Robotic Process Automation in Finance: Examples from CFOs

Most businesses are taking advantage of the benefits of robotic process automation tools, but there’s one industry that’s been an early adopter–finance. Robotic process automation in finance can manage many use cases because finance functions fit the RPA criteria well in that they are repetitive, high in volume, data heavy, and time sensitive.

Coming Up

1. What are the Benefits of Robotic Process Automation in Finance?

2. Why Use Robotic Process Automation in Finance?

3. What are Examples of Robotic Process Automation in Finance?

4. What is the Future of RPA in Finance?

5. Closing Points and Next Steps

What are the Benefits of Robotic Process Automation in Finance?

Using robotic process automation in finance will change the way your team and organisation runs for the better.

Robotic process automation is programmed to carry out and complete finite tasks with high precision and accuracy. Instead of having your workforce focus on these time-consuming and meticulous duties, you can utilise automation software to fulfill the same duties in less time.

Beyond reducing errors and achieving efficiency, this transfer of responsibility from manual labor to automation will allow your team to spend their time on high-level, strategic, and creative tasks.

The benefits of using RPA in finance include:

• Better way to manage risk and adhere to compliance regulations
• Cost savings due to efficiency of task completion
• Direct control over processes rather than outsourcing to save money
• Increased transparency into process runs
• Enhanced employee satisfaction due to the shift of type of work they spend time on
• Quicker processing times
• Better management and execution of tasks
• Elimination of manual errors

Why Use Robotic Process Automation in Finance?

According to McKinsey & Company, roughly 42% of finance operations can be fully automated. Functions such as business development, risk management, treasury, revenue management, general accounting, audit, and more can be managed by robotic process automation.

Within finance teams, most of the work that has to be done involves repetition and data-heavy task completion. This is why robotic process automation shines in this industry. Additionally, there are regulations and deadlines that companies must adhere to, and all of the legwork has previously fallen on finance functions to manually complete the work.

Robotic process automation makes it possible to finish such tasks without hassle and with confidence in the accuracy of the work. RPA bots are programmed, either via a drag-and-drop functionality, visual editor, coding, or a workflow recording, to mimic a human’s actions.

When implemented optimally, RPA in finance can mean a complete transformation in which roles are reassigned and organisational structures are reconfigured to benefit the business’ overall goals.

What are Examples of Robotic Process Automation in Finance?

The value of robotic process automation in finance is extensive. There are many different areas within a finance team where RPA tools prove to be game changing.

Let’s take a look at some of the most prominent areas in which RPA can be of service:

Accounts receivable

Keeping track of accounts receivable is one of the most important finance functions because it reduces undesirable cash gaps. Maintaining a record of outstanding invoices and entering data to get paid consists of a series of time-consuming tasks.

Additionally, it’s helpful to know Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), which is the time it takes to get paid. With RPA, you can easily prepare invoices, keep track of their status, and hasten the speed of payment because you negate the risk of forgetting anything.

Accounts payable

Accounts payable is an equally important finance function that also consists of many steps. However, this function may be more labor intensive because vendor invoices are not standardised and need to be cross-checked for accuracy with purchase orders.

With RPA, invoices are routed to the relevant person for approval after being automatically compared with purchasing orders to match the data.

Client onboarding

Before onboarding a client within the finance services sector, the standards require that a thorough check is completed, known as Know Your Customer (KYC). This takes up you team’s time as they must comb through internal and external data sources to find out any information that could be a risk to your business.

Instead, an RPA bot can pull information from various sources, cross-check it with the existing data on file, and present a report to compliance managers to determine whether or not the client is of risk or safe.

Account reconciliations

A major use case for process automation is account reconciliations and intercompany reconciliations. This process is conducted at regular intervals, be it daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. No matter what type of reconciliation is being conducted, it requires immense attention to detail and the collection of data.

With RPA, data can be processed quickly and accurately to determine whether there are discrepancies between internal ledgers and external documentation. Software robots are able to alert your team if reconciliation must be performed.

Report automation

Finance departments rely on reports, and these reports are crucial to the decisions made by executives and stakeholders. Yet, these reports can be tedious to compile and present. In the time it takes to manually create a report, the data could have changed, which would impact the final decision that may be made.

Robotic process automation tools can integrate data from various sources to generate reports. From annual investor reporting to regulatory reporting, RPA tools can manage the process. With SolveXia, you can customise your dashboards and reports based on need and schedule their sends on whatever basis you’d like.

Financial planning

Financial planning consists of forecasting and conducting comparisons between forecasts and reality. Both of these activities require pulling data, formatting data, and compiling data as visually accessible information.

RPA replaces the need for a human to facilitate these steps.

Data management

Automation software can take care of aggregating and analysing performance based on data. Without RPA, this would require people to pull data and format it manually. Not only does this increase the chance of mistakes, but it takes a lot of time.

RPA lightens the load and makes it possible to manage data as it enters any system.

Investment Management

For client portfolios, it’s important that they have access to their investments in real-time. Bots can play the role of an investment manager by providing portfolio details, as well as investment value.

RPA is able to extract data from multiple sources, format data, and create (or even send) updates to clients.

Tax Reporting

Tax reporting has strict deadlines and regulations. Missing a deadline can result in negative and costly consequences to your business.

RPA software is capable of pulling necessary tax data, creating reports, and submitting the filings to authorities. The ability for the technology to do so will result in never missing a deadline.

What is the Future of RPA in Finance?

Finance departments are in the business of managing profits and losses. As such, they serve an integral role in informing strategic business decisions. With robotic process automation in finance, finance professionals can spend their time on high-level and analytical responsibilities, as opposed to low-level and repetitive tasks.

RPA bots are useful for finance functions. But, they are not the only solution that’s worthwhile when it comes to finance. RPA is good for transactional and finite tasks. But, finance departments require access to deep insights and real-time analytics, which a solution like SolveXia can provide.

Automation tools like SolveXia offer a low-code or no code automation solution that can help your organisation with: process automation, data management, process improvement, advanced analytics, reporting, and more.

Closing Points and Next Steps

When it comes to managing and overseeing your finance team and its duties, robotic automation in finance can offer immense advantages. Since RPA can be responsible for taking care of a high volume of tasks in a fraction of the time, your team can maximise their potential by allocating their time to the responsibilities that require human intelligence.  

Finance departments and institutions are full of operations and processes that are perfectly suited for robotic process automation. It’s up to you as a CFO to deploy robotic process automation in finance to reap the benefits. Try out tools like SolveXia for free to see how you can maximise your team’s productivity and reduce costs.