The COVID-19 pandemic brought every economy to its knees and boosted up the adsorption towards RPA within the overall accounting firms.
With government guidelines such as maintaining social distancing, avoiding public gatherings. Every industry needs to work with its minimum workforce.
The ratio of unemployment increased globally as the companies felt a shake down and paying salaries to the employees appeared a massive burden.
The pandemic at a global level escalated the automation in every industry whether it is E-commerce, customer service and accounting is not an exception to it.
Accounting firms need to understand the gravity of Robotic process Automation which helps in increasing the efficiency as well as it upgrades the client services.
Though accounting firms were earlier aware about the pros and cons of RPA but after the pandemic it was taken into consideration.
The demands for better remote collaboration is increasing and the need to contain costs are actually driving the interest associated in RPA.
The potentiality of RPA in automating a wide range of activities and even there are no complex algorithms which can help is escalating the pace which directly becomes connected to the firms.
What is RPA?
You must be wondering what RPA actually is?
The software bots help the accountants to tackle crucial yet complex tasks which are time-consuming such as audit, attest, and the activities related to tax.
Bots work as per the advanced microsoft excel which can perform multiple applications.
These bots are capable of holding a larger volume of data than the typical macro such as general ledger or ERP work that can perform various tasks across different platforms.
RPA restores several kinds of manual processes and makes it much quicker than the macros which were earlier used for automation.
AI and Robotics are the best way to redefine the traditional methods and deploy automation.
AI and RPA examine the tedious and long tasks which are performed by workers, accountants and tax professionals.
Such professions make their focus limited to higher level accountancy work and render more value to the companies by grasping the needs of the client and further strengthening the relationship with clients.
Why does RPA matter?
All the companies in the same industry are always in a competition to capture a huge share in the market.
The accounting firms are not an exception to this phrase.
To flourish their firm they must perform two activities:
- Price- Competitive
- Compelling to clients
When accountants gripped RPA to grip much of the high-volume transaction processing.
It increases the functionality of the firm and it also saves time on cost and even attracts more clients.
Unlike humans, RPA does not have any working limits. Bots can run 24/7 and round the clock for 365 days.
These high level productivity in the firm is next impossible without RPA and humans have certain limitations.
The increase in productivity is highly appreciated by the owners of the accounting firms which renders a competitive advantage over clients.
RPA can be deployed to perform numerous tasks which includes accounts payable, accounts receivable, financial statements, controller work, financial planning and other tasks where an accountant employs an associate accountant.
All the tedious and time consuming processes can be performed by RPA without any hassle.
Three Keys to work with RPA
Automation is the new common in every industry. Accounting firms have lots of tasks which are time-consuming and which requires professionals. RPA in accounting provided an ease to these tasks and now they are successfully deployed across every accounting firm.
- Realize that humans needs to be a part of the equation
Bots and automations can never replace the human or precisely an accountant. Clients will always ask for an expert for getting advice in financial as well as compliances.
The laborious and low level of accounting tasks can be performed by RPA and the associate and junior level accountants are set free to focus more on competitive tasks.
Accountants can perform better and their core focus can be serving the clients and maintaining a good relationship with them by providing satisfaction and retention.
RPA further helps in improving the audit quality, increasing regular trust in the overall system of the firm, quality control and generating more financial benefits for the firm.
- Ensure that RPa is continuously evolving
Automation in accounting started with a simple Microsoft Excel sheet and further evolved into bots which further processes routine tasks quickly.
Technology will make continuous improvements and even add value to all the business resources which authorizes firms to provide services which are upto the next level.
RPA must keep advancing because all the rules and regulations will get changed and RPA needs to change its tasks along with it.
- Understanding that RPA is not a magical bullet.
RPA is a technology which is crucial for the accounting firms but it is not the ultimate solution provider.
RPA can bring more profits and generate more revenue for the company as the high quality finance department analysis and standardization of workflow even gets executed by RPA.
RPA in future will continue to shine
RPA in accounting is likely to reduce labour costs, shorter cycle times, increased accuracy and simplification of workflows.
RPA is continuously making some changes in the accounting firms. It becomes quite important to remember that RPa will not ever completely eliminate the involvement of humans.
The laborious tasks of accounting which were earlier been performed by the accountants will get performed by RPA and such junior accountants and associates will get the time to focus on their core.
RPA helps in diminishing the transactional data processing, accountants need to divert their focus on adding more high value to analyze their financial transactions which help their clients to take proper financial decisions. The major leaders of the accounting firms will focus more on RPA solutions that will boost up the growth of accounting firms and even serve as practical tools which help in controlling the repetitive tasks that might cause operational inefficiencies.
Summing up
Automation is not what takes your job but makes it easy, fast and cost-effective. If you are planning to bring RPA in accounting for your company, do let us know. We can help you automate most of your accounting processes.
