5 Ways to Transform your Finance and Accounting Departments with RPA

Regardless of the industry, every company needs a finance and accounting team to plan, organize, and control the company's expenses and budget. As companies strive to optimize their finances for long-term sustainability and success, a lot of pressure is placed on the finance and accounting teams, which are expected to be timely, accurate, and effective. However, since much of the finance and accounting departments' work consists of repetitive tasks, inefficiencies, accuracies, and high labor costs are inevitable.

Since traditional paper-based processes are being superseded by digital alternatives, more and more businesses are adopting new technologies to provide powerful assistance to their staff. RPA (robotic process automation), software that can emulate human operations on a PC, is a popular choice that automates repetitive, manual tasks according to predefined rules. Accounting and finance consist of many tedious, administrative work, making RPA perfect for the job. Here at Laiye, we offer Laiye UiBot, an RPA product that can help make any company's finance and accounting departments more efficient, accurate, and cost-effective. In this article, we'll look at five common finance and accounting scenarios that Laiye UiBot can automate, among many.

Scenario 1: Order optimization and invoicing

1, Collect orders and data, whether it is digital or paper-based

2, Log into the ERP (enterprise resource planning) system

3, Input data into the system

4, Correct orders that require changes

5, Extract the sales invoicing data according to the order data

6, Process and verify the invoice

7, Directly send the invoice to specific accounts via email

Since this task happens frequently, it is easy for the finance and accounting team to make mistakes when doing it manually. Moreover, the process is inefficient as it requires multiple steps including manual data entry and checking. Laiye UiBot can collect data from electronic orders or from paper orders using OCR technology. With login credentials, they can automatically log into the ERP order system, enter data, and performs order processing. Then, they can automatically extract the sales invoicing data, process the invoice, and send an email to the appropriate staff.

Scenario 2: Expense reimbursement review

1, This process requires several steps to ensure compliance and accuracy:

2, Log into the company's reimbursement system

3, Verify the authenticity of invoices

4, Check whether or not invoices have already been reimbursed

5, Review reimbursement standards and check for compliance

6, If there are compliance issues, send an email to the applicant

7, Generate a financial report

Ensuring that reimbursements are accurate requires meticulous care, especially to make sure that there is no fraudulent activity occurring. However, this comes at the expense of efficiency. Laiye UiBot can automate the entire process while having a sharp eye for non-compliant applications. The only human intervention needed is to download Laiye UiBot to begin the streamlined process.

Scenario 3: Supplier statement reconciliation

To ensure that the company's records match the supplier's, reconciliation is an important process that must be carried out.

1, Log into the ERP system

2, Enter the finance module

3, Query for the supplier information and invoices

4, Input the information into an Excel spreadsheet and process it, item by item

5, Send an email reconciliation reminder to the supplier

This task requires processing data in a spreadsheet, which is extremely tedious and error-prone when done manually, especially for a large volume of items. Laiye UiBot is specifically equipped to handle structured data in spreadsheets and comes with many predefined Excel commands. Capable of automating the entire process, Laiye UiBot can ensure no item goes unchecked, eliminating unnecessary mistakes and delays.

Scenario 4: Automatic payment

Making and keeping track of payments can be quite a hassle with this lengthy process:

1, Log into the company's system

2, Monitor the pending payment center

3, Process payment orders waiting to be executed

4, Compile payments that meet compliance checks and confirm that compliance is met

5, Proceed to pay for the approved orders

With Laiye UiBot, the only human intervention needed is for someone to manually confirm the payment before it is made to make sure no payments are made incorrectly. Laiye UiBot supports on-premise deployment, which ensures security. Other than confirmation, Laiye UiBot can monitor the pending payment center in the background 24/7, freeing up human labor, and quickly process payment orders. Moreover, it can automatically go through with the payment process, such as filling in the address and other information.

Scenario 5: Generating consolidated financial statements

1, Log into the ERP system

2, Extract exchange rate data and consolidated data

3, Calculate the closing balance

4, Check the results

5, Monitor email inbox for subsidiaries' monthly reports

6, Send email reminders to subsidiaries for data collection

7, Summarize, merge, and compile data to create a monthly consolidated report

Compiling data from many subsidiary branches every month can be a cumbersome and error-prone process. However, such tasks require high efficiency and accuracy and are important for the parent company to monitor its business's financial situation. Laiye UiBot can monitor emails in the background and search for the relevant reports. It can also effortlessly summarize reports and merge data, allowing companies to stay up-to-date with the financial situation in their various branches. Moreover, Laiye UiBot can perform real-time auditing to further inform the company.

Get started today

These five cases are only a few out of the endless possibilities RPA brings to your finance and accounting departments. With the robots handling low-value, repetitive tasks, employees can engage in more valuable work that requires human talent. In just one or two hours with help from our professional team, you can start building your Laiye UiBot robots and explore their full potential.

About Laiye

Laiye, founded in 2015 by Ivy League Ph.D. graduates, is committed to being a leading Smart Robot platform with global influence in the era of human-robot collaboration. Our portfolio of high-quality, secure products and services covers RPA Solution, including Laiye UiBot (an RPA product), Wulai (an enterprise chatbot platform), and Xiaolai (a companion robot). Join us on LinkedIn, follow us on Facebook, or visit laiye.com/en.