What types of tasks can you automate?
The World Economic Forum (WEF) report on The Future of Jobs says, “As the Fourth Industrial Revolution unfolds, companies are seeking to harness new and emerging technologies to reach higher levels of efficiency” A recent survey[1] of CFO’s found that more than 9 in 10 (92%) financial decision-makers are hopeful that AI and ML can automate mundane or repetitive tasks. There are a number of processes within the finance function where AI and ML can be used to deliver advanced levels of automation and improved accuracy.
AP Automation
What if your Financial Management System could automatically consume an electronic invoice direct from the E-mail. Use AI and ML technology to interpret it and then enter it into the Accounts Payable system for you. Then using workflow route the Invoice for approval. Now the function of Accounts Payable becomes a much faster review process instead of the old error prone data entry process. With this process in place, you can support your businesses growth, delivering them a world class Accounts Payable service, without the need for increasing headcount. It does not end there. Once invoices are approved, they can flow seamlessly into a payment queue where once flagged for payment will form a payment batch that is imported to your on-line banking platform. Details of the payment being made are emailed to suppliers so everyone is kept informed and the need to handle inbound enquiries is minimised. AP Automation will drive down the cost of processing supplier invoices in your organisation whilst speeding up the processing time and improving accuracy. With best-in-class financial management systems such as Sage Intacct this level of AP Automation is a reality and surprisingly easy to implement. With Accord at the helm, in just a matter of weeks this process could be live in your business.
Billing & Collections Automation
With a world class financial management system at the centre of your billing and collection process you can speed up the production of invoices and automate many of the collection steps. Even having the system send out courtesy emails in the lead up to the invoice due date. The use of modern collaboration tools, kept in the context of specific invoices, will allow credit controllers to chat with colleague outside of finance to rapidly answer any disputes. All the while the chain of chat messages should be neatly held in context against the correct documents or customer record. The end result of this automation is to reduce debtor days through more accurate billing and more efficient (and automated) collection techniques. The improved cashflow equals more working capital available to grow the business. Bank Reconciliation Automating that task starts off by consuming your bank statement data in an automated way into your Financial Management System. From here the system can use AI, ML to automatically match transactions. Where a transaction is in the Bank but is not yet in your Financial Management System it can be automatically generated and matched. Any unmatched transactions can be reviewed and matched. This automation means the bank reconciliation process becomes about dealing with a small number of exceptions whilst allowing the system to do the heavy lifting.
Detection of General Ledger Posting Errors
Imagine you had a system where through AI & ML it could detect potential miss postings in your General Ledger journals as you were entering them. The 80/20 rule applies here. The vast majority of your journals will be correct, that’s your 80%. A small number of entries maybe incorrect and that is your 20%. A system with powerful AI and ML functionality will detect those outlier journals and alert you before they get posted, saving you time and improving the accuracy of your accounts.
How finance system automation works in practice.
Through the use of a modern Financial Management System such as Sage Intacct you can leverage the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to automate many repetitive tasks. The boffins at Sage have spent hour reviewing common financial processes and developed technologies to automate the tasks.
Implementing office automation.
With best-in-class financial management systems such as Sage Intacct a high level of Automation is a reality and surprisingly easy to implement. With Accord at the helm, in just a matter of weeks these automation processes could be live in your business.
The benefits of automation at the office.
By implementing a financial management system like Sage Intacct and taking advantage of the automation it offers you can reduce costs, improve accuracy and drive up the efficiency of your finance team. The time saved on boring repetitive tasks can then be used to deliver more insightful analysis of the financial data to aid faster more reliable business decisions.