The realm of finance and accounting presents a multitude of mundane and repetitive tasks that demand extensive time and effort for completion. These monotonous responsibilities detrimentally impact productivity and efficiency, leading to decreased customer satisfaction and reduced profitability.
Conquering this obstacle has become a paramount objective for the industry. However, through the implementation of robotic process automation (RPA) in finance and accounting, this challenge has been successfully overcome. RPA solution stands as one of the most captivating technologies in the modern world, captivating the attention of industry professionals.
RPA solutions entail the automation of processes that would typically require human intervention, leveraging intelligent bots capable of adhering to predetermined rules and regulations. These tireless automatons operate continuously without the need for breaks, fatigue, or a loss of focus, making them a perfect complement for the financial sector.
Gartner's research showcases the extensive acceptance of robotic process automation in finance, with a staggering 80% of financial leaders having already embraced or have imminent plans to adopt this technology.
The following are the most significant applications and advantages of robotic process automation in finance & accounting, which have encouraged the widespread use of the technology within the sector.
Reports Generation
An organization must create several financial reports as part of its compliance. Although there are templates to handle them, the accounting team finds it challenging to acquire data from various systems and combine them to create them. RPA collects and combines data from many sources to assist in generating internal and external reports for management's review also arranges for automated transmission to outside sources.
Accounts Receivables
RPA is more dependent on internal data; hence organizations choose to adopt it in accounts receivables before other operations. The team can reduce the time spent on tasks like creating sales quotes, checking order data, tracking customer credits, distributing invoices, and processing payments following validation thanks to the software.
Accounts Payable
Using optical character recognition, RPA converts invoices received from various suppliers into digital format (OCR). It pulls every field from the invoice and verifies and prepares an invoice by filling the invoice form with the retrieved data to standardize it. After that, the process routes the invoice for payment. The program automatically completes the payment on the due date and funds the vendor's bank account. The reports are systemically reconciled when the payment file is transferred to the bank.
Invoice processing
Invoices are a standard aspect of the financial department of daily operations. The majority of the process needs human entry, therefore processing one invoice typically takes roughly two weeks. Invoice handling is made simpler by RPA in financial procedures. In a couple of minutes, bots can gather and extract receipts, gather data, submit an invoice to suppliers, provide alerts, and offer reconciliation. RPA bots are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so there is less possibility of an invoice being missed. As soon as a receipt is received, the RPA program immediately extracts the data.
General Ledger
The general ledger is another time-consuming process used to manage balance sheets and income statement transactions. It is one of the financial processes that businesses automate to lessen the workload on their staff. During this process, the RPA applies account reconciliation standards by policies and procedures and reconciles general ledger accounts following the workflow. The program records the accuracy of the balance after the reconciliation procedure is finished.
Advantages of Having RPA in the Finance & Accounting Improve governance and control
Automate manual checks to secure compliance.
Make the business more robust
Eliminating labour-intensive, repetitive, and manual jobs will enable the transformation of any change.
Boost cash flow
Automates invoicing and reconciliation process by simplifying accounts payable/receivable processes.
Enhance financial processing speed
RPA provides financial data as needed, assisting with external reporting and company decision-making.
Lower your expenses
Help automate laborious processes, run data validation checks, and increase the effectiveness of financial operations.
Increased precision
RPA can help to lower processing mistakes.
