nearly all departments within all companies have an untapped ‘cognitive surplus’. A ‘cognitive surplus’ is the difference among the unique duties an worker is assigned to do and what they virtually are able to doing – the real versus the potential paintings.It seems apparent, but to faucet into it the ‘Cognitive Surplus’ could make a big distinction.corporations such as 3M, Dell and Google have all implemented what’s known as ‘20% time’ or ‘innovation time’ – sooner or later in their running week, devoted to some thing tasks they prefer… supplied it advantages the agency in some way.Does it pay off?One would possibly surprise: Does it pay off? well, at Google this has resulted in successful tasks such as Gmail, Google news and AdSense, and according to ex-worker, Marissa Mayer, as many as half of of Google innovations are a result of ‘20% time’.however, while this method might be taken into consideration something marketplace leaders can utilise, many finance departments perceive they slightly have the time to finish all of the necessary work at gift, by no means thoughts crafting new and revolutionary ideas, supporting procedures that aid business boom.yet finance departments in reality do want this ‘innovation time’.in this sluggish and occasionally contracting economy, the following years may be critical for businesses. it’s going to fall largely on finance departments to walk the thin line among productive spending and managing a dwindling pool of assets. moreover, with a number of new financial policies getting into area on this -yr duration, monetary departments can be instrumental in assisting businesses to stay compliant without dropping their contemporary standing.This extra strain and workload will make it tough for finance to inspire new expertise whilst protecting on to the personnel they have already got. Finance specialists require stimulating challenges with out being overloaded with extra work – they want ‘20% time’ to efficaciously faucet-in to their understanding, and now not have their time consumed through prolonged, repetitive tasks – that can be computerized.a way to find time for tapping into ‘Cognitive Surplus’ within the finance departmentOne way wherein corporations can assist free up a number of their finance department’s time to finish duties, is by using automating the tedious and time-eating obligations that turn prospective skills off finance paintings. Reconciliation is one such set of obligations that finance experts discover specially tiresome and time ingesting. fortuitously it is now viable to automate account reconciliation, processing masses of thousands of transactions in only minutes in preference to hours or probably days.while considerably decreasing reconciliation mistakes, automation additionally frees up huge chunks of time that could be dedicated to maintaining compliance, offering strategic perception in this difficult economic system.This extra time could even turn out to be the rarely considered ‘innovation time’ your business desires to inspire growth and live competitive.