Digital Accountants Liberating CFOs
Document Structure
This article is divided into 8 segments-
● The first segment talks a little bit about the presence of AI in our lives.
● The second segment describes how automated software benefits the accounting industry.
● The third segment talks about how AI has simplified bookkeeping.
● The fourth segment is about how digital accountants and human accountants complement each other.
● In the fifth segment, you will read about the tasks that can be automated using AI.
● The Sixth segment answers, “Will human accountants become jobless on embracing AI?”
● The seventh segment is about the future vision of AI.
● The last one is the conclusion part.
AI- Artificial, yet Intelligent
We are living in the digital world, where AI is our co-worker. Gone are the days when everything used to be hand-operated and robots were just the characters of sci-fi movies.
The modern world is robotic. Human intelligence has empowered machines and software to perform with the artificial brain and that too quickly, accurately, and more efficiently than their inventor/creator. Yes! We are talking about Artificial intelligence (AI).
Today, AI is no longer a hidden concept. A 4 years kid can easily brief about artificial intelligence-driven bots he/she might be fascinated with. For the past few years, AI has been simplifying our daily chores as well as business complexities. Although artificial intelligence is around us in one or the other form, it still has a long way to go.
AI-based Accounting Sector
Almost every business and organization today are welcoming and implementing new technologies to rationalize their business operations. One such operation that is on the top of their agenda is accounting. Artificial intelligence in accounting software is rendering positive outcomes such as improved productivity, advanced accuracy, and decreased cost.
AI enables automating data handling and data-processing with 100% correctness. There is no scope for clerical errors, which makes Artificial Intelligence advantageous in the area of compliance as the data generated for the tax reports would have higher accuracy and speed than ever.
Artificial Intelligence-driven business accounting software and automated cloud accounting software extend the capabilities of accounting & finance firms and professionals to a whole new level. It lets systems to predict and make modifications accordingly – just like humans can. It enables processors to use machine-based learning which was earlier left to individuals.
In the accounting profession, where accountants deal with rote tasks, AI-programmed best accounting software is a replacement of human abilities for the better.
According to a survey carried out by MIT-Boston Consulting Group, more than 80% of people believe that Artificial Intelligence leads to competitive success and 79% believe that technology increases the productivity of the organization.
Artificial intelligence-based cloud accounting software is being used by many accounting firms and various small business organizations, where it analyzes a massive volume of data at a great pace, which is not practically possible for humans.
With so many perks, AI is being adopted increasingly for administrative jobs and accounting that results in multiple structural changes.
AI Simplifying Bookkeeping
Accounting just got simpler and faster with the rise in innovative technologies like artificial intelligence.
With the rise of rapid digital transformation in all sectors, accounting is a top priority for implementing AI. Accounting involves dealing with complex data and managing several transactions and accounts of a large part of the population.
Not just this, accounting is a vast process comprising numerous time-consuming tasks. With the demand for proficiency required to speed-up processes with precision, accounting firms are shifting to modernization and opting for a new digital workforce to simplify the complex tasks that accountants have to perform.
This new supply of support is helping organizations without asking for a remuneration because it isn’t human, but robots. Let’s take a look at the current picture displaying automation in the accounting sector.
Modern accounting personnel is aware of various forms of technologies such as ML- Machine Learning, cloud computing, automated accounting software, robotics, and other different types of automation.
Presently, all accounting startups - small, medium, or large finance business firms, are realizing the importance of automated accounting or AI-driven bookkeeping.
The most common procedure where AI is being adopted is automation. Accounting professionals and organizations are valuing the transformation AI brings to their accounting processes, making them more efficient by changing the allotment of typical, multiple, and monotonous tasks to overcome clerical errors and reduce time consumption.
Automating accounting with artificial intelligence allows business owners and employees to have more hands-on experience while transforming the “number-crunching” job of the accountant.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are reshaping accounting at such a rapid pace that future accountancy is quite predictable. The disruption is going to support robots as accountants, leaving human accountants free of burdens and complexities in this sector.
The accounting industry today can not survive for long if it avoids automation. AI-driven software is a must for accounting professionals or firms to remain relevant and make their presence felt among the masses.
Almost all startups and businesses, from a small scale organization to a large venture, require accountants who could leverage technology to become technoscientific in their professions along with their nimble responses to the functions they perform.
Automation and Accountants - Go Hand In Hand
An Accenture study, in 2017, reveals that 68% of their consumers preferred to have access to both Robo-advisor and a human advisor.
Automation and AI can create opportunities for organizations and accountants to focus on streamlining the day-to-day processes so that they can accomplish those "big picture" aims and targets.
No company or business runs with 100% human workforce today and no company runs on 100% automation- humans are required at one or both ends of technology.
The truth is, both the human and digital workforce go hand in hand. Both are important and helpful to each other. Accountants in the organizations are still in demand to perform with enhanced potential not for rote tasks that machines can do, but for the higher tasks that machines can never do.
For example - Even though machines and software can perform the computations or undertake initial audit-related actions, someone would be needed to analyze the complete process and pull out a noteworthy conclusion.
Digital/Robo Accountants Tasks
Besides, freeing up accountants from intricate tasks, AI also helps businesses elevate their operations. Accountants who have adopted the latest innovations in technology use accounting software to gain proficiency and relevance in the organization. Some of the numerous tasks that digital accountants can perform well are:
Task #1: Periodic Close Procedure
The earlier you will get the estimates, figures, and results, the more time your organization will get to design strategies regarding what can be achieved with the results. AI provides you with the results and reports from multiple sources, consolidates it, and synthesizes it. This not only speeds up the monthly process but also supports more accuracy because of intelligent software or machines.
Task #2: Procurement
The trailing and procuring process for many organizations is loaded with paperwork. The computerized process may too use various data formats that may conflict with each other. However, AI software can successfully integrate unstructured data and easily process it. This performs the procurement process efficiently and more easily and makes it paperless too. In addition to this, AI can easily track the fluctuations in tariffs among multiple suppliers.
Task #3: Accounts Payable/Receivable
The AI-based accounting software enables powerful invoicing and timely payments that are necessary for any business to grow and maintain the goodwill in the market. The intelligent system with the powers of AI enables a better invoice management process, which can make the processing of accounts payable and accounts receivable more streamlined with the help of a digital workflow. The smart system can memorize the accounting code or protocol for the respective invoice.
Task #4: Audit Process
Intelligent software can track the access of data and files (from the different sources it is accessed, and the time of access) that increases the complete security. Moreover, auditors need not search files or track records at the time of the audit process, they just need to access information digitally. This also assures efficient and correct audits that are mandatory for compliance and regulatory processes.
Task #5: Expense management
Managing expenditures of an organization is a crucial job to do. Evaluating and approving all the expenses manually to make sure that they are compliant with the organization’s policies is certainly an exhausting and time-draining process. AI integrated software or bots make it more manageable as robots can verify receipts and review expenses effortlessly, even with the bulk data. It can also alert personnel about any infringement or fraud.
Task #6: Handling Customers’ Queries
Chatbots provide an effective solution to solve frequent customer queries automatically, thus, liberating your employees to perform and focus on other mandatory and human-bound tasks. Chatbot solutions can manage chats independently. AI bots can fix customers’ issues like the delay in answering their queries when customer service solutions are human-based.
Will Digital Accountants Unseat Human Accountants?
As per the findings so far, evolution and expansion of artificial intelligence among and across the accounting and finance industries are showing a rapid transformation. AI-capabilities have automated almost all of the accounting tasks (such as tax, audit, payroll. Banking, invoice processing, etc) that accountants used to perform earlier. These automated tasks daunt accountants and make them live in fear of joblessness. So, now the questions arise-
What will accountants do now?
Will AI supersede accountants?
Not really! Artificial Intelligence-driven software and bots have stepped-in to ease the work of accountants and other personnel. Its implementation enables unchaining accountants from their mind-numbing and colorless job of crunching numbers and doing the calculation of abundant data of a plethora of customers.
AI liberates accountants from doing machine-capable tasks and helps them widen their roles and capabilities to work as consultants and supervisors across the organization and to handle customers’ queries and guide them through the solutions.
AI has reduced the over-consumption of man-hours spent on administrative tasks and directed them towards achieving the organization’s goals and objectives. This additionally helps them to deliver value-added and more trustworthy services to customers and concentrate more on the growth of the organization’s overall success.
Advancement and growth in technology do not mean that humans will become irrelevant to businesses.
With the drift and increasing favor for AI, accountants are expected to shift their roles into consultation and advisory practices. This transformed opportunity is helping them grow and realize their potential to the fullest.
In addition to this, AI can help recognize and categorize data from multiple sources in different formats and divert it to the right accounting head. Other important jobs such as processing accounts payable and accounts receivables can also be handled easily by AI software, which again helps companies to cut costs on their expenses.
Future Outlook
The future of accounting facilitates expanding AI software services to consumers like creating reports, maintaining and updating balance sheets and decreasing man-hours to utilize it for further higher tasks, saving time spent in manual input of data, and so on…
Artificial Intelligence and automation will certainly impact the marketing sector and will also bring radical changes in the accounting sector with a huge possibility of the reduction in costs and increased productivity. This is in addition to the accuracy and precision, which AI will bring in any menial and repetitive manual task that can be automated.
It also enables seamless integration of other finance processes that accountants manage within the day-to-day operations of the organizations they work for.
Automation And AI Are No Longer Fancy Options But Must-Haves
Accountants embracing artificial integration are the ones who have been benefiting the most from this digital shift. Ratifying modern systems is key for the long-term survival of businesses and the continued future of accounting.
AI-automated accounting software handles diverse tasks of accounting and finance industries such as:
● Initiation of payments
● Matching purchase orders
● Automating data entry
● Categorizing data
● Invoice processing
● Generating financial reports
Although AI offers ample benefits to the accounting industry, yet human intelligence enables the integration of a best-of-both-worlds scenario and thus, is hard to beat. Accountants use big data generated by AI-driven systems and analyze broad financial trends more efficiently and effectively.
Conclusion
The implementation of AI at an initial level may seem expensive to many small businesses and accounting firms bu the truth is far from it. If you calculate the overall ROI of business (without automation) and the business on automation, you can easily compare the difference in return, outputs, speed, accuracy, customers’ satisfaction, and clientele list both businesses hold.
Integrating AI-driven accounting into existing practices can be initiated with automating processes that show a little redundancy that eventually will help accountants to leave the numbers to bots and spend their valuable time on strengthening customer relationships plus business-management functions. Software companies nowadays offer an AI-powered platform for every business firm to automate their accounting processes.
Artificial Intelligence technology with its diverse guises, such as computer vision or voice recognition, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), and integration with robotic process automation expands the scale and scope of process automation to a great deal.
Leading organizations, such as Google, Amazon, and other major financial services establishments have adopted and are exercising AI-powered principles to improve their services, limit fraud and oversight, and reduce costs.