Key Applications & Benefits of RPA in Finance for Modern Enterprises

As companies grow in size and revenue, invoice processing becomes one of the most time-intensive processes managed by the Accounts Payable department. With manual processing and human intervention, invoice processing is time-consuming and error-prone. Besides, customer-centric organizations fail to raise invoices in the desired formats with the correct information.

Using RPA, both accounts payables and receivables functions can automate their invoice processing tasks. For instance, powered by RPA, AI bots can scan and digitize relevant data from purchase orders to use in the generated invoices.

Along with invoices, finance and accounting teams must also manage various incoming documents associated with purchase orders and approvals. Besides reducing human errors, RPA-enabled tools can speed up document processing. For instance, AI-enabled optical character recognition (OCR) can scan text from paper-based documents. Machine learning systems can map the scanned data from the documents into the company’s records. Additionally, RPA-enabled tools can process documents received as email attachments or downloaded from online media.

Also known as payroll processing, this is one of the most crucial processes in any organization. On-time and accurate payrolls translate into satisfied employees, improving their engagement and productivity. Organizations operating from multiple locations and countries must adhere to local tax regimes to process salaries on time. It is both error-prone and time-consuming.

RPA technology automates payroll processing by tracking overtime, paid leaves, and taxes. It reduces operational costs and enables accounting teams to focus on high-value finance-related tasks.

Vendor contract compliance is critical for growing companies when onboarding new vendors and suppliers. Like employee and customer onboarding, vendor onboarding is prone to external risks like data breaches. Manual spreadsheets (or other processes) are an outdated vendor management mode. Besides being lengthy and error-prone, they are vulnerable to data breaches.

Using RPA, organizations can now automate the vendor onboarding process by measuring their market competitiveness and performance. For instance, RPA-enabled bots can quickly scan through vendor contracts and purchase orders to extract useful information like contract clauses, discounts, and tax rebates.

Next, let’s discuss some of the benefits of RPA in finance-related operations.

Among the major benefits, RPA implementation enables businesses to save their financial processing time and cost. Smart RPA-enabled bots are automating manual tasks like data entry and checking customer information, thus freeing up time from repetitive manual tasks.

RPA is also the right answer for rule-based financial processes in insurance and mortgage companies. RPA-enabled bots can automate “search and compare” processes, thus eliminating costly human errors.

Using RPA in financial accounting can save up to 25,000 hours of work. It helps elevate operational efficiency, as less time is spent on daily tasks.

RPA tools can easily scale up to accommodate higher work volumes during peak business hours. It is easier than hiring a new team member in the accounting function. Besides that, by integrating RPA with existing financial accounting tools, organizations get 360-degree visibility into their financial processes.

What is the future of RPA in finance? Let’s discuss that next.