Intelligent Automation (IA)- The next level of Robotic Process Automation (RPA): How IA is making a significant impact in the world of accounting.

The past few years have seen a lot of buzz around the term Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the accounting world. RPA has been instrumental in automating manual, repetitive, and mundane tasks in accounting, allowing accountants and finance professionals to focus on more important and strategic tasks. However, with the rise of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Natural Language Processing (NLP), a more advanced version of RPA, called Intelligent Automation (IA), has emerged. In this blog post, we will explore what IA is, how it differs from RPA, how it is used in the accounting world, and what benefits it offers.

What is Robotic Process Automation?

RPA is a software technology used to automate business processes by mimicking human actions. RPA software bots can execute rule-based and repetitive tasks, such as data entry, data extraction, and report generation, without the need for human intervention. The RPA bots are programmed to perform tasks following a specific set of rules, and they can interact with multiple systems and applications. RPA has been very successful in automating processes in finance and accounting, reducing errors, and increasing efficiency.

How is IA different from RPA?

Although both Intelligent Automation (IA) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) are technology-driven solutions used to streamline business processes, they have different approaches and capabilities.

RPA is designed to perform repetitive, rule-based tasks by following a predefined set of instructions. It operates with structured data and focuses on automating high-volume tasks with little variation. While it can quickly and accurately handle large volumes of tasks, it lacks the ability to process unstructured data and make intelligent decisions.

IA, on the other hand, leverages technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to automate more complex tasks that involve processing and understanding unstructured data. IA can intelligently extract information from documents such as scanned invoices, handwritten purchase orders, and delivery slips. This makes IA more flexible and adaptable, allowing it to handle tasks that may require a degree of judgement or decision-making.

With ML, IA improves over time as it processes more data and learns from its actions. This helps make business processes smarter and more efficient. Unlike RPA, the power of IA is in its ability to learn and adapt to different scenarios, making it an ideal solution for businesses that require more intelligent automation.  

How is IA used in the Accounting world?

Bringing in IA can help businesses automate accounting operations. This will allow staff to spend their time on more value-added tasks as accounting and finance operations are automated such as:

Accounts Payable

• Invoice Capture and Validation: Intelligent automation can capture and automatically extract data from the invoices, ensuring that no manual data entry is required, reducing the risk of errors and saving a considerable amount of time.
• Approval Routing: Intelligent automation can automate the approval process by routing invoices to the appropriate approver and reducing the time and effort required for manual routing, which helps in prompt response to invoices.
• Payment Processing: Intelligent automation can automate the payment process, ensuring all invoices are paid on time and reducing the manual effort required for payment processing, thus saving time and avoiding late payment charges.
• Reporting and Analytics: With intelligent automation, one can get real-time visibility into the AP process, including invoice status, payment history, and other key metrics, making it easier to monitor the health of the AP process and quickly identify any issues or inefficiencies.
• Compliance and Audit: With intelligent automation, you can also reduce the risk of errors, such as duplicate payments, incorrect payment amounts or missed payment deadlines, that can lead to compliance and audit issues.

Invoice matching

Invoice matching is a key process for organizations to ensure accurate billing and timely payment of invoices. Traditional invoice matching involves comparing invoices against purchase orders and order receipts to ensure that the goods or services invoiced have been received and are accurate. Recently, many organizations are implementing Intelligent Automation (IA) to improve the efficiency of their invoice matching processes.

2-way invoice matching is the process of matching an invoice against a purchase order. IA can automate this process by extracting relevant data from the invoice and the purchase order, performing a comparison, and flagging any discrepancies for review. The review process can be streamlined by IA by automatically routing discrepancies to the appropriate personnel for resolution, reducing the need for manual intervention. This process helps to ensure that invoices are accurately billed and reduces the risk of overpayment.

3-way invoice matching involves comparing an invoice against a purchase order and an order receipt. This process ensures that the goods or services have been received by the organization before the invoice is paid. IA can be used to automate this process by comparing data from the invoice, purchase order, and order receipt. By automating this process, IA reduces the likelihood of human error and speeds up the review process. It also helps organizations to avoid paying for goods or services that have not been received, reducing the risk of overpayments and improving the accuracy of financial statements.

In summary, IA can be employed to automate the 2-way or 3-way invoice matching process by extracting relevant data, comparing invoices with purchase orders/receipts, and flagging discrepancies. This automation reduces the likelihood of errors, speeds up the review process, and improves the accuracy of financial statements.

Accounts Receivable

• Record keeping: With intelligent automation, financial records can be automatically updated and maintained. This reduces the risk of errors and improves the accuracy of the accounts receivable balances.
• Collections: Intelligent automation can assist in managing overdue receivables by automating the follow-up reminders, sending automated emails to customers, and providing clear status updates.
• Analytics: Intelligent automation can provide valuable insights into the performance of accounts receivable by offering real-time reporting and analysis, enabling finance teams to make informed decisions.

Overall, intelligent automation helps in improving the efficiency of accounts receivable processes, reducing manual errors, and reducing the time spent on administrative tasks. Additionally, it can provide a quick return on investment through faster payments and cost savings in accounts receivable processes. 

Closing Procedures 

Intelligent automation can greatly aid in automating closing procedures in accounting by streamlining tedious and time-consuming tasks, identifying exceptions and errors, and improving the overall accuracy and efficiency of the closing process.

Here are some ways that intelligent automation can help:

• Automating recurring tasks: Many tasks involved in closing procedures are repetitive and can be automated. These include tasks such as calculating depreciation, reconciling accounts, and preparing financial statements. Intelligent automation tools such as robotic process automation (RPA) can automate these tasks, reducing manual effort and time taken for the process.
• Data integration and analysis: Intelligent automation can integrate data from various sources and automatically detect any discrepancies or exceptions. This helps in identifying errors and fixing them in real-time. Additionally, analytics tools in intelligent automation can help in identifying trends and insights that can be used to improve the financial reporting process.
• Audit support: The closing process involves a lot of documentation and compliance checks, and intelligent automation tools can help manage and streamline this process. Automated workflows, digital signatures, and automated audit trails can help in preparing for audits and making the audit process smoother.
• Collaboration: Intelligent automation tools facilitate collaboration between teams and stakeholders, reducing communication gaps and ensuring consistency in data and reports.

Overall, intelligent automation can help accounting teams reduce errors, save time, and improve the accuracy and efficiency of their closing procedures

What are the benefits of IA?

• IA in accounting saves you valuable time and money, allowing you to concentrate on growing your business.
• Automated data extraction from invoice unstructured data means no more manual inputting, freeing up precious hours for you to concentrate on critical tasks.
• Say goodbye to tedious and dull tasks that are low in value; IA allows you to delegate these to machines so that your talent is best used where it matters.
• When processes are automated, according to UiPath, efficiency soars: you can expect processes to be 32 times faster than with manual inputting. This means your business can manage increased volumes quickly and competently.
• Finally, IA ensures that your accounts are more precise and trustworthy, with fewer errors making their way into your financial records.

Benefits of Integrating IA, BPM, and ERPs in Accounting and Financial Management 

• Improved efficiency: Combining IA and BPM with other systems such as ERPs can help automate repetitive and routine tasks, increasing efficiency and accuracy while reducing the need for human intervention.
• Enhanced decision-making: By integrating IA with ERPs in accounting, businesses can identify patterns and correlations in data that can help inform strategic decisions and improve forecasting.
• Greater accuracy: Automation can also help reduce human error in accounting and financial management, ensuring that transactions are recorded correctly and financial reports are accurate.
• Increased agility: Combining IA and BPM with ERPs can help businesses adapt more quickly to changes in the market or internal operations by automating key processes and tasks.
• Better compliance: Automation can help ensure that regulatory requirements are met by automating compliance checks and monitoring, reducing the risk of fines or other penalties.
• Improved customer experience: By automating routine tasks, businesses can focus on improving customer service and experience, resulting in greater customer loyalty and retention

Very few systems, such as EcoDocs , combine IA with BPM and integrates with other systems, such as ERPs.

IA has the potential to put a significant dent in the world of accounting. Watch out for the revolution! We trust that this information has increased your understanding of the ways in which IA can simplify your accounting work. Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any inquiries or feedback; we value your input! At EcoDocs, we offer a wide range of choices if you have been searching for ways to introduce Intelligent Automation (IA). To learn more about the possibilities accessible at EcoDocs, visit our website at https://www.ecodocs.io. Thank you for reading, and don’t forget to browse our other blog posts!