So, what’s all this about robots in my accounting department?
No, robots aren’t coming for your job, but Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is rapidly changing financial operations. By employing RPA, organizations can automate common rules-based financial and accounting processes, eliminating tedious and time-consuming tasks so staff can focus on higher value, strategic work that impacts the bottom line.
What is RPA?
RPA uses rules-based software robots to automate, or replicate, high-frequency, labor-intensive, and repeatable business processes. RPA bots, or robots, can be configured to capture, interpret, and manipulate data, process transactions, monitor and report changes, communicate with other digital systems, and even generate responses — all faster, cheaper, and more accurately than their human counterparts.
How can my organization benefit from RPA?
By leveraging RPA, organizations save time and money, reduce risk, ensure compliance, and allocate human resources more efficiently so their accounting and finance teams can do the strategic, proactive, and subjective work only humans can.
Specifically, RPA’s benefits include:
- Non-invasive applications. Because robotic accounting is both a bridge and a layer that sit atop and across your current infrastructure, there is little change that must be implementing to your current environment.
- Multi-use. RPA in finance and accounting is not confined to one part of a process — it can be applied to multiple processes at once including accounts payable, accounts receivable, financial close, controller work, financial planning and analysis, expense management, and even tax.
- Nonstop performance. RPA can run 24/7/365, increasing productivity to levels traditional work can’t reach.
- Consistency and reduced errors in work. Robotic accounting excels at error-free data movement with reduced output variability.
- Enhancing not replacing. With robots handling mundane data entry-type work, human workers are free to do what is truly needed — high value work. Robots make humans happier!
Where do I go from here?
Over the next few days, we’ll be posting a series of blogs to help you better understand some of the many use cases for RPA inside the finance department. While RPA use cases are forecasted to grow significantly in the new few years, we’ll start by introducing you to the following, which are already widely in play:
- Vendor set-up click to learn more
- Know Your Vendor (KYV) / Know Your Customer (KYC) - click to learn more
- Price comparison - click to learn more
- Month end closing - click to learn more
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