advice. Automation of previously manual tasks also comes with the added benefit of accuracy as you reduce the possibility of errors. So we continue to improve (and add to) the key processes our platform automates and streamlines. Aside from ensuring they remain up-to-date with changes in legislation we continuously improve the best practice workflows at the heart of Silverfin.<\/p>\n We are also looking for ways that our platform can help here. Beyond simply streamlining and standardising this common work in firms, we want the platform to monitor and highlight to managers when it sees issues, missing or contradictory data, delays or deviations in process. Another place we expect our AI development to play a key role going forward.<\/p>\n 4. Collaboration <\/span> The best way to collaborate is to use a single source of truth. Keeping everything within one system \u2014 all projects, all data, and all back and forth in communication \u2014 this increases visibility and decreases the risk of mistakes or misunderstandings. It also means that everybody has the full context for all discussions. There\u2019s no \u201cwhich document are you referring to?\u201d or digging around in endless emails. So this year we\u2019ve also made improvements in our communications and collaboration tools built into Silverfin. Accountants get a single integrated inbox to see messages, to-dos and topics of interest across their entire client base – no need to log in and out of specific client files. Clients can collaborate on their file with the accounting team too. People work on files in Silverfin just as they work on shared Office or Google Docs with comments and messaging built right into the workflow. Got a question? Tag a colleague or client and get the answer (or additional) information you need. And importantly, save the communication with the client file as a clear paper trail should you need it in the future. No more email or portals to contend with.<\/p>\n 5. Data syncs, APIs and developer tools<\/span> Many of our customers also build their own workflows and reports on our platform – taking advantage of the client data and our core functionality to deliver new digital services to their clients. So here too we invest in improving our templating framework, Liquid, and we develop training and services to support the growing community of developer accountants.<\/p>\n We want to thank our product team for their tireless work over the past year. They\u2019ve tackled a wide variety of projects, from small(ish) wins that are important but might go unnoticed, all the way through to glitzy large-scale product updates or releases.<\/p>\n Examples of the 100s of improvements to Silverfin this year were explained in our Fast Forward Studio<\/a> event, but here are just a couple to give you a flavour of what our team have been working on.<\/p>\n On the smaller side of things, all draft messages are now auto-saved. This means that if you\u2019re adding a note or a message within a client file and accidentally click off the pop-up, your message will still be saved. It might not be the most exciting update but it\u2019s certainly made collaborating within Silverfin even more user-friendly than before.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s our new review screen<\/a>. I\u2019d be willing to bet that the vast majority of our customers have noticed this development. When speaking to Silverfin users, we were shocked to realise that many of them were reviewing workflows in our platform on paper! They found it difficult to conduct final reviews in Silverfin itself. So we\u2019ve fixed that \u2014 saving trees and printer ink in the process. Thanks to our new review screen, you can compare two different periods (such as your clients\u2019 2019 and 2020 accounts) side by side and we even highlight the differences. So reviewing working papers is as easy as creating them in the first place in Silverfin.<\/p>\n Ken and An talk a lot about what the future holds for Silverfin but the summary would be that aside from continuous improvement to the platform, we will be focusing on building out our AI roadmap so that we can provide even more value to our customers, giving them richer insights and saving even more time.<\/p>\n For instance, we\u2019re currently working on a \u2018smart\u2019 forecasting functionality that will drastically speed up the process of creating a budget. We\u2019re also looking to improve our benchmarking capabilities by making it easier for accountants to compare performance and common data points across all their clients.<\/p>\n More generally, Ken explained that our ultimate aim is to integrate AI even further into the platform. We want it to act as an invisible assistant, constantly analysing the data, providing autocomplete suggestions, and adding value at every stage of an accountant\u2019s various workflows. It shouldn\u2019t be its own feature as such, but it should be the guiding force shaping everything that our platform does (similar to the ways in which Gmail, Netflix and Spotify use AI).<\/p>\n If you\u2019d like to learn more about anything that we\u2019ve mentioned in this product update, watch Fast Forward Studio<\/a> or get in touch<\/a> to chat with a member of our team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our product priorities, how these have shaped our recent developments and what we are working on for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":96415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[925],"tags":[880,942],"class_list":["post-96414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blog-en-ie","tag-fast-forward-en-ie"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWe believe every accountant should have access to their client\u2019s real-time data, whether that\u2019s from their bookkeeping software or other financial systems. This is no longer a nice-to-have \u2014 it\u2019s a must. This is key for efficient and accurate reporting \u2014 accountants can\u2019t provide valuable strategic advice if they lack reliable and up-to-date data. Only seeing a clients\u2019 numbers once a year is a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n
\nGetting live data into Silverfin is just the first step. Once there, data automatically pre-populates not only your working papers and year-end accounts, but your management reports too. This means, in just a few clicks, you can build customised professional looking reports for your clients. We recently added charts<\/a> to our reporting capabilities to help you produce even more impactful reports.<\/p>\n
\nThere are significant future opportunities to grasp from advisory. However, that doesn\u2019t mean that compliance is no longer important or no longer necessary. Firms can only focus on advisory if they have accurate data and use standardised workflows to speed up the process of creating working papers, end-of-year accounts, quarterly reports, and so on.<\/p>\n
\nAs the proverb goes: \u201cIf you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go with others\u201d. Here at Silverfin, we believe that collaboration is the key to success. Colleagues need to be able to collaborate with one another on large, complex projects. They also need to be able to collaborate with their clients, getting questions answered, and walking them through their numbers or pinpointing areas for improvement going forward.<\/p>\n
\nAccountants don\u2019t typically work with just one financial system and neither does Silverfin. It\u2019s therefore crucial that we play nicely with other tools. We place a huge focus on developing our APIs to ensure that Silverfin complements whatever other tools our customers might be using within their firm. It\u2019s an area of continuous development. Finding new integrations. Updating existing ones to take advantage of any new developments at other companies. It may not be the most high profile change that happens to any product but it is foundational, particularly at a data level. It\u2019s critical that whatever the data source an accountant needs to work with we have a way of supporting that within Silverfin. So we will continue to add new sources and improve our syncs.<\/p>\nOur recent product developments<\/h3>\n
So what\u2019s coming up?<\/h3>\n
![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/silverfin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/image-2-3-2.png\")
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