How to Use RPA in Finance? Use Cases and Real-World Examples

In the finance industry, manual data processing, especially numerical information, has a higher risk of human errors. Surprisingly, these errors can result in more than 25,000 hours of avoidable rework, amounting to approx $878,000 in annual costs. Understandably, financial firms want to reverse this trend and stay safe from the risk of human errors. Thankfully, RPA in finance emerges as a potential savior in this regard.

Robotic process automation (RPA) in the financial sector helps improve operations’ speed, accuracy, and efficiency. This technology is evolving quickly and can handle data more efficiently than humans while saving huge costs.

Financial institutions have been using RPA for finance and accounting processes for quite some time. A recent Gartner research shows that about 80% of financial firms have either implemented or are planning to implement robotic process automation in their business processes. Hyperautomation will not be an exaggeration to describe RPA in financial and accounting as it can perform up to 30 times more work than a human.

The technology has evolved from performing simple individual tasks of automation to processing full-fledged automated reports, data analysis, and forecasting while interacting with other technologies. According to Grand View Research, the global RPA market size was valued at $2,322.9 million in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 39.9% from 2023 to 2030.

The above figure proves the effectiveness of implementing RPA in the financial sector. As against manual processes, automated processes run smoothly. So, which tasks you can automate in your financial institution? And what is the best way to implement RPA in banking and financial firms? Let’s discover some of the most remarkable RPA use cases in finance and accounting that are worth looking at.

What are Some Common Use Cases of RPA in Finance?

RPA in financial services has several different applications that help free up human resources and allow them to focus on more critical tasks. Here are some of the significant use cases of RPA in finance and accounting that are worth your investment.

PO Processing

Fintech organizations are often heavily involved in cash inflows and outflows. The repeated task of creating purchase orders for different clients and, forwarding them, getting the approval is not just monotonous but is prone to mistakes if done manually.

Processing the same through RPA integrated with AI will eliminate the possibility of errors and smartly capture the data. With the automated system in place, an automated approval matrix can be created and forwarded for approvals without human intervention. Simple, effective, quick, and cost-saving are some of the most apparent benefits of RPA in finance and accounting for PO processing.

Invoice Processing

Invoice processing is also repetitive and tedious, especially if the invoices are received or generated in varied formats. As a customer-centric organization, financial organizations struggle to raise correct invoices in client-required formats on time.

On top of that, the approval matrix and process may lead to a lot of rework in terms of correcting the formats and data. Automation can take up this tedious, repetitive task while ensuring the correctness and forwarding the invoices to the aligned approving authority in no time.

Overall accounts payables and receivables can be completely automated with automated invoicing software and RPA in the finance industry. The maker and checker process can be almost eliminated as the machine can match the invoices with the relevant POs.

Accounts Reconciliation

It is a critical business process that can take up a significant number of business hours for the account team to ensure accurate balance comparisons. Back-and-forth references and logins required into different systems need a hawk’s eye to ensure no errors were made, and the numbers are compared accurately. 

To understand it better, an organization with other functions and sub-companies follows different structures and processes in maintaining its accounts. Bringing all of them into a standard processing format might not be possible based on the business requirements and client needs. The central team faces challenges in reconciling the accounts of all the departments/sub-companies. The process is tedious, error-prone, and repetitive. 

It is where RPA implementation can bring relief to the central team. In fact, it is the primary benefit of RPA for accounting. RPA bots make the task quick and consistent by auditing and reconciling the data at every step and process with minimal human intervention in incorporating the essential elements of these tasks. Human intervention is only needed when the data reflects misalignments.

Travel & Expenses

Raising travel requests, checking the expense category, required approval, essential supporting documents, etc., eats up a lot of time for the accounts team, which may even delay the processing of the same. 

However, with the implementation of RPA in corporate finance, creating expense reports and ensuring that the expense records are as per the company policies have become a lot easier and faster. Also, reimbursement management can be done on time with a finance automation solution. Policy violations and data discrepancies can also be intimated to the concerned individuals/departments with the help of automated alerts.

Tax Calculations

When collating data for tax calculations, creating tax basis, preparing reports, etc., are automated and performed using RPA bots, it reduces repeated task redundancies and inaccuracies that might happen while performing the same manually. Digits and figures must be accurate to the decimal places to eliminate mismatches in the reconciliation and data processing. 

Although most businesses run their process through tax processing software, there is still a significant amount of manual work involved. Most of this manual work can be done using RPA bots to reduce time and costs while ensuring better accuracy and adherence to compliance parameters.

Also read- How can automation be used to ensure security and compliance in business?

Financial Reporting

Keeping track of business transactions and profit and loss on a daily basis helps you plan ahead of time and warns you of the issues even before they arise. Being proactive in managing and handling these issues saves you from losses. The changes can be implemented to correct and improvise the existing methods and processes of business.

Banks and financial institutions are required to generate extensive reports that reflect performance, statistics, and trends that involve huge data. The data extracted manually will be tedious and unreliable. However, robotic process automation in finance and accounting facilitates gathering data from different sources and data present in different formats. Collating, reporting, and analyzing this data leads to better forecasting and planning.

Budget Planning & Forecasting,

One of the best benefits of RPA for finance is budget planning and forecasting. Fetching details with the help of RPA bots from various reports and systems with accuracy will help create the variance reports, providing different angles to view and analyze data. Based on historical data and current information, comparison and trends can be drawn upon that are the proven successful ways to forecast and plan your business.

RPA in KYC

KYC is a necessary and time-consuming process that the BFSI market has to perform for every customer. According to a report by Infosys, a bank spends around $52 million every year on KYC compliance, and for some banks, the spending surges approx $384 million. In addition to the enormous costs, compliance divisions across the financial industry have grown in size, with 150 to 1,000+ full-time equivalents (FTEs) compliance teams.

Incorporating RPA in finance to automate the KYC process reduces costly errors while saving time and resources. Accordingly, RPA in financial services of KYC will help accelerate customer onboarding and improve the overall customer experience.

Payroll Processing

Payroll processing is one of the most critical processes for any business. Timely and accurate processing leads to building a happier workforce that, in turn, builds a satisfied customer base and a successful business. 

With financial institutions having their presence in multiple locations across the globe, capturing the productivity, attendance, and tax regime as per the geographical location becomes tedious and time-consuming. Collecting such data and performing calculations is prone to errors that might lead to dissatisfied employees. 

RPA provides you with a breath of fresh air by automating the whole process. Timely and correct calculations lead to happier employees. Performing the tedious tasks of timesheet validations, deductions calculations, tax calculations, overtime payouts, etc., can be managed by RPA bots with zero errors and delays. Also, bots can do tasks for hours in just a matter of minutes without getting tired.

Applications of RPA in banking and finance are a continuous process. You can’t envision the automation of an entire process all at once. So, it is a good practice to carefully determine your starting point and partner with a reputed financial software development company like Appinventiv to embrace RPA trends in finance.

Real-World Examples of RPA in Finance

Robotic process automation in finance has gained immense popularity in the finance sector due to its ability to automate repetitive and mundane tasks, resulting in reduced human errors and increased operational efficiency. It is why the BFSI market is seen to embrace RPA trends with open arms over the past few years. Here are some real-world RPA examples in financial services:

Keybank 

One of the leading commercial banks, Keybank, adapted RPA at an early stage to improve efficiency in a highly realistic manner. Account receivable that involves multiple steps of repetitive tasks of generating invoices and POs has been automated. Although the bank’s key focus is typically the payments, the automation of accounts receivable makes the payments process smooth and error-free from the first step to the last stage.

Radius Financial Group

A mortgage loan involves a lengthy paperwork and verification process. Coordination between the mortgage company and the client for the required documentation wastes too much time for the mortgage agent. A single mistake by the bank employee or the client can further delay the whole process.

RPA implementation takes this complex activity of searching and verifying the details from different data sources, thus reducing the processing time by 80%. With RPA implementation, Radius Financial Group maintains its business pace efficiently. Even during the pandemic period, the company could remain productive and generate profits.

Societe Generale Bank, Brazil

Societe Generale Bank, Brazil has been the leader in financial services, and it could become possible by automating tedious, repetitive tasks through robotic process automation. The data used in the financial industry is huge and complex, but the regular automated reports prepared by RPA bots help the employees to be better informed and provide par-excellence customer service. The positive value added to enhance the customer experience has significantly transformed the business model.

Zurich Insurance

With a widespread presence in different countries across the globe, the major challenge before Zurich Insurance was to follow geography-specific regulations. With the help of the implementation of RPA, they could segregate the standard and general policies; and save a vast amount of time. The underwriters could get ample time to review more complex procedures. The outcome was surprising as they could save approximately 50% of the processing cost and time.

Harnessing the Power of AI and ML for Automating the Financial Industry

By leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, automation tools can interact with a wide range of internal applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM). This integration helps reduce the processing time by providing accurate data analysis, triggering automated customer responses, and interacting with other internal systems. 

Consequently, a streamlined and cost-efficient team can focus on delivering better customer service and enhancing the overall customer experience. With the use of AI and ML in robotic process automation, FinTech companies can improve their capabilities and ensure smooth operations.

Furthermore, the ability to fetch detailed reports, detect patterns, analyze historical and current data, and provide valuable information helps stakeholders make informed decisions more efficiently and accurately.

Overall, the combination of AI and ML with RPA enhances the potential of RPA in financial services, leading to improved efficiency, reduced errors, enhanced customer experiences, and data-driven decision-making.

Also Read- How AI features are used in banking to enhance customer support and experience

Benefits of RPA for finance

To overcome workflow bottlenecks, challenges of repeated tasks, and possible human errors in the BBFSI market, businesses need to get started with AI, ML-enabled robotic process automation. It will also help eliminate the operational inefficiencies that lead to unproductive instances and poor customer service. In brief, with the implementation of robotic process automation, a notable change can be observed in the following areas of financial firms:

• The potential of AI and Ml-enabled RPA helps keep the customers informed about various new features of financial products and services, resulting in enhanced customer experience.
• With the help of data and reports created by RPA bots, organizations can analyze customer behavior regularly, which helps drive sustainable growth.
• By automating repetitive and monotonous tasks, RPA bots help get real-time data analysis and improve the team’s operational efficiency.
• RPA in banking and finance will also reduce monetary fraud and proactively flag instances of potential theft.
• Lastly, robotic process automation in finance ensures data compliance throughout the process. 

How can Appinventiv Help with RPA in Finance?

Appinventiv is one of the fastest-growing global financial software development companies, widely known for its exceptional RPA solutions for the finance industry. Backed by a dedicated team of 1000+ tech experts, we provide best-in-class RPA solutions for finance that can automate your Fintech business processes seamlessly. Right from conceptualization to deployment, our team stands by you at every step, with unwavering dedication and passion, while ensuring to deliver cutting-edge solutions that exceed your expectations.

To transform your business with a robust RPA solution in finance, get in touch with our skilled tech experts now!

FAQs

Q. What is RPA in finance?

A. RPA in finance is a user-friendly software that helps automate various repetitive and monotonous tasks by just accessing user interfaces without disturbing underlying programs. 

Q. What are the benefits of implementing RPA in finance industry?

A. The benefits of RPA in finance industry are growing rapidly as it can effectively automate tasks of repetitive nature that are prone to cause errors and are time-consuming when performed manually. Accordingly, you can have a lean, cost-efficient team by reducing operational costs while ensuring high compliance standards and minimal human errors.

By automating most of the mundane tasks of inventory management, regular account payables and receivables, record keeping, payroll processing, and report generation, the finance automation solution allows human resources to focus on more strategic roles of planning and client relations. It is much easier to manage the data and systems with the steep and substantial growth of the company.

Q. What is the impact of RPA in finance account payables?

A. Account payable is a critical component of finance and accounting. As the tasks involved are repetitive in nature, it is time-consuming and error-prone. RPA integrated with ML and AI can take up the tedious and monotonous task of performing repetitive tasks of generating invoices and POs. This will keep track of comparing the raised invoices against POs, keeping the audit in place on a real-time basis.

Q. How can RPA be leveraged to automate finance tasks?

A. Financial institutions can leverage the power of robot process automation by deploying RPA bots into the system that mimic human interactions with various financial processes. These bots can automate mundane and repetitive tasks such as data entry, report generation,  invoice processing, reconciliation, etc., with great accuracy and speed. 

Furthermore, RPA can interact with internal systems, such as ERP and CRM, enabling seamless data exchange and facilitating end-to-end automation. Through RPA applications in finance, businesses can focus on more value-added tasks while time-consuming tasks are efficiently managed by RPA bots.

THE AUTHOR

Sudeep Srivastava

Co-Founder and Director