By AAT Comment AutomationDigital transformation will be crucial to retaining accountants in 202323 Jan 2023 Experts at accounting automation company FloQast predict how organisations will deal with continued economic volatility.Digital transformationAdam Zoucha, Managing Director EMEA “2023 is not going to be the time for business as usual. As recession bites, businesses must consider making strategic investments to support productivity, innovation and to remain competitive. Whilst many may cut back, those businesses pushing ahead with digital transformation will drive greater efficiencies and productivity in a volatile economy. This will place them in a stronger, more competitive position in the long term.”Take your accounting practice to the next levelSign up to our online mastercourse for live expert insight and advice on growing your practice, from attracting and retaining clients to increasing your rates and scaling your business.Book nowRetention“In a challenging economy retaining the right skills is critical to company performance and productivity. Chronic workplace stress and burnout remain high amongst accountancy teams, and with recession comes additional demands from leadership. Digital transformation will be a central component for the retention of accounting teams in 2023. Adopting the right technology will improve workload and boost productivity – meaning it can also improve employee retention. Provided employees understand the purpose and goals of any technology being implemented, it will improve efficiencies and contribute to greater job satisfaction.”A strategic CFORazzak Jallow, Chief Financial Officer“With recession comes increased pressure to deliver agile, accurate reporting. CFOs will need to employ the right combination of intelligent automation, deep visibility, and genuinely people-centric collaboration tools to support their team. When the burden of highly-manual, repetitive tasks is removed, CFOs can focus on strategic initiatives to drive the business forward in challenging economic conditions. This will allow teams to do more with less and ensure CFOs have robust real-time financial insights to support decision making.”Tech to enable the CFO“Tech adoption was hugely accelerated during the pandemic and this will continue into 2023 with challenging economic conditions squeezing finance teams harder than ever. Digital transformation must be a priority for CFOs looking to build more robust, efficient processes whilst simultaneously lowering costs and increasing productivity.”Fintech and technical proficiencyCullen Zandstra, Co-Founder and CTO“Financial teams deal with sensitive data every day, so hybrid working has elevated security risks with endpoint management being an ongoing challenge. It’s likely that engineers at Fintech organisations will increasingly carry a greater responsibility for engineering products with top security protocols built into their solutions. Working closely with customers will be pivotal to tackling the security challenges faced.”About FloQastTech unicorn FloQast delivers workflow automation software enabling organizations to operationalize accounting excellence. Trusted by more than 1,900 accounting teams – including Twilio, Los Angeles Lakers, Zoom and Snowflake – FloQast was built by accountants, for accountants to enhance the way accounting teams work. FloQast enables customers to streamline processes such as automated reconciliations, documentation requests and other workflows that impact the month-end close, financial reporting and payroll, and is consistently rated #1 across all user review sites. Learn more at FloQast.com. AAT Comment offers news and opinion on the world of business and finance from the Association of Accounting Technicians.