The finance department depends on input from several departments to complete their tasks. Even though most of the information is digital, it takes considerable time to process the information. This repetitive and manual work can easily tire out the most hardworking employees. Due to the tiredness, there is a risk of error. Unfortunately, the true cost of human error can amount to millions of dollars. Therefore, finance departments are the perfect place to implement automation solutions.

In this article, Agile Managex Technologies will list the numerous uses of robotic process automation in the finance department.

RPA in Finance Department

1. Invoice and Payment Processing

Unsurprisingly, our conversations with our partners reveal that their finance departments spend up to 60% of their daily time on invoice and payment processing. While these two tasks are important, they add little value to the organisation. Imagine a world where these two tasks are automated, removing the possibility of error.

RPA can help businesses make this a dream. You can shift this work to RPA bots, improving the processing speed and removing the need for manual work. You can re-assign your resources to more value-addition tasks such as managerial reporting.

2. Vendor Contract Management

While you can improve your internal processes, what about your external processes? Vendors may submit information to different sources despite asking them to follow a specific process. Indeed, compiling information from multiple sources can be a hassle. With RPA, vendor management becomes pretty easy. The bot can pick up information from multiple sources, compile it, and provide the necessary information. It is impossible to meet a vendor payment deadline or forget to renew contracts.

3. Reconciliation

Despite the digitisation of financial data and the use of software to manage it, reconciliation remains a challenge. At the end of each financial period, businesses must reconcile their accounts. With the help of RPA, organisations don’t need to spend as much time on reconciliation. Secondly, the RPA bot can identify potential red flags and pass the information on to the relevant team for further analysis.

4. Cross Platform Integration

Unfortunately, the finance department still uses legacy systems which can complicate the work. Instead of wasting valuable resources on new systems or undertaking considerable manual work, implement RPA. It works with your legacy systems, removing the need to invest resources in upgrades.

5. Fraud Detection

An organisation may take months or years to detect fraud, especially when employees are busy with manual work. With RPA, say goodbye to manual work, freeing up valuable employee time. RPA works well only when the data is accurate and reliable. It improves the data quality, making it easier to detect fraud. With technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), businesses can easily detect fraud.

6. Financial Reporting Automation

Undoubtedly, preparing financial reports can be quite a hassle. With the help of RPA, financial report creation takes minutes. The bot can take information from multiple sources, apply the relevant actions, and compile the report. So, RPA not only speeds up the process but ensures greater accuracy.

7. Budgeting and Forecasting Automation

RPA can help with automating budgeting and forecasting processes. However, it is pertinent to mention that RPA alone is insufficient to achieve the required operational efficiency in these processes. The business must pair RPA technology with AI and machine learning models for the best results. It will help in effective resource allocation.

8. Compliance

Lastly, RPA can improve compliance. The RPA solution can collect and integrate data into a platform, making compliance reporting easy.

Conclusion

It concludes our views on how automation can improve operational efficiency in your organisation’s finance department. Contact us for further information about our RPA solutions services and how we help you automate key business processes.

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