What can AI do for your financial software?

In the last few years, AI has transformed from the realms of sci-fi into one of the biggest buzzwords in the world of business. It promises almost endless opportunities to transform how we work, with massively increased efficiency. For accountancy specifically, these new AI-powered finance tools promise to revolutionise the way people work.  

In this article, we’ll explore how this new technology can be used to benefit you – and address that big question as to whether it will replace the role of the accountant anytime soon. 

How can you use AI to optimise your accounting? 

Using AI to optimise the way you work as an accountant isn’t as simple as just getting the right AI powered tools and letting the robots do all the work for you. But it can massively speed up and improve some of the most crucial tasks that accountants deal with day in, day out. 

Auditing 

A large part of the audit process comes down to finding anomalies and suspicious activity in a business’ financial records. Whereas traditionally this would have to have been done manually and would rely on some level of intuition, AI tools can analyse a company’s data en masse and automatically spot discrepancies or anything that looks out of the ordinary.  

Often these tools can also automate the audit trails and documentation, sparing you from much of the tedious work that comes from the auditing process.  

Forecasting 

Effective financial forecasting relies on gathering and analysing large amounts of data to create a model of a business’ financial situation to try and make predictions for the future. This is exactly the type of task that is incredibly complex and time-consuming for accountants to do effectively, but AI truly excels at. 

AI finance tools can comfortably process large datasets from whatever sources you give them to create an accurate model that can help you predict the outcome of different scenarios. 

Financial and business research 

AI finance tools can make financial and business research much easier, quicker, and more effective by processing and analysing vast amounts of data, such as a company’s financial reports or statements, far faster and more accurately than any human ever could.  

They can identify trends, patterns and correlations within financial data that may be overlooked by manual analysis. This AI-assisted analysis can give you valuable insights and forecasts, which can in turn help you make better decisions. 

By reducing the time you’ve got to spend on data capture and analysis, AI finance tools allow you to focus on pulling out deeper interpretation and insights, which will ultimately lead to more informed and effective business strategies. 

Advantages of AI for financial software 

While having AI power in finance tools may be a relatively recent invention, many businesses are already seeing major advantages and improvements in the way they work compared to their previous non-AI systems.  

Automation 

As anyone working in accounting knows, much of the day-to-day work can be taken up within hours of mundane manual work such as data entry and processing, reconciliations, and expense management.  

But AI finance software brings with it the tools to automate away most not just basic tasks like data entry but also things like the accounts process and revenue recognition. This frees up a lot of time for staff to focus on more strategic, value-adding activities.  

Elimination of human error 

It’s often said that ‘to err is human’ and unfortunately this is just as true as ever when it comes to accounting. Every step of the process that involves a human member of staff having to input or process data carries a risk of error, whether that’s down to fatigue, oversight or just a random mistake.  

AI automation will get rid of this risk as it will automatically process the data in a consistent manner every time, eliminating the variability that human actions might introduce. 

Enhanced security 

AI finance tools can help make your business more secure by continuously monitoring your transactions and accounts for any behaviour or anomalies that may appear suspicious and flagging them for further investigation.  

These often include the sort of patterns that can otherwise be tricky to spot with the naked eye, making AI a potentially vital tool for fraud prevention. 

Can AI replace accountants? 

As much as there may be some level of fearmongering over the prospect of the role of the accountant becoming redundant thanks to AI, the truth is that no one will be getting fully replaced by robots anytime soon. AI tools aren’t designed to replace these jobs completely – they’re supposed to make the work more efficient, effective, and easy.   

As any professional will attest, accountancy requires much more than just mindless number crunching to be successful. A skilled accountant relies on critical thinking, professional judgment and ethical considerations to do their job – all tasks that AI is still a long way behind the human race on.  

Accountants also need to exercise a level of interpersonal skills to get the information they need and maintain professional relationships with their colleagues and clients.  

How can Thinc help? 

If you want to get started with adding some AI power to your finance setup, we’re here to help. We offer a range of solutions that include AI assistance, such as the best-in-class finance software Sage Intacct.  

Whatever you’re using at the moment, we’ll work with you to come up with a new solution that uses AI to unlock the potential of your staff. Just get in touch for a no-obligation chat with one of our experts.