Are you tired of tedious accounting processes? Use RPA for accounting automation. Find out how RPA can be used in accounting, how it is implemented, and how it can benefit your company.
Technology is rapidly transforming business processes, including accounting. In today’s hypercompetitive market, automation is crucial for success. One of the most disruptive innovations in this field is robotic process automation (RPA).
A survey shows that 53% of organizations adopted RPA till 2018. Most large companies will have started their RPA journey by 2024. Accounting and financial reporting aren’t utilized by more than one-third of RPA adopters, despite widespread adoption. Innovative managers use RPA to automate accounting processes and optimize business processes. But what is RPA? How do you automate accounting?
Table of Contents
What is Robotic Process Automation in Accounting?
RPA is a software technology designed to automate processes for people. Today’s accountants use computer-based tools and processes with several manual steps. RPA can automate accounting workflows by combining disparate actions. The following is a simplified robotic process automation:
- Firstly, the RPA bot captures users’ on-screen actions during accounting tasks, such as clicks and entries.
- Additionally, the application generates a script based on the user’s on-screen movements.
- Third, the RPA bot automates repetitive, rule-based accounting tasks by using generated scripts.
RPA bots perform a task within a process by mimicking human actions. Software applications perform repetitive tasks quickly, accurately, and consistently. A unique opportunity exists for accountants to optimize their accounting processes through RPA.
What is the Need For Accounting Automation with RPA in Enterprises?
Whether you are a manager or a member of the C-Suite, your organization relies on you to find solutions to ongoing and emerging challenges. A survey predicts that 90% of enterprise-scale companies will adopt RPA by 2024. Using RPA to automate accounting can help your company adapt to the new normal and thrive during challenging times. The following are five reasons why your organization needs RPA for accounting automation:
Service Delivery
There are many options available to consumers today. Provide excellent customer service and the best experience every time. It is the last thing you need to lose a supplier or customer due to invoice processing delays. The use of RPA in accounting can improve service delivery and customer experience by automating time-consuming tasks.
Labor Shortages
Labor shortages threaten labor-intensive sectors, such as transportation and retail, in the post-pandemic era. Make efficient use of scarce human resources in your company as a CEO or manager. By automating processes, your organization can reduce its reliance on human labor. By automating accounting processes, you can reduce your team’s workload. Redirect saved work hours to other tasks or departments to counter labor shortages.
Data Governance
The accounting process involves handling sensitive information about clients, such as invoices. To mitigate data leaks and breaches, effective data governance requires direct supervision. Can you supervise accounting teams working remotely? No, you can’t. Your company can overcome this challenge with robotic process automation. Emails, for instance, contain sensitive data and personally identifiable information (PII). For invoice processing, RPA can extract relevant data from emails. RPA can automate this step to reduce the risk of insidious internal actors leaking data.

Regulatory Compliance
Business environments have expanded beyond the premises with the adoption of cloud-based solutions. Compliance with global and industry standards is becoming increasingly challenging for companies. RPA enables your organization to consistently and accurately implement accounting best practices and rules. For accounting tasks involving sensitive data, you can use RPA robots to create audit trails. By visualizing the entire process and making it auditable, these trials reduce the risk of non-compliance.
Digital Transformation
Artificial intelligence and robotic process automation have leveled the playing field, empowering start-ups at the expense of global giants. Investing in digital transformation can help enterprises fend off stiff competition from start-ups. In today’s tech-driven marketplace, process automation is crucial for digital transformation and long-term success. By leveraging RPA, you can digitize invoices, automate accounting processes, and streamline workflow. You can also measure and optimize the automation of the accounting process for continuous improvement. The adoption of RPA is a necessary step towards digital transformation.
What are the Benefits of RPA Accounting for Enterprises?
Most people associate automation with 24/7 reliability and availability, applicable to RPA. An RPA bot for accounting automation does not require sick days. Their service is high-quality and delivers 100% accuracy and consistency. The following are some benefits of RPA for enterprise-scale accounting automation:
Enhanced Productivity
RPA completes tasks 20 times faster than humans, reducing bottlenecks and boosting productivity.
Saves Money
This can save 25-40% in labor costs, as bots work efficiently and consistently without breaks or sick days.
Time Efficiency
RPA can save thousands of hours by reducing avoidable rework, allowing accountants to focus on revenue-generating activities.
Centralized Data
Since RPA consolidates data from various sources, it is easily accessible and reduces the need to search multiple systems.
Minimizing Errors
RPA eliminates human errors, crucial for complex accounting processes in large enterprises.
Compliance Assurance
This helps maintain compliance with financial regulations by reducing errors and improving documentation.
Boosting Employee Morale
RPA frees accountants from repetitive tasks, boosting morale, and allowing continuous improvement.
Better Customer Service
This ensures accurate and timely processing, enhancing customer experience.
Use Cases for RPA in Accounting
Enterprise-scale companies process hundreds or thousands of transactional records each month. Searching through information systems, scanning documents, reviewing digital copies, extracting data, and entering data are all part of accounting teams’ daily work. RPA can streamline this process and eliminate human errors. Below are the top RPA use cases in accounting.
Accounts Receivable
It is prone to errors and relies on internal documents, making it ideal for automation.
Accuracy and timely execution are required to boost Days Sales Outstanding (DSO). Nevertheless, achieving this is challenging because of the human element on the payee’s and recipient’s sides. RPA can automate accounts receivable processes, including customer data setup and management, data extraction, sales quotations, and invoice generation. Robust RPA solutions can improve cash flow and eliminate cash gaps. By using RPA, data is collected from a variety of sources and entered automatically. Accountants will no longer need multiple information systems.
Payables Invoice Processing
Invoice processing requires accuracy, consistency, and timely execution.
Automation makes achieving this level of perfection easier said than done. Accounts payable can experience operational lags due to manual invoice processing. RPA automates invoice processing, including receiving, verifying, and paying invoices. Data is extracted from different sources, invoices are matched with purchase orders, and mismatched documents are flagged using RPA with optical character recognition (OCR). Invoices will be sent to team members for approval and reminders will be sent. Automate accounts payable processes with RPA to boost Days Payable Outstanding (DPO). Automate vendor verification, purchase order entry, payment reconciliation, and expense compliance auditing with your bot.
Reporting, Planning, and Forecasting
Profits and losses are tracked and reported accurately and consistently by successful companies. Accounting professionals understand the challenges of manually updating P&L reports. Using RPA, you can automate this time-consuming process and enable accurate financial reporting in real-time. RPA bots can create balance sheets and income statements, streamline variance analysis, and simplify financial close processes. Using historical data and relevant information in documents can also improve financial planning and forecasting. Automating this business process can enhance transparency and accuracy.
Payroll Management
Payroll management involves several time-consuming tasks, such as data extraction and entry, timesheet validation, scheduling payments, and calculating payouts and deductibles. The accounting department will also verify sick days and expenses. Automate payroll management with RPA to avoid payment delays and inaccuracies. Robust RPA bots can calculate deductions and bonuses with 100% accuracy, ensuring compliance with tax laws.
Reporting Expenses
Companies accumulate expenses from different business activities. For efficient bookkeeping and finance management, expense reporting is essential. However, this process is tedious and costly when performed manually. Statistics show that producing one expense report costs $27. Automation can reduce this cost to $5/report. RPA automates expense reporting. Data can be aggregated into expense reports by robust RPA bots, receipts attached to entries, existing expense logs verified, and policy violations flagged. RPA can reduce errors, improve employee experience, and ensure compliance with company policies and legislation by automating this process.
Tax Compliance
Tax laws of several states and the federal government apply to enterprise-scale companies that operate globally or nationwide. Use RPA robots with your tax compliance software to reduce non-compliance risk. Using RPA bots, data for tax liability can be gathered, tax bases can be created, tax return workbooks can be updated, and tax reports can be prepared and submitted to the appropriate authorities. You can save time and avoid legal issues by automating these tasks.
Accounting and Inventory Management
Retail companies across the globe face supply chain issues. Inventory management is more critical than ever before. Accounting for inventory involves capturing stock levels in financial records, such as profit & loss statements and balance sheets. Automation is ideal for this business process as it requires accuracy. Inventory management can be simplified through RPA bots that monitor, forecast, and alert inventory levels and place orders for stocks. RPA solutions automate inventory and accounting processes, including data extraction and data entry. A RPA solution can reduce stock-outs, improve lead times, and reduce storage costs for e-commerce and retail stores.
Conclusion
Robotic Process Automation transforms different departments in enterprises. As a C-Suite or manager, you can adopt RPA for invoice processing, expense reporting, payroll management, and financial forecasting. RPA automates accounting processes, which reduces costs and losses, improves productivity, and aligns with regulatory requirements. Follow RPA implementation best practices for the best results.
For a free consultation on automating and digitizing your company’s processes and document flow, contact us.
Read more: What Is The Future Of RPA (Robotic Process Automation)?
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do you automate accounting processes?
To automate accounting processes, businesses can follow these six steps.
- Step 1: Identify current accounting processes.
- Step 2: Assess existing technologies.
- Step 3: Choose an owner for the project.
- Step 4: Document the current workflow.
- Step 5: Automate according to the updated workflow.
- Step 6: Test and iterate.
2. Why should a company consider RPA consulting & implementation services?
Our RPA consulting services help companies plan, design, and implement RPA solutions, ensuring a smooth transition to automation.
3. How do RPA business consultants contribute to the implementation of RPA solutions?
Business consultants provide expertise in aligning RPA strategies with business objectives, choosing the right processes for automation, and optimizing their implementation.
4. How can an accounting company begin to implement RPA?
Planning and implementing RPA begins with identifying suitable processes, selecting an RPA solution, and working with consultants.
Contact us for a free consultation about automating and digitizing your company’s processes.