Process automation and the use of AI in accounting and accounting offices

What is automation of accounting processes - examples

Business Process Automation is the use of modern technology to take over repetitive, tedious tasks that until now were performed manually. Thanks to this, it is possible to significantly reduce the number of errors, save time and increase the quality of customer service. We implement such solutions in many business sectors — including sales, marketing, HR or recruitment. However, the automation of accounting itself allows you to improve the work both in small accounting offices and in the financial departments of large enterprises.

The most frequently automated accounting processes include:

• Accounting of documents — automatic processing and decreeing of financial documents, e.g. cost or revenue invoices, thanks to integration with accounting systems and OCR (optical character recognition) and AI (artificial intelligence) technologies.
• Entering data from invoices and other documents — AI systems can automatically read data from paper receipts or electronic invoices and verify the correctness of fields (e.g. TIN, amounts, payment deadlines). Such an improvement eliminates errors resulting from manual rewriting and filling of data by employees.
• Controlling payments — Automation allows you to compare bank statements with accounting records in real time, which simplifies the process of reconciliation and detection of discrepancies in payments.
• Generate tax reports — automatic creation of tax returns and reports required by law. Thanks to access to the data, the system can collect the necessary information and generate complete statements. This allows you to reduce the time of preparation of reports and reduces the risk of mistakes.

As you can see, the automation of accounting processes allows you to simplify and speed up many daily duties, from entering invoices to generating tax reports. In addition, automated workflows reduce the risk of errors and relieve employees of repetitive tasks. More examples of automation of accounting departments in enterprises can be found on our finance and accounting page: https://www.sagiton.pl/en/services/automation-of-financial-processes

Automation modules in programs for accounting offices

Modern software for accounting offices increasingly includes extensive automation modules that support the work of accountants at many stages of customer service.

Examples of modules for improving business processes

Such modules contain built-in automations that are natively integrated into a given accounting tool. These can be, among others, modules for:

• automatic recognition and accounting of documents,
• verification of the correctness of the data,
• generating tax returns,
• or handling the circulation of electronic documents.

Many systems also allow integration with online banking, which allows you to automatically download statements and reconcile payments in real time. Thanks to this, the work in the accounting office is more consistent, and access to current data is much faster and more convenient.

Limitations of ready-made accounting automation tools

However, it should be borne in mind that each accounting office and each company that conducts its own internal accounting uses a different work model. As a result, software does not always meet specific process requirements. The technological solution should therefore be adapted to the individual needs of the company, and not implemented only due to current market trends. If you work in the accounting industry, surely you have encountered the problem of digital blockers more than once — despite the fact that you have a modern system, you still do most of the work manually. Why is this happening?

There can be many reasons, but as Sagiton Automation we most often encounter three blockers of accounting processes:

1. Lack of time and training support
Accounting staff often do not have the space or resources to learn how to fully use the new tools or features available in the software. In the rush of current responsibilities, it is difficult for them to devote time to training or testing new solutions, which means that the potential of automation remains untapped, and most processes are still carried out manually and in a non-digitized form.

2. Lack of integration of accounting systems with other programs used in the company
In many organizations, the accounting program does not work smoothly with other key systems - for example, warehouse, sales, ERP or CRM. The lack of such integration means that when employees want to start accounting for customers, they have to log in to several tools and manually move data between them. This method of accounting is not effective — it slows down work and increases the risk of errors.

3. Lack of business-specific key functionalities
Some accounting systems do not take into account the specific needs arising from the procedures in force in a given accounting office or finance department. For example, with one of our clients, an accountant, due to limitations in the billing tool, could automatically send an invoice by email to only one person. Meanwhile, internal procedures required sending the document to both the customer and the seller. So, it was necessary to implement additional automation of work, which “expanded” the functionality of their accounting software, allowing simultaneous sending to several addressees in accordance with internal rules.

Accounting system integrations and dedicated automation that you can implement

Despite constantly emerging improvements in popular accounting programs, many accounting offices are opting to implement dedicated automations that are better suited to their unique processes and the problems they face on a daily basis. Standard solutions often do not fully respond to specific business needs, which is why system integrations and individually designed automation modules are becoming increasingly popular. Below you will find examples of new technologies that can expand the tools used by internal accounting as well as external accounting offices:

1. Automation for internal accounting:

Integration with sales or e-commerce systems

Despite the fact that employees use dedicated software, the financial and accounting processes in your company are still time-consuming? Eliminate the need to manually transfer data between tools, thanks to automation in accounting! Integration of internal programs will allow you not only to get rid of error-prone manual filling of information, but also significantly speed up the processing of invoices. To improve your daily work, it is worth integrating an invoice system with solutions such as sales systems (POS, e-commerce), warehouse programs (WMS), electronic banking, ERP systems, CRM systems and tools for monitoring payments and collections.

Automatic invoice payment reminders

Your customers still do not pay their receivables on time, and you do not react in any way? Taking advantage of automation, which monitors payment deadlines on an ongoing basis and independently sends notifications to counterparties, can help you achieve smooth cashflow. Let's be honest, the digitalization of debt collection is not only an acceleration of processes, but also a significant relief for your employees. Prompting customers is one of the less pleasant tasks, which is why it is usually delayed, and in some cases not carried out at all. Leave it to automation and allow employees to focus on more strategic tasks.

Dedicated reports and dashboards for controlling

Do you use many tools with controlling functions, but still lack one central place to manage your company's finances? Modern tools and artificial intelligence allow you to automate processes related to the analysis and flow of financial data, while minimizing human errors. Such control automation solutions can pull data from multiple systems, such as ERP or CRM, to update financial dashboards in real time and thus provide you with quick access to data. Standard general ledger summaries often do not provide the detailed analytics necessary to make strategic decisions. With the right integrations, you can create multi-dimensional analyses covering sales, costs, budgets or cash flow forecasts — all in one clear financial dashboard!

2. Automation of work in the accounting office:

Task management system for accounting offices

Tired of employees constantly asking if all the client's documents are already processed? In a modern accounting office, it is worth automating the processes related to checking the status of postings at the clients of the office. An automated task management system allows you to mark whether documents have already been posted, whether something is still missing, or maybe the invoice is to go into accounting in the next month. In addition, it is possible to create comments functionality (for example, regarding the suspension of activities by the office client), thanks to which the flow of information in the accounting office would be organized, and every activity in the accounting office would be recorded in the system. Take advantage of the automation of accounting processes and make the team not have to constantly ask about the current status of documents.

Transcripts of conversations using artificial intelligence to automated for task creation

How many times this month has one of your employees forgotten to communicate important findings from a phone call with an office client? In an accounting office that serves many business clients, a good organization of orders transmitted by phone is crucial. Thanks to the use of VoIP technology, it is possible to record calls made by accountants and create auto transcripts, on the basis of which AI will generate tasks in the office's customer service system. Such automation of processes in the accounting office allows you to minimize situations when employees forget about the details of the arrangements and have to contact the client again. In addition, such transcripts can be accessed by all the people working in a given company, which means that accountants do not have to spend tens of hours a month giving each other information orally or by email.

Automation of correspondence and control of invoices from customers

Still wasting time reminding customers every month to send back missing cost invoices? Automate the process of requesting documents! The implementation of an automatic fixed cost base in conjunction with the client desktop of the accounting office allows such a system to verify on an ongoing basis whether all invoices in a given month have already been delivered, in accordance with the accounting schemes established for a particular client. If, for example, a lease or utility invoice is missing, the system will automatically send a reminder, eliminating the need to manually monitor documents and send subsequent messages. Such automation not only improves the operation of accounting services, but also allows you to eliminate human errors and significantly relieves the daily work of accounting offices.

Communication between departments in the accounting office

Communication in your accounting office is still not the best? In modern accounting, the efficient flow of data between departments is increasingly important. If you're still thinking about what's worth automating, invest in the right transmission of key data, such as payrolls or timesheets. Good communication between departments speeds up invoicing and issuing personnel documents. It can also be supported by the integration with the VoIP system, which we mentioned in the previous paragraphs, so that telephone calls with customers are automatically sent between departments. Thanks to such solutions, activities in the accounting office run more efficiently, and financial data does not get lost in the crowd of emails or casual conversations.

In conclusion, what is worth automating in accounting and finance?

Despite the fact that modern accounting programs offer more and more built-in automation functions, there are still many areas that can be improved and better adapted to individual processes in a company or accounting office. Integrations with sales, banking or CRM systems, automatic control of document completeness, more effective management of tasks and communication in a team are just examples where additional automation can bring real benefits. If you see areas for improvement in your accounting processes, contact us — as Sagiton Automation we are not afraid of difficult processes and are happy to help you design a solution tailored to your needs.