How Can RPA Be Used in Finance? Examples from the Real World

Human mistake is more likely in manual data processing, especially when dealing with numbers. Not only is the procedure time-consuming, but it is also costly. RPA, or robotic process automation in finance, is an effective solution to the problem. RPA has long been used by financial firms to automate finance and accounting procedures. Technology is rapidly growing and can handle data more efficiently than humans while saving enormous amounts of money.

Table of content

Let us see How Can RPA Be Used in Finance? Examples from the Real World:
1. Finance RPA Use Cases 
2. Companies Using RPA in Finance in the Real World 
3. RPA in Finance and Accounting Makes Auditing Simple

It clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of RPA implementation in the financial sector. Automated processes, in contrast to manual operations, run smoothly.

The notion that RPA is effective According to Gartner, finance leaders have deployed or are planning to implement robotic process automation in their business processes.

In finance and accounting, hyper-automation is a good word to use because RPA can do up to 30 times more work than a human. The technology has progressed from doing simple automation tasks to processing fully automated reports, data analysis, and forecasting while integrating with other systems.

Along with reducing human resource costs, large, recurrent data-related tasks can be handled more efficiently, allowing more meaningful outputs to be produced.

Finance RPA Use Cases

Let's look at some of the RPA applications in finance that will undoubtedly be worthwhile. in finance can also be gauged by the fact that roughly 80% of the Finance RPA Use Cases.

Processing of POs

Financial technology firms are frequently involved in cash inflows and outflows. The repetitive operation of drafting purchase orders for many clients, forwarding them, and receiving approval is not only tedious but also prone to errors if done manually.

RPA combined with AI will not only remove the potential of errors but will also intelligently capture the data to build P's. An automatic approval matrix can be constructed and forwarded for approvals without the need for human participation once the automated system is in place. Some of the most obvious benefits of RPA in finance for PO processing include simplicity, effectiveness, speed, and cost savings.

Processing of Invoices

Invoice processing is also a time-consuming and difficult operation, especially if the invoices are many. Financial firms struggle to raise the right invoices in the client-required formats on a timely basis as a customer-centric organization. Furthermore, the approval matrix and procedure may result in a significant amount of rework in terms of correcting formats and data. Automation can handle time-consuming repetitive tasks while maintaining accuracy and quickly submitting invoices to the appropriate approving authority.

In the finance industry, whole accounts payable and receivables can be completely automated with RPA. The maker and checker processes can be nearly eliminated because the system can match invoices to the appropriate POs.

Reconciliation of Accounts

This is a crucial business activity that could consume a large amount of time. or a team of accountants to check that the balance comparisons are correct. Back-and-forth references and logins into various systems necessitate a hawk's eye to ensure no mistakes are made and the figures are compared appropriately.

To put it another way, an organization with many roles and sub-companies maintains its finances using various structures and processes. Based on company objectives and client expectations, bringing them all into a uniform processing format may not be practicable. However, balancing the accounting of all departments/sub-companies is a headache for the central team. The procedure is time-consuming, error-prone, and monotonous. The central team may benefit from RPA implementation.

This is the main advantage of RPA in accounting. RPA bots Make the task short and consistent by auditing and reconciling the data at each step and including the essential aspects of these tasks with minimal human interaction. Only when the data shows misalignments do human involvement become necessary.

Expenses & Travel

Raising travel requests, checking the spending category, obtaining required approval, obtaining the supporting documentation, and so on takes a lot of time for the accounting team, which may cause delays in processing.

With the use of RPA in corporate finance, ensuring that expense records are compliant with company regulations and preparing expense reports becomes easier. By automating the reimbursement process, it is possible to manage payments on a timely basis. Policy violations and data inconsistencies can be reported to the authorities. Calculating Taxes

When tasks like collecting data for tax computations, building tax bases, and producing reports are automated and completed with the help of RPA bots, they decrease redundancies and inaccuracies that can occur when done manually. To avoid inconsistencies in the reconciliation and data processing, digits and figures must be exact to the decimal places.

Despite the fact that most firms use tax preparation software, there is still a large amount of human work involved. The majority of this manual activity may be automated with RPA bots, saving time and money while improving accuracy and compliance.

Budgeting and Forecasting
Using RPA bots to extract facts from multiple reports and systems with precision can aid in the creation of variance reports and provide several perspectives for viewing and analyzing data. Comparisons and trends can be established based on historical data and current information, which are proven successful strategies to forecast and plan your business.
 

Financial Statements
Keeping daily records of business transactions and profit and loss allows you to plan ahead of time and detect problems early. You can avoid losses by being proactive in controlling and dealing with these challenges. Changes can be done to improve and fix existing business techniques and processes.
Banks and financial organizations must provide substantial reports that show performance, statistics, and trends using large amounts of data. Manual data extraction will be time-consuming and unreliable. However, In finance and accounting, robotic process automation makes it easier to collect data from various sources and in various formats. Data collection, reporting, and analysis improve forecasting and planning.

Processing Payroll
Payroll processing is one of the most critical functions of any company. Timely and precise processing results in a happier workforce, which in turn leads to a satisfied client base and a successful firm.

With financial companies having offices in a variety of places throughout the world, tracking productivity, attendance, and tax rates by region can be difficult. The process of gathering data and completing computations is prone to errors, which can lead to unsatisfied personnel. RPA gives you a breath of fresh air by automating repetitive tasks. Timesheet validations, deductions, tax calculations, overtime payouts, and other laborious processes can be managed by RPA bots with zero errors and delays.

Companies Using RPA in Finance in the Real World

Keybank
One of the most well-known commercial banks, Keybank adopted RPA early on to boost efficiency in a practical way. Account receivable has been automated, which includes many steps of repetitive processes such as creating invoices and POs. Despite the fact that the bank's primary focus is usually payments, the automation of accounts receivable makes the payments process easy and error-free from the first to the final step

Radius Financial Group
A mortgage application involves a lot of paperwork and verification. Coordination with the mortgage lender The mortgage agent's time is used by the client for essential documentation. A single blunder by the bank staff or the client can cause the entire procedure to be further delayed. This complicated operation of searching and confirming details from several data sources is taken care of by RPA, which cuts the processing time in half. Radius Financial Group was able to keep its business running during the pandemic because of RPA installation.

Brazil's Societe Generale Bank
Robotic process automation could help you become a financial services leader by automating some of the tiresome repetitive tasks. The amount and complexity of data used in the financial services business is enormous. Regular automated reports, on the other hand, assist employees to be better educated and prepared. 
 

Zurich Insurance
Because of its global position, it faced the issue of adhering to geographically unique legislation. They were able to separate the common and general policies that could be developed through a robotic automated process, saving a significant amount of time, thanks to the introduction of RPA. Underwriters may have more time to examine more complicated policies. The result was unexpected since they were able to save around half of the processing costs and, of course, time.

RPA in Finance and Accounting Makes Auditing Simple 

Because the RPA bots never miss a step, even if by accident, auditing becomes an inherent part of the processes listed above, lowering the risk of future compliance concerns.
We're almost done!

Start with AI, ML-enabled robotic process automation in finance and accounting to eliminate workflow bottlenecks and any human errors. This will also aid in the elimination of inefficiencies that contribute to bad customer service. Employees are disengaged by repetitive and monotonous work. The following areas of business have seen a significant change as a result of robotic process automation:

• To foster sustainable growth, analyze client behavior on a frequent basis using data and reports generated by RPA bots.
• Improve/boost the team's operational productivity by automating repetitive operations and providing real-time data analysis by using RPA bots.
• Keep your customers updated about important and new features of your products and services, and improve the overall experience.