Automating Accounting, Tax, and Finance processes

Today’s Presenters

• Amy Lickey – Business Development Manager, Capitalize Analytics

• Eric Soden – Managing Partner, Capitalize Analytics

• Neeta Kamat – Product Marketing Manager, Alteryx

• Mihai Faur – Chief Accounting Officer, UiPath

• Simona Balan – Project Manager Finance Systems and Process Design, UiPath

• Jayson Varkey – Senior Consultant, Capitalize Analytics

Capitalize Analytics

• Data Architects• Data Scientists• Automation Engineers• Trainers• Consultants

• Since 2012• 50 Consultants across US• Cross industry - Energy (O&G), Financial Services, Health Care, Hospitality, Insurance,

Logistics/Distribution, Manufacturing, Public Sector, Retail, etc.

• www.capitalizeconsulting.com - recent archived webinars, blogs

• Partnerships

The Capitalize Business Process

Webinar1-on-1

DiscussionCustomized

DemoPOC/Hands-On

Putting it in Production

Agenda

• Financial Challenges Solved

• Explaining Alteryx and UiPath

• Alteryx Platform Overview

• UiPath Automation Journey

• Alteryx Demo

• UiPath Demo

• Full Automation Solution Demos• Accounting• Tax• Finance

• Closeout and Next Steps

• Optional Workshop

Financial Processes Challenges Solved• Application Integration:

• Automatically sync payroll and general ledger• Move closed deals to quote or invoice process automatically• Move data from accounting to tax (or vice versa)• Automate regulatory filings, tax filings

• Reconciliations:• Tick and tie automatically. Only focus on resolving issues• Ensure all systems match hourly, daily, weekly

• Accounting Close:• Automate each step of the process to drastically reduce manual work

• Forecasting and Accruals:• Build automated processes using many data sources with no data limits

• Management Reporting:• Fully automate collection of data and reporting to every level of the organization• Spend time analyzing results instead of compiling data

UiPath and Alteryx?

UiPath (RPA)• Automation• Keyboard and Mouse Processes• Complex web navigation• Fill out online forms• Calls other apps and programs• Monitor events and processes

• Orchestration

Alteryx (APA)• Automation and Analysis• Data Processes• Basic file download tool• Push data to DB/BI/Files/REST• Pulls, processes, and pushes data• Predictive Analytics• Geospatial Analytics

• Data Processes and Analysis

Alteryx OverviewNeeta

9

DATA

QUALITY +

PREPARATION

DATA

ENRICHMENT +

INSIGHTS

DATA

SCIENCE +

DECISIONS

AUTOMATING

INPUTS

AUTOMATING

OUTCOMES

100+ INPUTS AND OUTPUTS

260+ BUILDING BLOCKS

Cleansing + Blending

Exploration + Profiling

Calculations +

Transformations

Geospatial Analytics

Descriptive Analytics

Consumer + Business

Insights

Code-free Data Science

Predictive Auto ML

Code-Free Predictive +

Prescriptive Analytics

Assisted Modeling

Cloud Sources

Bots

Data Platforms

Files, Docs

Applications

Logic

BI Applications

Bots

Stakeholders

Business-Ready Docs + Email

Enterprise Apps + APIs

Production AI

THE ALTERYX APATM PLATFORMEND-TO-END ANALYTICS + DATA SCIENCE + PROCESS AUTOMATION

ONE UNIFIED

PLATFORM

SELF-SERVICE,

HUMAN-CENTERED

EXPERIENCE

PROVEN

GLOBALLY

LARGE, ACTIVE

COMMUNITY

OUR PLATFORM

• 260+ building blocks

• 80+ inputs

• Outcomes to 40+ solutions

OUR CUSTOMERS & PARTNERS

• 6,100+ Customers

• 36% of Global 2000

• 80%+ see outcomes in <14 days

• 400+ Partners

OUR COMMUNITY

• 150,000+ members globally

• 200,000+ published posts

• 16,000+ published solutions

• 60,000+ user-created extensions

• Self-service learning paths

AUTOMATING INPUTS

THE ALTERYX APATM PLATFORM ADVANTAGE

ANALYTICS + DATA SCIENCE

+ AUTOMATED PROCESSESAUTOMATING OUTPUTS

10

APA IN ACTION | CHICK-FIL-A

Advanced analytics to automate tax processes

Thousands of

individual files

Reduced manual efforts to identify potential tax savings

and reduced time to prepare 1099s from 10 hours to 10

seconds

AUTOMATING 1099SSALES TAX COLLECTION &

REPORTING1 2

Reduced risk of

manual errors

CloudSources

Bots

DataPlatforms

Files, Docs

Applications

Logic

BIApplications

RPA

Stakeholders

Business-ReadyDocs, Email…

Enterprise Apps & API’s

Production AI

DataBlending

Code-FreeData Science

Data Prep & Profiling

DiagnosticReporting

GeospatialAnalytics

PrescriptiveAnalytics

PublishingApp Controls

Explainable AI

Predictive Auto ML

ProcessAutomation

With hundreds of franchises across the U.S. and sales

tax requirements that change by the ZIP code, Chick-

Fil-A needed a system to update tax rates, manage

accurate collections and remittance, and ensure timely

processing.

UiPath OverviewMihai and Simona

UiPath Finance & Accounting Automation Journey

2

Speakers

Mihai FaurChief Accounting Officer

Simona BalanProject Manager Finance

Systems and Process Design

3

1. Build a common repository early for automation ideas – use Automation Hub2. Empower everyone to feel like they can participate in the program3. Identify Automation Champions in your teams – they should coordinate with COE the

automation pipeline and prioritization of development4. Don’t take for granted how inaccessible automation can seem5. Ask your employees to name the robots – they will become their hard-working buddy6. Define your strategy and deadlines to reach your objectives:

Automation Journey – Lessons learned

Have an outcome-driven: Top-Down approach

Encourage every employee to share: Bottom-Up ideas

Automation Goals Digital Workforce %

Automation % within a Process

Automation Hub

Crowdsource an automation pipeline

Deliberate Strategy

System Integration & MDM - RPA is a defaultchoice after out-of-box packaged solution

Automate Testing

1 3

2 Citizen Led Automation

Citizen Development – StudioX A Robot for Every Person, everyone gets their own

Digital Assistant

4

4

Vendor balance confirmations Tracking of reception, invoices without PO VAT verification for vendors, VAT reporting on tax

authority portals Processing of vendor invoices using document

understanding and ML Credit cards – reconciliations, processing, clearing Payroll reviews and reconciliations Reclassification of employee advances Preparation and posting accruals: expense reports,

bonuses, freelancers, other accruals Preparation and posting of bank transactions, bank

reconciliation

Work is history. It’s time to reboot work.

Accounting & Payroll Operations

Update Salesforce accounts with open balance and creditinformation

Provide POs to Sales Reps received by billing department Assign Salesforce Finance cases to billing specialists Prepare draft Sales Orders in ERP using Salesforce

information Generation and delivery of invoices to customers Cash application Collections (prepare ageing reports showing previous

actions taken on respective customers, assign customersto collectors, upload in ERP latest collection activities)

Extract data for Sales Compensation VAT verification for customers

Commercial Finance

5

Procurement Dashboard Procurement Chatbot Insurance reporting Vendor onboarding Requisition assistant

Work is history. It’s time to reboot work.

Procurement

• Country Pack Reporting• Brute Force 2.0 – Revenue Recognition by ASC US 606• SSP calculations required for Revenue Recognition• Analytics over Consolidated Trial balance• Preparation of audit evidences as required by External

Auditors• Consolidation

Controllership

Equity Tax Reporting Transfer Pricing calculations Daily Cash position automation Chatbot for Credit Card and automation of CC

issuance Transfer of data from banking platform to Kyriba

Tax & Treasury System integrations where Out-of-box solutions are not

available or provide limited functionalities: Netsuite (ERP) with Workday, Coupa, Salesforce, Concur, Kyriba, Citi, Xactly

SaaS Reconciliations for users and licenses

Finance IT

#AutomationHub• Customer Zero & Automation First

mindset• Established F&A automation goals

and metrics• Developed operating model to

increase automations velocity from idea to development

• Effective pipeline management and qualification process

How was F&A able to make large strides in RPA?

124 Robots in Production

44.2K+ Hours Automated

41 Robots by Citizen Dev

14% Digital Workforce

43 Unattended

69 Robots by COE

+67 Robots / 118% Increase

81 Attended

14 Robots by Prof Serv

F&A RPA Metrics Nov’20 YTD

Think Automation First | Democratizing RPA

RPA Adoption by F&A Function

• Accounting and Payroll and Commercial Finance continue to be the leading functions inautomations, with 43 and 29 Robots;

• Process Design team continuing to partner with CoE on Automation Pipeline and prioritizing thedevelopment of new F&A Robots to increase adoption rates.

Department Production Robots

Hours saved by robots Total hours FTEs % Digital Workforce

Commercial Finance 29 25,587 64,480 40%

Accounting and Payroll 43 9,004 81,120 11%

Finance Admin 3 26 6,240 0%

Finance IT 5 144 20,800 1%

Treasury 7 1,612 10,400 16%

Procurement 6 1,331 31,200 4%

Tax 4 832 16,640 5%

Controllership 14 5,579 41,600 13%

Internal Audit 9 76 8,320 1%

FP&A 4 50 16,640 0%

Total Production Bots 124 44,241 297,440 14%

40%

11%

0%1%

16%

4% 5%

13%

1% 0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

-

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

Com

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Fin

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Acco

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Fina

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# Production Robots and % Digital Workforce

RPA Success Stories

Think Automation First | Employ your Digital Workforce

Configuration, Pricing, Quoting

Lead, Account, and Opportunity Management

Order Management, Provisioning, & Entitlements

Billing & Invoicing

Contracts

Collections, Cash App., & Rev. Rec.8x

19 Lead to Cash Process Automations

606 Rev Rec Bots

Automations that significantly improve employee experience and positively impact key KPIs Created operational efficiencies that

allow UiPath’s Commercial Finance team to scale alongside UiPath’s meteoric growth

Created new opportunities for career advancement and capacity to solve new business challenges

Positive impact on working capital metrics (days sales outstanding, collections, reduction in billing error rates)

Sir Paste-a-LotBilly and the

Mailman

Function: Billing TeamType: UnattendedEst Annual Hours Saved: 4,836Est Annual Cost Savings: $33,852Avg Monthly Sales Orders: 1,200Employee Satisfaction:

Headcount Sales OrdersSir Paste-a-Lot

Billy and the Mailman

Function: Commercial FinanceType: UnattendedEst Annual Hours Saved: 2,781Est Annual Cost Savings: $49,919Avg Monthly Invoices: 1,200Employee Satisfaction:

Challenges:• Accelerated growth in Sales Order and Invoice volumes

creating scalability issues within Billing Team• Tedious manual work with inherent risk of mistakes,

resulting in errors and re-billings that negatively impact collection metrics

• Costly iPaaS connector (Dell Boomi) requiring specialized resources to maintain integrations

Solutions:Sir Paste-a-Lot – Touchless Sales Order creation using closed won opportunity information from SFDC; transforming and passing data into NetSuite Sales OrdersBilly and the Mailman – Two Robots that in tandem, create PDF invoices and then delivers them to Customers via email, vendor portal, or coordinates physical delivery

Outcomes:Repurposed Billing employees to revenue recognition team; ability to manage scale alongside volume growth; positive improvement on various metrics

Function: Revenue RecognitionType: 8 Attended robots - some of the robots are scalable – can be run on multiple machines (up to 15) for faster processingTransactions: 19,000Restating of 2019 processing time: 10 hoursEmployee Satisfaction:

RPA Success Story: Robots automate Revenue Recognition

Robot Name:BruteForce 2.0

“

”

BruteForce 2.0 is fantastic! It is impossible to assess the time savings because it would simply be an impossible task to attempt. We could not have hired enough contractors to do this work in under 3 months with and unlimited budget.Jerry Walling – Director, Revenue Policy & Compliance

Revenue Recognition under ASC 606 – Brute Force 2.0

In 2018, the Accounting Board issued a new standard ASC 606/IFRS 15 for Revenue Recognition.

Many companies, including us, have struggled to transition to the new standard and achieve revenue compliance.

There are not many cost-effective solutions available on the market that can automate revenue recognition or that can transform any booking data into an ASC 606/IFRS 15 compliant form, hence the Revenue Recognition team, together with UiPath Professional services team, designed an automation to restate Revenue, under ASC 606, called BruteForce 2.0.

Under the BruteForce approach we have used our own RPA solution to recalculate revenues for 19,000 customer transactions.

This RPA solution is based on the ASC 606/IFRS 15 5- Step Model and is built to perform highly complex revenue accounting operations that would otherwise require a lot of manual effort:• Identify the contract(s) with the

customer• Identify the performance

obligations in the contract• Determine the transaction price • Allocate the transaction price• Recognize revenue as

performance obligations are satisfied

Function: Accounting OperationsType: AttendedEst Annual Hours Saved: 48Est Annual Cost Savings: $960Avg Monthly Transactions: 150Employee Satisfaction:

RPA Success Story: Robot identifies Noncompliant invoices – automation built by Citizen Developer in Studio X

Robot Name:Detective “You spent without PO”

“Detective “You spent without PO” has played a significant role in our ‘No PO no pay’ policy implementation, catching all noncompliant purchases instantly!– Mihnea Trantu, AP Team Leader

Noncompliant invoices robot

PO's are a very effective way of enabling efficiency in Accounts Payable when combined with goods and services receiving, allowing invoices to be processed and released for payment with as few touches as possible, ideally with no human intervention.

UiPath AP team wanted to ensure compliance to the No PO No Pay policy by deploying 1 attended robot to perform the following tasks:• Takes input from AP for non-

compliant invoices and filters out only unique names that have an active mismatch;

• The bot then saves down a separate excel file with only that individual's items and send an email out to them to action.

The automation helps solving the main challenges:• The end of rogue invoices.

Without a PO to accompany them, suppliers and requestors know that sending an invoice will not result in payment

• Centralizing workflow. All POs are issued only by the buyers. Ultimately, the company saves money by securing better supplier negotiations.

• Increased compliance. Suppliers know that to engage in business, they need to first receive a PO.

• Enhanced efficiency. By setting up an approval system, purchases are directed to a procurement department to be processed.

When do we use RPA?

• Complex online navigation to• Login

• Retrieve data (reporting tools, cloud drives, FTP)

• Input data

• Complex data extraction – PDF/Web scraping, emails

• Orchestration of multiple scripts, apps, file movement

UiPath Demo

Eric Soden

When to use Alteryx?

• Data Exports – For other systems, clients, vendors, regulatory

• Data Imports – From other systems, clients, vendors

• Data Clean-up – Your data is probably spotless? ☺

• Automated Reconciliations and Exceptions

• Data preparation for reports and dashboards

• Automating Excel/SQL/Macro/Access processes

• Geospatial (Where?) or Predictive (What will happen?)

Alteryx Demo

Eric Soden

Office of Finance Solutions

Jayson Varkey

The scenario:

• Accounts Payable is responsible for ensuring what we receive matches what we expected and what we paid matches the PO.

• Must pull data from multiple systems and manually reconcile.

• Multiple companies, vendors, and accountants add complexity and possibility of human error.

• We continue to reduce headcount but acquire businesses.

• We should do this daily, but we do it monthly…at best.

• The current process cannot scale.

Accounts Payable PO -> Invoice -> Order Recon

Streamlining AP Reconciliations

UiPath

POs

Invoices

Orders

Alteryx

Cleanse

Recon

Email

Notification

Reports

Automating State Tax ApportionmentThe scenario

• We do business and have locations in many states.

• We must calculate and pay taxes correctly and on time.

• We have many entities, multiple systems, and tax requires data from accounting (and others) before taxes can be finalized.

• The sales NEVER inputs the data correctly, so we are constantly going back for missing forms, tax exempt certs, addresses, etc.

• We are forced to run dozens of reports and build templates to upload for other systems, state websites, etc.

• We spend so much time getting and dealing with data, we aren’t analyzing the results.

• Our company is very worried about an audit and wants to ensure we are paying all taxes correctly. (We are so conservative…We are probably overpaying.)

Automating State Tax Apportionment

Recon and Report

Company 1

TX Filing

OK Filing

Company 2

NY Filing

CA Filing

WI Filing

Recon and Report

Combine and Cleanse

Accounting

Sales

Combine and Cleanse

Accounting

Sales

Procurement

Financial Forecasting Process Automation

The scenario

• Finance gets actuals and projections from nearly every department.

• Each company and department has their own system and style.

• We need to get information from everyone.

• We need to take prior performance and trends into consideration.

• We then build a model to forecast revenue and expenses.

• If anything changes, we start all over.

• Between wrangling data and random requests, we have no time to do the job we signed up for.

Financial Forecasting Process Automation

Forecast

Company/Dept

Company/Dept

Company/Dept

Company/Dept

Next Steps

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Automating Accounting, Tax, and Finance processes