Transforming Financial Operations with RPA: Key Benefits and Real-World Examples

The finance and accounting industry these days is witnessing a digital transition. Like any other industry, AI and automation have made their way into the finance industry as well. One of the most recent adoptions in the finance industry is the usage of RPA In Finance.

Robotic Process Automation is a software technology that helps organizations perform recurring and less important tasks with the help of virtual assistants or robots as they are called. This leaves employees with enough time to focus on other important tasks.

With the power of AI development, constant changes, progressive customer expectations, and rigid regulatory requirements govern the dynamic world of banking and finance app development services. 

Many prestigious financial institutions such as Societe Generale Bank, KeyBank, and Zurich Insurance have inculcated RPA in their workforce. Due to its increasing popularity, the RPA industry is witnessing a boom and is expected to grow at exceptional rates in the next decade.

As per the recent statistics, the RPA industry stands at a $5.4 billion industry in 2024 and is expected to grow at a whopping CAGR of 36.6%. It is expected to cross the $75 billion mark by 2034. Isn’t that insane?

Is RPA important in Finance?

RPA or Robotic Process Automation in finance uses virtual robots to execute business processes through a general interface. That, in turn, demands compliance with such areas as the financial processes, forms, work of distinct workflows, and the integrations of the software that is aimed at ensuring proper communication.

Through RPA, organizations can fully automate some functions in the Finance Department, including account reconciliation and preparation of financial statements. This is especially useful in the areas of the finance departments since the sections are usually tight on time and human resources. Managers, board of directors, sales staff, and other business people trust accurate organized data and detailed analysis in order to make effective and timely decisions.

Besides, the industry is optimistic, and the BFS sector remains highly competitive and filled with players, so someone has to retain its share in the constantly growing industry of financial automation. Through the application of sophisticated RPA tools, businesses can further streamline processes, minimize wastage of time and resources, and increase accuracy and compliance with regulations.

Benefits of Optimizing RPA in Finance

Although the process of implementing RPA in Financial operations is a bit arduous, it can prove to be very beneficial for businesses. With the Fintech trends and RPA trends in Finance, here are some of the key benefits of RPA in Finance.

• Avoiding errors
  RPA is used to complete recurring tasks that were previously done by humans. Therefore, minute human errors were common. But since everything is done with the help of automation now, there is no or very little scope for manual errors.
• Digital and Automated tasks
  Pre-set tasks are performed repeatedly by the virtual assistants and therefore, everything is automated and can be monitored easily.
• Standardization
  Since RPA knows what to do already, there is no need to worry about getting different formats of results every time. This is because RPA needs to know about a certain information just once. After that, everything will be done in the same format. Thus, promoting standardization.
• Better Efficiency
  Since there is no or less human interaction in tasks performed by RPA, the chances of errors are generally nil. Thus, improving efficiency and gains.

Where can you use RPA In Finance?

RPA In finance has helped businesses focus on more important tasks that involve more time and effort. There are numerous cases where financial institutions can inculcate RPA to streamline their regular and recurring tasks. Here are a few cases where RPA has shown exceptional results for various organizations:

• Purchase Order Processing
  With the help of RPO, the creation of Purchase Orders (PO), their approval, and tracking can be fully automated as RPA bots may gather data from emails, vendor portals, or ERP systems. It can also assign POs to invoices and goods receipts while enforcing procurement regulations and helping decrease manual errors. With RPA in finance and accounting, PO processing has proven to be quicker and contains fewer or no errors when compared to POs generated by Humans. RPA has also shown increased compliance and better results.
• Invoice Processing
  By the application of Optical Character Recognition (OCR), the RPA-bot is capable of understanding the contents of an incoming invoice, extracting details such as the vendor name, the sum of money, and the payment terms, and entering the same details in the accounting system. It should also be noted that through the use of RPA in finance operations, the matching of the invoices with the POs and goods receipts can also be handled with ease. Some of the benefits of using RPA to process invoices include Increased speed, reduced data entry, better exception management, and audit trails.
• Traveling & Expenses
  Some of the areas that can be handled using RPA also include keeping track of employee travel and expenses. This is because validating receipts and travel expenses involves checking the receipts with the related accounts and travel expense policy. RPA bots can also interact with accounting systems to change records of expenses, and inform employees of missing or inaccurate entries. This inclusion of RPA will lead to a decrease in workload for the executives, less wastage of time, improved ways of policy implementation, and increased compliance.
• Computation of Tax
  For tax calculation, it is possible to apply RPA in Finance wherein you collect the data from many references like invoices, transactions, or any other financial instruments and apply the correct tax rules for it. They also can input tax filings, cross-check against the regulations, and send off reports to the tax authorities Usage of RPA In tax calculation has resulted in easier and quicker ways of tax computation, lesser chances of getting into legal troubles with the tax system, and better reporting of financial data.
• Financial Reporting
  Tasks such as data acquisition from different systems like ERP, data files, databases, consolidation of data, and preparing reports can be automated by using RPA. It can also change the current status displayed on the dashboards and it also prepares the income statements, balance sheet, and cash flow statements. Using Robotics Process Automation in Finance has resulted in a timely reporting of financial transactions, a decrease in the time spent on reporting activities, and an increase in reporting reliability.
• KYC with RPA
  Using RPA, business entities, and companies can utilize it for gathering and confirming data for the KYC process, like identification, and background checks, as well as the verification of the attached documents. Bots can also look at the client’s accounts for any suspicious activities and check that the client is in compliance with AMLs. Using RPA in KYC processes has led to an enhanced time to onboard and compliance.
• Payroll Processing
  Payroll can be sampled by RPA bots in collecting data sheets on time worked by employees, calculating their wages, subtracting taxes and other deductions from pay, and updating the payroll record. It also can help to generate payslips and distribute them among employees as well as control the observance of the tax and labor laws. Payroll Processing when done by RPA has resulted in greater efficiency in handling payroll information, less manual work, accuracy in payroll processing, less time taken while issuing payrolls, and following the legal standards of taxation and labor.

Real life examples of RPA in finance

Most of the financial and banking bodies are implementing the RPA in their work to run the processes very smoothly and effectively. Below are some real-life examples of RPA in finance and digital banking industry.

RPA In Zurich Insurance 

One of the World’s largest insurance firm, Zurich has implemented the RPA in the workforce for performing day-to-day tasks and managing boilerplate policies. 

These RPA solutions help Zurich to more focus on easing complex insurance aspects and maintain standardization in work.

RPA in KeyBank

Keybank, one of the leading names in commercial banks, started working with RPA very early to increase efficiency and accuracy in realistic banking matters. Keybank has automation in invoice management, Purchase orders and bills receivable, helping to make payment methods smoother and error-free from every step. 

RPA in Societe Generale Bank

Leader in financial services, Societe Generale Bank has adopted the RPA in their process to manage the tedious and time-consuming task. RPA bots help them to provide excellent customer service and transform the business model. 

Robotics Process Automation in Finance

Automation made its way into finance back in the 1990s when OCR was introduced. OCR helped banks process cheque payments in a jiffy. However, there were no significant developments in RPA from the 90s until 2014.

This was the time when banks started using RPA In the finance sector on a large scale and after the Covid-19 pandemic, the real growth of RPA started and the future is yet to come.

How Appventurez can Help to grow with RPA in Finance

The future of RPA remains largely positive and of high hopes. The industry is growing at an exceptional growth rate of 36%. This has been possible due to the increased acceptance and trust of RPA Bots in the finance sector. RPA in Financer has not only improved the quality of output but has also resulted in cost-cutting for the organizations. It has been noted that RPA inclusion in the system has resulted in savings of 30-35% of funds allocated to tasks previously allotted to human resources. 

RPA in finance and banking has almost changed how businesses perform tasks and leverage AI solutions to deliver smooth and better experiences. Financial apps and AI in banking & finance simplify the whole process. We at Appventurez provide the best RPA software to help businesses grow by focusing on more important tasks. Being industry leaders, our RPA software has provided excellent results for our clients. Therefore, without further adieu, get in touch with professionals to make your organization more efficient and coherent.