The banking and financial sector is the backbone of the global economy, providing services to both customers and enterprises. Yet this industry is being challenged daily as clients’ expectations are constantly getting higher and government regulations are tightening. It’s impossible to stay in the race without transforming financial processes.

Don’t take our word for it, check out the facts. According to a recent study, banks were fined over $700 million in Q2 2021 alone. In general, not every fine is a consequence of human error, but the odds are good that using manual processes can lead to even more significant losses in the future. As for client requirements, most of the younger generation prefer banks that provide personal finance management tools. Therefore, it is critical for the entire industry to focus on building a customer-centric workflow. But this isn’t feasible if office workers spend about 69 days a year on administrative tasks. Luckily, financial process automation is here to improve the situation.

Examples of financial process automation that you can implement

1. Payroll reports. When it comes to payroll, timing and accuracy are essential. If you still opt for manual data entry, it’s a daunting task leading to a mass of working hours and headaches. So a logical question arises: who will crunch the numbers and fill out the spreadsheets? Nobody, this is the responsibility of the RPA. Bots can drive your data-based processes by automatically pushing and pulling information and linking multiple CRM systems. Plus, workflow automation finance enables you to create payroll reports to cross-check financial data in a matter of seconds. Just specify what information you want to retrieve about compensation, taxes, rewards, expense reimbursement, pay rates, etc.
2. Loan applications. Count how many loan applications you receive daily. Among them, you’ll probably find some that don’t fit your lending criteria, but even with them, experts spend their time checking everything manually and writing a letter to applicants. The bigger the loan is, the slower the loan cycle becomes due to time-consuming evaluations. Let workflow automation fix this bottleneck. Create a process that will automatically filter out inappropriate applications, address in-question cases to the manager and notify the borrower of the decision. Ultimately, all your customers need to do is fill out your form online. Then the system checks the applicant’s credit history. The application can be declined automatically, transferred to a specialist, or an experienced decision-maker. Save your time without sacrificing productivity.
3. Budget Approval. Such a severe process as budget planning forces you to control every step in order to avoid mistakes. Although it’s counterintuitive, leaving this process to automation is more efficient. Financial process automation can take over most tasks and cope with them faster and better than any employee. RPA technologies collect data from all departments and calculate their costs and petty cash transactions. Based on analytical data, it’s easy to predict further expenses. A financial specialist can track any figure in the report and replace it relying on their personal experience. Automation also eliminates the chance that a budget approval request will be buried in an inbox. Auto-reminders will be sent until the budget is agreed upon.