Creative Auditing with Document-based Data

When it comes to invoices and tax forms, these documents may bring to mind mundane accounting and reporting functions where these documents are required, either to enter data into an Accounts Payable system or to complete a form to support compliance (and the law). However, alternative uses exist.

Insights Beyond Normal Business Processes

Data on these types of documents—like invoices and tax forms—provide insights outside the normal business processes. Take for instance auditing. One client is using our invoice data extraction to locate specific line items and corresponding prices to identify purchases that can be used to reduce tax liability. The automated data extraction is one component of an overall robotic process automation program that the company is introducing to its client base.

Another similar effort is being conducted on IRS tax forms. The data is automatically extracted and entered into a system that automatically compares it to the data file that is generated by the IRS. A comparison of data directly from a document with the data for the IRS can quickly identify any mistakes, which can lead to non-compliance or the over payment of taxes.

New Approach to Auditing Tradition

Both of these Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions are being introduced to support service delivery to clients of all sizes. While the service of tax auditing is not new, the RPA-based service significantly reduces manual efforts for both invoice data entry and the time-consuming spend analysis that is required to identify tax-reducing options.

Automation | Scaling and Cost Reduction

Automation enables scaling and cost reduction which means more businesses can avail themselves of services that were once limited to only large enterprises that could afford a long process and the expense that goes with it. Automated high quality data extraction enables this scale.

If you found this article interesting, you may find this eBook useful  with recent AIIM survey results of large enterprises on document processing automation: