The accounting office has traditionally been a place of paper, adding machines, files, and ledgers full of numbers. Many offices are still knee-deep in old systems, though the promise of digital transformation in accounting has been knocking at the door for several years now. According to an estimate published by Deloitte on the future of automation in finance, only about 2% of large companies have switched to an AI-based or machine learning system for accounting, so if you are not yet there, you are not alone. However, the promises of AI are now real, making cost-savings, increased accuracy, and integration with other systems too tempting to forgo. Let’s take a look at what problems you could eliminate by going digital.
Most Accounts Payable processes still rely on paper or emailed invoices, which require human labor to code and make judgments based on the context. Copying numbers and making decisions on what ledger code to put with each line item is not only time-consuming and inefficient, but it is prone to errors. With so much detail work, it is easy to let fraudulent or duplicate invoices pass through to payment, wasting money that will likely never be recovered. This long process results in late payment fees, missed discounts for early payment, and it also incurs fees for printing and mailing checks or in paying bank wire fees. The promise of digitally transforming these processes is that it can free up time to oversee the process, check for errors, produce reports, and improve processes.
The inefficiencies in Accounts Receivable are similar, though less costly for most companies. Checks coming in will need to be scanned and then the payor and reason will need to be identified so the proper account is credited. With even medium-sized property management, insurance, or other businesses, this can amount to over 1,000 transactions per month. Machine-learning and AI systems can support these processes by making most of the judgments and leaving the human labor more time to deal with exceptions or problems. This not only leverages computers to reduce the number of repetitive tasks performed by humans, but it supports and enhances the decision-making process in the whole office.
While your operations are likely utilizing many software tools to automate some of these basic accounting processes, someone needs to make sure that the software is regularly updated and functioning as it should. AI and machine-learning platforms offer cloud-based solutions that keep the technology and applications up-to-date, all while making the operations of the accounting department smoother. With a more efficient accounting department, CFOs and managers can focus on growing the business, handling the many challenges of changing revenues due to global events like the pandemic, and looking forward rather than scrambling to keep up with the tasks in a legacy-rich accounting setup. We are at a turning point in the use of AI technology, so implementing digital solutions now can keep your company in step with a changing world.
At Scrypt AI we are introducing the era of Autonomous Accounting, by leveraging Machine Learning, Cloud Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, to enable straight through processing of payables and receivables. We believe that high-volume, high-accuracy processing of documents (invoices, POs, checks, payment coupons), coupled with direct integration to business systems of records, ERPs, CRMs, and eSign solutions, full autonomous accounting and reconciliation can be achieved.
