AcctTwo Blog

Accountants have always relied on automation to make their lives easier, even going back as far as the abacus. But now thanks to data-driven technologies and self-directed processes, robotic process automation (RPA) is possible. And as a result of these new capabilities, accounting is transforming in a number of ways.

RPA is lowering costs, refining accounting insights, speeding up reporting, and eliminating errors and omissions. Where accountants really feel the impact of automation, however, is in their own workloads and schedules.

Managing contracts is already a painful process. When the new revenue recognition rules outlined in ASC 606 go into full effect, the process will become even harder.

Beginning in December 2018 all companies will need to report revenue from all contracts in a new way. The goal is to make revenue recognition simple and more standardized across industries. But to achieve that, companies must follow new rules and adopt different practices.

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a complex sounding name for a fairly simple concept. Anytime a process is performed by a robot or automation rather than a human it is an example of RPA. That includes everything from the robots that build cars to sophisticated systems that handle big data analysis.

When we think about the robotic workforce of the future, we tend to focus on industrial applications, but the impact of automated labor may be felt most broadly and deeply in the world of finance.

A recent piece in the Wall Street Journal highlights an accountant named Roberta working for the Nordic energy firm Statoil. Roberta is tasked with analyzing huge amounts of payment data to locate missing invoices. And she is incredibly good at her job because she is actually a piece of software.