Finance automation: What is it, and how do you get started?

In the modern business, repetitive manual tasks are a thing of the past. Finance automation solutions are here to boost your productivity and operational efficiency, saving valuable time and resources for your finance team.

Previously, tasks such as invoicing, bookkeeping and tax management took up hours, even days of your employees’ time. Now, they can be completed in mere minutes – all thanks to finance automation.

In this article, we’ll cover what finance automation is, which processes it can automate and the benefits finance automation solutions bring to your business.

What is finance automation?

Finance automation refers to the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to automate various financial tasks and processes that would otherwise be performed manually.

Such tools are known as finance automation solutions. Their purpose is to enable businesses to perform a wide range of traditionally manual activities faster, cheaper and with fewer errors. Examples of such activities include invoicing and bookkeeping, and even more advanced functions like financial planning, analysis and reporting.

Which financial processes can be automated?

If you haven’t yet implemented finance automation in your business, you might be surprised to learn just how many financial activities can be automated.

Here’s an overview of some of the most important financial tasks and processes you can automate with a finance automation solution:

Accounts Receivable (AR) and Accounts Payable (AP)

With a finance automation solution, you can automate invoicing, payment collection and vendor payment processing. You can also use software to automatically match purchase orders with invoices and receipts. These features allow you to free up your AR and AP teams for more high-value tasks.

Bookkeeping and accounting

A finance automation solution allows you to record and reconcile financial transactions. It can also generate financial statements and reports automatically, saving your team the headache of creating each one manually.

Payroll

With finance automation, you can automate the calculation and distribution of employee salaries, taxes and benefits. Not only does this save you time and resources: it also ensures compliance with tax laws and regulations.