Robotic Process Automation to Aid Accounting and Finance Departments

RPA comprises software robots, colloquially referred to as bots, representing a reusable task and process automation pattern. Bots perform some human-like functions, such as reading a screen in one application and copying and pasting relevant text into another. RPA uses artificial intelligence to eliminate errors and automate repetitive, high-volume tasks. Rather than that, it can automate specific steps in a lengthy process, which has been a significant driver of its adoption. Today, UiPath Robots automatically collect, assemble and present the data on a dashboard for the underwriters to assess.

A qualified team manages and monitors the robots 24/7 (the robot, not the data that it’s handling). In terms of recurring costs, you may only have to factor in the license for the platform (such as UiPath) on which the robots are built, and an additional seat(s) for any software you use in-house. However, RPA must be teamed with effective operational and procedural safeguards to ensure robots are not tampered with. Even a well-meaning employee who changes the robot’s workflow slightly can introduce risk in the system if the change has not been properly assessed. A parent company needed to consolidate its Intercompany GL Entries, ensuring they were not being exaggerated due to the transactions occurring between subsidiaries. It implemented a cloud-based custom Amortization Engine for Intercompany Asset Transfers (IAT), combining financial results for multiple legal entities into a consolidated organization.

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RPA is part of the greater trend of hyperautomation, enabling organizations to move from automation that mimics human actions toward automation that uses data to optimize end-to-end finance processes. Firstly, you can use RPA to swiftly resolve inquiries, ensuring a seamless financial experience for clients. If you generate reports or analyze invoices fast, your banking specialists would require several minutes to answer the client’s requests instead of multiple hours or even days. Secondly, modern developments in AI are notable for their ability to enhance RPA.

Many modern banks, such as Quantic in the U.S., actively use RPA tools for processing invoices. Moreover, they go even further and offer their customers an opportunity to use various items for processing such data. Quantic has, for example, developed a payment ring with the help of BankWise, a major leader in the RPA market. Most countries have strict demands for financial organizations functioning within their economies. In the U.S., there are many laws that make it hard for local banks to do certain things. Regulations provided by such laws tend to be complex and, as a result, may be confusing for the average worker.

How RPA Transforms Finance and Accounting

RPA bots are scalable and can be called forward to manage high data volumes and answer a massive influx of queries in record times. RPA delivers umpteen benefits regarding finance automation that allow CFOs and other financial professionals to evolve and act following the economic sphere’s variables. RPA streamlines the collection of vendor invoices and automatically assigns these to the workers based on a pre-established set of rules. As a result, businesses would maximize revenue, save time, and receive payments more quickly. Let’s explore some of the most common use cases of RPA in finance operations and accounting, considering the advantages offered by automation.

The first step in your RPA journey, therefore, must be finding a partner who can explain RPA and has experience offering RPA services for accounting firms. We hold education sessions regularly and walk you through one-on-one on everything RPA. The solution substantially reduced the manual effort involved in calculating monthly, quarterly, and yearly amortizations, and proved a big advantage when auditing financial statements. A firm was looking to streamline a resource-intensive invoice generation and uploading process.

Invoice processing

RPA services for accounting firms have gone from digital transformation peculiarity to panacea. Over half of accounting firms worldwide have implemented RPA in their operations, and that’s expected to rise to over three-quarters within the next year or so. When considering the processes mentioned above, it is important to take an objective view and identify any areas where improvements can reduce waste. Make note of these improvements and document the steps involved, as well as the relevant parties involved.

• If such incompatibilities exist, it could lead to inefficiencies and require additional manual intervention.
• It’s important that the accounting processes are broken down into steps beforehand, following business rules.
• Use AI-powered automation to implement innovative accounting practices, take over cumbersome reporting functions, and manage your business’s policies and procedures.
• The finance department is vitally important in ensuring workflow efficiencies, reducing risk, and becoming a strategic partner to your business.
• Accounting firms are using RPA (alongside technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence) in most areas of the business, including their advisory, taxation, and assurance services.
• Most countries have strict demands for financial organizations functioning within their economies.
• This company-wide effort crosses multiple functional areas and is reinforced by critical project management and a strong technology infrastructure.

Your success is our success.From onboarding to financial operations excellence, our customer success management team helps you unlock measurable value. Through workshops, webinars, digital success options, tips and tricks, and more, you will develop leading-practice processes and strategies to propel your organization forward. Global brands and the fastest growing companies run Oracle and choose BlackLine to accelerate digital transformation. BlackLine delivers comprehensive solutions that unify accounting and finance operations across your Oracle landscape. It’s time to embrace modern accounting technology to save time, reduce risk, and create capacity to focus your time on what matters most.

Data Analysis Tools

Read our article about RPA marketplaces to see how RPA companies are integrating AI models into their bots. This decreases errors and helps to invoice smaller items missed by manual processing. Improving the invoicing process provides more revenue from existing transactions.

Although automation has affected multiple business processes, many financial tasks have remained manual. The lack of appropriate resources, solutions & organizational uneasiness of placing sensitive functions in the hands of robots is the most significant setback for introducing RPA in finance. RPA uses bots to execute complex business processes using the same interfaces people use.

Fast-track digital transformation with finance and accounting RPA

The majority of the information about financial activities is stored within the banks in an organized manner. All one has to do is store the data digitally rpa use cases in accounting and let the robotic assistants review the key points. In this light, a strong use case for RPA is to generate comprehensive financial reports.

Still, adoption of new digital technologies and cloud remains a challenging feat. In fact, a McKinsey case study showed that after unlocking the full power of automation, the month-end closing processes lasted two days instead of two weeks. The automation rate of purchase invoice handling is often lower than necessary due to exceptions in transaction level data or incomplete master data.

RPA in accounting and finance: The big picture view

On top of that, these processes are data-sensitive, and a slight clerical error could result in substantial losses. Automation technology, like RPA, can also access information through legacy systems, integrating well with other applications through front-end integrations. This allows the automation platform to behave similarly to a human worker, performing routine tasks, such as logging in and copying and pasting from one system to another.