Automation in Accounting – 4 Processes Worth Automating First
You already know how to implement Robotic Process Automation in your business – whether you choose to implement it in-house or rent digital teammates – and now you want robots to support your accounting team as soon as possible. But this next step immediately raises a question: which accounting processes should you automate? We present 4 processes which we often see in Finance and Accounting Teams and which are excellent starting points for automation in accounting in your company.
1. Sales and Purchase Invoices
In every accounting department you can easily find a lot of invoices to process. If these invoices are digital, robots can take care of copying and pasting data from invoices or Excel reports into an accounting system. Then robots can book and authorise invoices. Depending on the steps required in your company, robots can also prepare invoices from a template or fill in required data, which can make the accountants’ work more efficient.
2. Bank Account Statements
This process usually requires an employee to download the MT940 file, load the data into an accounting system, then book individual items. But these tasks can be performed by a robot instead of an employee. After matching payments and invoices the robot can inform employees which items weren’t entered in the books. Such a solution will save time for the person who was earlier tasked with settling bank account statements.
3. Matching Payments
Similar to bank account statements, a robot can compare and match payments and invoices to efficiently catch differences in transactions. The employee receives the information which invoices were paid and which were not. The employee is absolutely sure, then, that no one made any errors like accidental typos or switching numbers and letters, which would cause one of the invoices to be incorrectly matched.
- White list
Robots can also help employees by comparing vendors’ data with data contained in the so-called taxpayer white list (“biała lista podatników VAT”). It’s a typical example of a repetitive and tedious task which robots like while people don’t enjoy it so much.
Of course, these aren’t the only accounting processes where robots can thrive. However, if you’re not sure where to start automating, these 4 routine processes are a perfect place to introduce robots into your accounting team.
