Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are bringing impacts into many areas of our lives, including work. Some professions are potentially lowly affected (craftsmanship), while others, typically office work, such as accounting, are more affected. It’s a mistake to see AI as a competitor and to fear it. Those who learn to work efficiently with AI will have a significant advantage. AI Automation in finance is a big topic and generally an area where AI has one of the biggest impacts.

AI can help us save valuable time and focus on aspects of the profession where the human brain is needed. Let’s take a closer look at what tasks can be automated and what potential time savings, for example in accounting, this can bring. For estimating these activities and potential savings, I used generative AI – Chat GPT.

It’s important to realize, however, that AI serves as an auxiliary tool and cannot fully replace human oversight and expertise.

Below is a list of activities and ideas for savings for these activities. Logically, each accountant will have a slightly different work schedule. When automating, it’s necessary to first identify the biggest “time eater” and then think about what to do with it and how specifically I will try to reduce the time for that activity – you can actually ask AI about this too.

1. Accounting of Bank Transactions

• Traditional method: Manual entry of transactions into the accounting system.
• With the help of AI: AI algorithms automatically recognize and categorize transactions from bank statements.
• Potential time savings: Up to 70%. For example, AI can reduce the time from an original 60 hours per month to approximately 18 hours.

2. Checking and Reconciliation

• Traditional method: Manual checking of data consistency on various accounts and reports.
• With the help of AI: Machine learning algorithms identify discrepancies and automatically perform reconciliations.
• Potential time savings: Up to 50%. The time can be reduced from an original 40 hours per month to 20 hours.

3. Processing Invoices

• Traditional method: Manual checking and processing of incoming and outgoing invoices.
• With the help of AI: AI systems automatically process and archive invoices, extract important data, and prepare payments.
• Potential time savings: Up to 60%. AI can reduce the time from 50 hours per month to 20 hours.

4. Tax Returns

• Traditional method: Manual gathering of data and calculation of taxes.
• With the help of AI: AI helps in tax optimization by identifying possible deductions and assisting in calculations.
• Potential time savings: Up to 40%. The time can be reduced from 30 hours per month to 18 hours.

5. Financial Planning and Budgeting

• Traditional method: Manual analysis and preparation of budgets and financial plans.
• With the help of AI: AI analyzes historical data and trends for more accurate predictions and recommendations.
• Potential time savings: Up to 30%. AI can reduce the time from 40 hours per month to 28 hours.

I’ll try asking Chat GPT how to automate the inadequate amount of time spent manually accounting for bank transactions. Remember that it is necessary to always specify the request as best and most detailed as possible – see this article, read it to know how to write a good “prompt” for chat gpt to understand.

Prompt (query): I am an accountant and I found that it takes an inadequate amount of time to account for bank statements into accounting. I receive statements from my bank every day and our accounting system is (my system). I’m tired of doing it manually and would like to automate my work somehow. Can you give me instructions on how to do it? It doesn’t have to be completely automatic, but I would mainly like to save some time.

AI replied to us with this – there’s no need to be alarmed, let’s read it and what we don’t understand we ask and request chat gpt for clarification or more detailed instructions on how to do it.

Conclusion

AI and automation have the potential to generate significant savings for accountants. If successful, it is then possible to focus on more complex tasks and thus provide higher value in one’s work than before.

For some complex activities, of course, cooperation with an IT specialist or directly with a company that implements AI is necessary. However, even with ordinary Chat GPT, we can generate a sea of savings by asking for various instructions, procedures, and the like. Chat GPT even manages complex things like financial analysis, so the possibilities of this free tool are almost limitless – just let your imagination run wild.