Finance and accounting processes are some of the hardest to scale manually. From daily data entry and monthly expense reconciliation, to preparing financial statements for year-end closing, there’s so much to do, and only so many people to do it.
RPA (robotic process automation) helps companies streamline workflows and standardize processes, all while increasing productivity and accuracy. Finance automation lets accountants execute essential and complex tasks in a fraction of the time it would take manually, while significantly reducing the margin of error.
With RPA software solutions, finance teams can finally get ahead–not just catch up–throughout the fiscal year.
What is RPA in finance?
Just as the name suggests, RPA (robotic process automation) refers to technology designed to implement repetitive processes, simplify complex workflows, and automate the execution of specific tasks.
In the context of RPA for finance teams, there are a myriad fintech softwares that automate different functions. These include basic accounting, expense reimbursements and invoice management, plus budget modelling and forecasting.
When finance teams handle large quantities of documentation and spreadsheets at once, mistakes are bound to occur. Finance automation increases data entry accuracy, while also processing and delivering far greater amounts of complex information at a time.
The best part is, automating even the smallest tasks often brings the greatest returns to finance teams, due to the sheer volume of transactions that occur on a daily basis. As tech company Newzoo puts it, “Automation saves us a lot of time, avoids mistakes, and then frees up time for us to work on forecasting, and pay more attention on how to classify different costs.”
Beyond saving time and money and maximizing team productivity, there are other tangible benefits to automating your finance teams’ key processes:
- Scale faster. A major cause of disorganization in rapidly growing companies is sticking with processes that don’t scale. Workflow automation lets finance teams handle exponential increases in transactions with high accuracy, while standardizing processes that also make onboarding new talent simple and consistent.
- Smarter spend management. A lack of smart spend management creates serious challenges in successfully managing cash flow. Advanced spend management solutions like Spendesk optimize cross-team collaboration by automating spend processes and giving finance teams greater control and visibility over their finances.
- Increased payment security. Automation makes it easier to authorize payments like employee reimbursements and supplier invoices faster and with more confidence. With features like automatic three-way matching and real-time reconciliation, financial controllers no longer waste time chasing down purchase orders or paper receipts for every transaction.
5 use cases for RPA in finance
All sizes and types of companies can use and benefit from RPA. Even the largest finance teams get bogged down with the bombardment of endless menial tasks, if they don’t have the right tools and business processes set in place.
Here are several core finance processes that can be widely improved and optimized using intelligent software automation instead of manual execution:
- Bookkeeping
- Subscription management
- Invoice processing and accounts receivable/payable
- Employee expense management
- Financial planning & analysis
Empower your finance team with finance RPA!
RPA software products are accessible and effective solutions that transform and modernize the way that teams work. As more and more companies turn to artificial intelligence to drive their business growth and operational efficiency, it’s the right time to ask: how can your company successfully implement business process automation?
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