What Is RPA in Finance? Do You Need It Right Now?

Robotic Process Automation — What Is It?

Did you hear the story of an anonymous Redditor who shared his job secret? He automated his entire workflow as an IT specialist in a small law firm.

Now he has been living his best life for more than a year. He plays video games and enjoys his hobbies all day long. All the processes perform flawlessly, the job is done, and everyone is happy.

Is he such a smart cookie who managed to cheat his boss? Or will robotic process automation inevitably transform all business processes, and we won't have to work anymore? Let us have a closer look at the matter.

RPA is a software technology that enables you with tools for building, deploying, and managing software robots. These robots can emulate human actions and interact with digital systems and software.

For example, they can understand what there is on a screen, or complete a particular set of keystrokes. Software robots can identify and extract data, navigate systems, and accomplish a vast range of determined activities.

What is more, these robots work fast, consistently, and have no sick days or coffee breaks.

Let the Software Robots Work!

According to Statista, the global RPA market size in 2021 reached $2 billion, and it is forecasted to grow to more than $13 billion by 2030. Impressive prospects, right?

But what about RPA in finance? In the latest insight by Gartner, it is noted that about 80% of finance leaders have already implemented or are determined to introduce RPA solutions into their business processes. The researchers claim that one bot can replace more than 30 human FTE work in finance departments.

They are also convinced that the pandemic and the resulting recession have enhanced the interest in RPA platforms. The adoption rate of software robots is predicted to reach up to 90% by the end of this year. In Gartner, they believe that the main reason for that is the recalibration of manual effort and human labor. And we agree with them.

Why Do Companies Choose Finance Automation?

It is hard to come by an industry that can benefit more from software robots than finance and accounting. The nature of these businesses is based on transactions and data management. So, what are the benefits RPA implementation delivers?

The Utmost Operational Efficiency

RPA bots work uninterruptedly and do not need weekends, vacations, or holidays. They intensify the work delivery immensely. Repetitive and time-consuming tasks in finance can be seamlessly delegated to RPA technology. While your team can focus on strategic tasks.

Remote Workforce Support

That is a critical question for many businesses nowadays, since the COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted many activities in finance departments. RPA implementation, especially cloud services, helps finance teams stay productive no matter where they work: in an office or from home.

Accurate Compliance Adherence

Careful attention to all the details and regulations are the vital requirements for finance and accounting. Even one single mistake can lead to significant fees and legal claims. With the robotic process automation (RPA) software, your team gets the ultimate cold-eye support, which is highly productive and free from human errors.

Financial Planning and Innovation

RPA robots can help automate data analytics by legacy data extraction from existing systems. Thus, they provide detailed, deeper insights, and you can make the most efficient business decisions.

High Scalability Potential

When the workload increases, you may find yourself having to expand your finance teams with new members to cope with the heavy lifting. But when RPA is responsible for accounting tasks and other financial processes or customer service, you can scale the bot's output seamlessly and safely.

As a result, with RPA bots, finance functions are moved to the next advanced level. Moreover, it provides a necessary base for the ongoing improvements.

Use Cases for RPA in Finance 

So, what finance processes are successfully carried out by robotic process automation? Though the idea of robot assistance may sound futuristic, in reality, it is already happening in many financial organizations. Quite a wide range of repetitive tasks is assigned to intelligent automation. And the prevailing usage scenarios are as follows.

Accounts Receivables and Payables Management

RPA is a practical, comprehensive approach to maintaining one of the core functions of financial services — accounting operations. The operational costs for receivables and payables management can be reduced immensely with the concurrent increase in productivity. Moreover, the software will complete tasks flawlessly, free from possible human error.

Automated Tax Reporting

An RPA bot can take over the whole process of tax statements maintenance. It automatically collects data, generates reports, calculates the tax payable, and reconciles the tax data.

Account Record-Keeping and Reconciliation in Real Time

The essential advantage of RPA bots for account record-keeping is their up-to-the-minute operation and efficient data management across all the company's business processes. Moreover, the bots are valuable for tracing any possible inconsistency or fraud activity. RPA solutions are also very effective in account reconciliation which could take lots of effort and time when performed manually.

Financial Reports and Planning

When using RPA bots, your finance department can easily prepare financial statements daily if needed. It will equip your business leaders with the most relevant insights to help make the best-informed decisions and react fast and effectively to any possible challenges. Furthermore, bots, data extraction, comparison, and analysis will provide substantial support for smart financial planning and better productivity.

Implementing RPA in Your Finance Processes

Now let us see what you have to do to implement RPA into your finance processes without a hitch. We recommend you start with a careful discovery of all the sides of the project.

Step 1 — Estimate the Project

First, you should review the finance and accounting process you want to automate. Think about all the necessary features your business requires and make a list of them. But remember that you should not overload the list as it may increase the development time and cost. Having this list, you can turn to specialists to estimate the approximate development costs.

Step 2 — Calculate the Benefits

Then it is time to see whether the improvements are worth the money. Weigh up all the expenses and calculate all the cost savings to see when your digital transformation will pay off. Needless to say, the sooner the project pays off, the better.

Step 3 — Hire a Reliable Vendor

Finally, turn to a trustworthy custom software development partner with relevant experience in RPA solutions delivery. We recommend you to choose outsourcing financial software development services as they are cost-effective and use the latest advanced tech: machine learning models, natural language processing, and others.

A Final Note

So, now you know that finance RPA has proved its effectiveness, and specialists predict its growing impact in the coming years. By implementing an RPA platform, a financial business can accelerate digital transformation to meet the new reality demands. Why not unleash your business's creative potential and prospects now and let RPA bots assist in your ongoing success?

Do you want to know more about our unique competencies in fintech software development? Don't hesitate to get in touch with our specialists. Qulix Systems has a lot of experience in banking and financial software delivery.