Two weeks ago I wrote about building a task inventory — sorting the work in your finance office into three categories.
Last week I covered moving the freed hours from category one into category two and three work.
That tells you where the hours should go. It doesn’t tell you how to get there in an orderly way. Here’s the four-step sequence.
1. Score each category two/three task on two axes
For every task you’re moving people into, estimate the hours it will absorb and the training lift required to do it well. A staff accountant reviewing AI-drafted variance narratives against known outages is a low-lift shift — they already understand the account. Moving someone into FERC Form 1 exception handling with no prior exposure is a high-lift shift, even if the hours line up.
2. Sequence by ratio, not by enthusiasm
Start with tasks that free the most hours for the least training investment. That’s usually the review and exception-handling work tied closely to tasks the person already did manually — the variance schedule reviewer, the reconciliation exception handler. Save the highest-lift moves, like putting someone into board narrative drafting, for later in the sequence, with a training plan attached, not as a first move.
3. Draft the job description language for each transition
I gave one example last week: “prepares monthly journal entries” becomes “reviews AI-drafted journal entries against source documentation and posts exceptions.” Do this for every task moving in the sequence, not just the first one. If the job description doesn’t change, the position doesn’t change.
4. Set checkpoints at 90, 180, and 365 days — tied to specific tasks
Set specific goals: by day 90, category one invoice keying is fully automated with staff review; by day 180, the reviewer is catching variance errors independently, without escalation; by day 365, that role’s job description and compensation have been formally updated to reflect the shift.
The roadmap isn’t a tool rollout schedule. It’s a sequence of role and training changes, each one tied to a task and an hour count from your original inventory.
About the Author
Russ Hissom, CPA is a principal of UtilityEducation.com, a firm that provides power and utilities rate and expert witness services, and on-demand professional education classes in co-op and utility accounting, finance, ratemaking, artificial intelligence, and management.
Russ was a partner in a national accounting and consulting firm for 20 years. He works with electric investor-owned and public power utilities, electric cooperatives, and gas, water, and wastewater utilities. His goal is to share industry best practices to help your business perform effectively and efficiently and meet the challenges of the changing power and utilities industry.
Contact Russ at [email protected]
The material in this article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as legal or accounting advice provided by Utility Accounting & Rates Specialists, LLC or UtilityEducation.com. You should seek formal advice on this topic from your accounting or legal advisor.