The digitalization of companies is profoundly transforming the finance function. Faced with the challenges of performance, precision and responsiveness, theautomation of financialprocesses is becoming an essential solution for modern organizations.
Robotisation, via RPA(Robotic Process Automation), enablesbusiness processes to be automated, generating significant productivity gains. This technology frees Finance Managers from the most repetitive tasks, enabling them to devote more time to their strategic analysis and validation missions.
Theintegration of machine learning into these solutions now makes it possible to go beyond simpleautomation to develop systems capable of continuous learning and improvement.
Whether you’re just starting to think aboutautomation, or looking to optimize existing solutions, this article will give you the keys to understanding and fully exploiting the potential ofintelligent automation in your financial processes.
What is an RPP?
Before we get started, let’s take a look at Robotic Process Automation.
RPA is a technology thatautomates processes based on business-specific rules and logic. It is a set of software robots that ensure the transition toartificial intelligence andintelligent automation.
Many organizations have quickly grasped the benefits of RPA for their finance departments. This technology offers wide-ranging and scalable possibilities, such as :
- Automatic data entry in financial systems
- Automatic responses to common requests
- Processing complex financial transactions
- Extract and consolidate data from multiple sources
- Automatic generation of financial reports
It can be deployed in ERP systems in a variety of sectors, where activities are governed by strict, repetitive rules. Several robots can be mobilized to speed up and secure business process management procedures.
According to feedback from our customers, up to 50% of the activities carried out by a company’s employees could be automated by RPA. In all departments, there are recurring tasks that involve processing specific information received via different channels (email, forms, etc.).
Objectives of financial process automation
1. Improve planning and budgeting with intelligent automation
Harnessing the potential of the cloud for forecasting, planning and budgeting is one of the major challenges facing CFOs. Many companies still practice deadline-based planning (monthly, quarterly or even half-yearly), generating risks of error and often slow, out-of-date planning.
Intelligent automation enables a decisive shift to connected, dynamic planning. Disruptive events can be taken into account in near real time, while the adoption of rolling forecasts based on key indicators is becoming the norm. Planning can now be amended and adapted on an ongoing basis, particularly in response to market and regulatory developments.
2. Automate data reconciliation from a single, reliable source
With modernautomation and RPA solutions, all Finance function teams have access to all projects and data in a single, secure space. This visibility extends beyond the finance department, enabling controllers to visualize and exploit information in all departments of the company.
Automation systems enable reconciliation tasks that used to take hours to complete to be carried out in just a few minutes, while drastically reducing errors. As a result, collaboration between different teams is considerably improved, and a broad, accurate view makes decision-making more secure.
3. Standardizing report production through marchine learning
To produce their reports, finance managers are often forced to analyze numerous Excel documents and synthesize information from tools that are not very operational.Intelligent automation combined with machine learning overcomes these difficulties by dynamizing data and automating report production.
The development of powerful, intelligent analytical tools makes it possible to adapt perfectly to the rules inherent in the business, and standardizes the production of high-quality reports. Machine learning algorithms can identify trends and anomalies that the human eye might miss, enriching the quality of financial analyses.
What are the benefits of RPA for the Finance function?
The RPA makes it possible to compensate for possible human failures. Indeed, after several hours of processing and analyzing numbers, it is not uncommon for the concentration level to drop. Automation therefore reduces the risk of human error and improves operational processes.
Thanks to the time freed up, the staff concerned can be usefully assigned to high value-added tasks. In addition, the investment in an RPA solution is usually quickly amortized by the lower costs involved. The ease of deployment and integration varies, depending on the type of robot.
The RPA is also designed to facilitate exchanges between the various operational departments. It facilitates the determination of priorities and the allocation of resources between different departments within the company, as can also be seen in theautomation of recruitment processes, where the simplification and standardization of processes leads to a significant reduction in lead times.
With RPA, finance departments expect significant productivity gains, more secure processes and improved service quality for end customers.
Cognitiveautomation is revolutionizing the financial sector. In fact, RPA can be coupled with artificial intelligence technologies such as voice recognition. In this way, it will help to automate tasks that could not previously be carried out without human expertise.
SQORUS RPA experts have mastered the integration of market-leading RPA solutions such as UiPath. They can help you analyze and model solutions (robots) based on your existing tools.
In summary, the advantages of using RPA are :
- Reduce errors and improve quality
- Optimizing time and resources
- Improved collaboration and decision-making
- Evolution towards cognitive automation
Concrete applications of automation and RPA in Finance
Intelligent automation and RPA can transform many financial processes:
- Purchase order processing: Automated order entry, validation and archiving
- Maintenance of supplier and customer data: Automatic updating of information in systems
- Aggregate financial reports: Automatic data compilation for monthly, quarterly or annual closings
- Competitive intelligence: automated collection and analysis of market data
- Invoice processing: complete automation of the processing cycle, from receipt to approval
- Bank reconciliation: Automatic reconciliation of banking and accounting transactions
- Cash management: automated cash flow forecasts based on history and trends
The larger the flow to be processed, the more strategic anRPA robot becomes for the company.
SQORUS helps you automate your financial processes
SQORUS supports its key account customers in digitizing their finance functions. With a functional and technical expertise of the main solutions of the market dedicated to the finance business, we implement and accompany our customers in all phases of their projects.
With consultants certified in solutions such as Oracle, Netsuite, PeopleSoft, Workday and Axway, SQORUS is the preferred integrator of financial solutions on the market.
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