Why should Accounting Firms Leverage RPA during a Pandemic?

The entire world is facing an economic crisis. To maintain the trust of investors and stakeholders, every company is relying on accounting firms. These firms now have the responsibility of not only providing financial information but ensures clients of cost-effectiveness. It became crucial during the pandemic backed by strong facts. But, the problem faced by firms in achieving the same is the work-from-home scenario. It has hampered the traditional accounting processes. This is where benefits of RPA in accounting can transform your processes.

Firms need to refine and redefine their strategies to ensure accounting processes, while saving costs. With less workforce availability, taking technology support in the form of robotic process automation (RPA) is recommended. The benefits of RPA software in accounting are innumerable, especially during the pandemic. This is because of its exceptional ability to automate processes using minimum or zero manual help, explains Gartner.

Top Benefits of RPA in Accounting

RPA comes with multiple benefits for accounting firms. From tracking accounts receivable to ensuring local and federal COVID-19 compliance, to timely payments, it can do it all. Let us gain valuable insights into the same:

Cost Savings: Every accounting firm is facing revenue loss due to less availability of work and resources. This makes it imperative for firms to look for cost-effective ways while ensuring top work quality. With a small implementation of 10 bots, firms can get their accounting tasks completed at minimal costs. Where humans are needed, they can focus on higher-value tasks and leave such monotonous tasks to automation.

Productivity: Since revenue loss is being witnessed by a majority of firms, it has led to unemployment amongst workers. Now, with less workforce, revenue, and resources, achieving productivity is tough but must. By integrating RPA, employers can automate the possible parts of the daily activities of the workforce. It ensures achieving a level of productivity, and leaving the remaining staff to focus on problem-solving.

Speed: This is what GPA is all about! As compared to humans, it can complete a task in a fraction of seconds. This type of speed is not at all possible when humans handle non-productive and repetitive accounting tasks.

Accuracy: It is not just the speed that comes with automation but accuracy too. RPA has the potential to provide 100% accuracy in accounting, which humans can never achieve. On average, they commit around 10-15% of accounting mistakes while handling repetitive tasks.

Remote Work Support: As we all are unaware when we’ll get coronavirus vaccine, firms are using the remote work platform. RPA can help increase the pace of setting up processes, ensuring appropriate Wi-Fi home access.

Business Continuity: With automation, fewer people will be working at the offices that will limit their exposure to COVID-19. For instance, businesses are using bots to assess the health of every employee against the COVID-19 risk. This type of RPA will help in the reopening of businesses with low-risk employees to prevent widespread workplace infection. RPA in financial reporting is also assisting business to stay financially ahead of competitors.

In-Use RPA Applications During the Pandemic

Accelerated Patient Enrollment: A lot of hospitals and testing centers are taking RPA support to accelerate the enrollment of patients.

Using bots, testing centers quickly scan electronic medical records, add patients to the system, share related information with CDC, and report back to the patients.  In this uncertain times, it is not only saving 8-9 minutes per patient but also reducing the chances of errors.

Rapid Hiring: Since a great demand is there for essential products, a lot of companies are falling short of the workforce due to lockdown to deliver products and services on time, especially in the hot spot areas.

RPA can help such companies speed up their hiring process by executing time-consuming tasks like evaluating employee eligibility, background checks, etc., and enable the staff of Human Resources to focus on different employee onboarding stages instead.

Unprecedented Product Demand Processing: A lot of companies have witnessed surplus and sudden demand for certain products like grocery, personal protective equipment, meal kits, etc. By using bots, these companies can process multiple orders in the minimal possible time, ensuring timely delivery and enhanced customer service.

Possible RPA Use-Cases During the Pandemic

Insurance and Claim Processes: Similar to retail businesses, insurance businesses have witnessed a surplus demand for claims since COVID-19 has made things complicated for everyone on health terms. If insurers automate this process, it can lead to faster disbursement and enhanced customer service.

Financial Services and Loan Origination: A lot of nations have announced stimulus packages, and financial firms are overwhelmed with loan processing tasks and inquiries. Bots can be of great help here since they will not only expedite loan processing but also automate the handling of the inquiries.

Retail and Stock management

RPA helps retailers process bulk orders quickly but is also very useful when it comes to managing stock details through information from various sources. This will help in avoiding stock shortages and also keep track of goods which will help immensely during retail accounting later on.

HR and Request Processing

Similar to financial inquiries, the HR department is also facing a sudden increase in the number of inquiries concerning new work-from-home norms.  Bots can be used to reply to the frequently asked questions, streamlining the overall process eventually.

Still, having Speculations in Mind regarding RPA? Here are some Facts to Consider:

1) As per McKinsey Global Institute, 64% of data collection and 69% of data processing tasks are likely to become automated.

2) According to Forrester, its growth is predicted between $250 million (2016) to $2.9 billion (2021), with the automation industry valued at $1.7 billion in 2018.

3) The revenue of RPA software grew 63.1% in 2018 to $846 million, making automation one of the fastest-growing industries of the world, explains Gartner.

Conclusion

Accounting firms need to realize that they have to move ahead with time and give up on their manual processes and seek automation support, especially during crises like COVID-19. They need to understand that during a pandemic, RPA can not only help them ensure smooth business operations but save on costs as well, along with serving their clients in a timely and efficient manner.

However, if you don’t have the right skills, time, or workforce to use accounting software, you can seek support. Hiring top outsourcing provider like Cogneesol. It has been providing the highest-quality, accurate, and cost-effective outsource accounting services since 2008. Contact us now at +1 833-313-3143 or email at [email protected] to start your free trial!