Services / Finance Process Automation
Finance Process Automation. Let the routine run itself, and look only at the exceptions.
Most of the finance calendar is rules. Match this against that, flag what does not agree, post the rest, chase what is overdue. We rebuild those rules as workflows that run on a schedule, so the team sees only the items that genuinely need judgment, and the close stops depending on who is in the office.
When this helps
- The same spreadsheet is rebuilt every month by the same person
- Reconciliation means matching thousands of lines by hand
- Invoices sit waiting for an approval that nobody has been told about
- Collections depend on somebody remembering to chase
- The close cannot happen while one particular person is away
What is included
The scope is agreed around the decisions in front of you. A typical engagement draws on the following.
Close automation
Scheduled tasks, automated journals, and a close checklist that updates itself as steps complete.
Reconciliation engine
Automatic matching, with a clear exception queue for whatever does not agree.
Payables and receivables
Invoice routing, approval chasing and collections reminders that run without being asked.
Exception handling
Thresholds and escalation, so that a person is involved when it matters and not otherwise.
Audit trail
Every automated action logged, which makes the process more auditable than the manual one it replaced.
Manual fallback
Each workflow can still be run by hand. Automation must not become a single point of failure.
Deliverables
- Process map, current and future
- At the start
- Automated workflows, in production
- Per process
- Exception queue and thresholds
- Continuous
- Audit log
- Continuous
- Runbook and handover
- At handover
How it works
A clear sequence, so that you see value early and nothing is built that your team cannot own.
Map
Document the process as it actually runs, including the steps nobody wrote down.
Simplify
Remove the steps that exist only because of an old system. Automating waste only makes faster waste.
Automate
Build, and run in parallel with the manual process until the two results match.
Cut over
Switch, with the manual fallback documented and tested.
Questions
Will this replace people on the team?
In our experience it changes what they do rather than how many of them there are. The work that disappears is the work nobody wanted: matching, chasing, re-keying. What remains is analysis, which is where a finance team earns its cost.
Do we need to change our ERP?
Usually not. Most of this is built around the systems you already have. Where a system genuinely cannot support it, we say so rather than building something fragile on top of it.
How do we know the automated result is right?
Every workflow runs in parallel with the manual process until they agree, and every automated action is logged. Cut-over happens on evidence rather than on a date.
Other services
Most clients combine two or more services as their needs develop.
Discuss finance process automation. Thirty minutes, without obligation.
Tell us where the business is headed and what stands in the way. Or write directly to alberto.salas@blackbearcorp.com.
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