Automating Bank and Vendor Reconciliation for a Leading Indian Conglomerate

Introduction

One of India’s rapidly expanding conglomerates faced operational challenges with its manual bank reconciliation process. The labor-intensive nature of this process made it prone to human errors and significantly time-consuming. Key pain points included the manual downloading of numerous bank statements, reconciling entries in SAP, and the cumbersome task of vendor reconciliation. Avaali, recognizing the need for efficiency and accuracy, implemented a comprehensive bank reconciliation solution leveraging UiPath bots.

Challenges

The conglomerate’s manual bank and vendor reconciliation processes presented several challenges:

  • Manual Bank Reconciliation
    • Time-consuming and error-prone manual reconciliation involving the download of around 30 bank statements and matching SAP Accounting entries.
  • Email Notifications and Reporting
    • Cumbersome quarterly email notifications and sharing of match/unmatched reconciliation reports, consuming considerable time and effort.
  • Vendor Reconciliation
    • Labor-intensive vendor reconciliation, involving manual email communication with vendors for monthly statements and quarterly preparation of vendor reconciliation statements.
  • Manual Operations in SAP
    • Manual operations in SAP, including the selection of company codes and vendor numbers, leading to inefficiencies in the process.

Solution Implementation

Avaali implemented a bank reconciliation solution, leveraging UiPath bots to automate various aspects of the reconciliation process.

Benefits

The implementation of the solution resulted in numerous benefits for the conglomerate:

  • Automated Bank Reconciliation
    • UiPath bots now monitor a dedicated mailbox, downloading bank statements for 23 banks, and automating reconciliation for different payment types, including receipts, statutory payments, and bank charges.
  • Streamlined SAP Operations
    • Bots automatically log into SAP, download GL statements, and read mapping information between bank and GL accounts, ensuring a seamless and error-free reconciliation process.
  • Time Reduction
    • The time taken for the reconciliation process saw a substantial reduction, decreasing from 10 hours and 25 minutes daily to a significantly more efficient automated process.
  • Automated Email Communication
    • Automatic email communication to vendors for procuring monthly statements, eliminating the need for manual outreach.
  • Vendor Master Data Reference
    • Bots automatically refer to vendor master data stored in ERP for more than 10,000 vendors, ensuring accuracy in vendor reconciliation.
  • Standardization and Automation
    • Standardization of vendor statements is now performed automatically, along with the automatic download of vendor ledgers from SAP, streamlining the vendor reconciliation process.
  • Drastic Reduction in Vendor Reconciliation Time
    • Vendor reconciliation, once a manual and time-consuming task, is now completed in just 15 minutes, a significant improvement compared to the previous 6 hours.

Conclusion

The automation of bank and vendor reconciliation processes brought about by Avaali’s solution not only addressed the manual inefficiencies and errors but also resulted in a more streamlined, accurate, and time-efficient operation for one of India’s fastest-growing conglomerates. The implementation showcases the transformative impact of robotic process automation in enhancing operational efficiency and accuracy in complex financial processes.