Each month, monetary groups race in opposition to time – reconciliations, approvals, and reviews! The month-end shut can typically really feel like Groundhog Day, with groups working additional time to course of a whole bunch of invoices, match numerous transactions, and catch any uncommon entries earlier than they turn out to be issues.
At this time’s companies cannot afford to function in month-to-month cycles anymore.
That is why Sage Intacct, one of many main cloud monetary administration programs, has been incorporating AI options into their platform. With additions like Sage Copilot and GL Outlier Assistant, the corporate hopes to assist finance groups break away from the month-to-month shut lure and transfer towards steady, real-time monetary administration.
On this information, I’ll take you thru Sage’s completely different AI options and broaden Sage’s AI capabilities.
Sage Intacct AI: Native options defined
The way forward for accounting is not about quicker month-to-month closes. The main target is regularly shifting to eliminating closing cycles. Not less than this has been the driving drive behind Sage’s current updates.
The intention is to have AI continually monitor your monetary knowledge, catching points earlier than they turn out to be issues and automating routine duties in real-time. Extra of steady accounting somewhat than periodic sprints.
Let me stroll you thru Sage’s native AI options:
1. GL Outlier Assistant
It’s an AI-powered system that screens transactions in your common ledger for anomalies and potential errors. The concept is to forestall errors from impacting monetary statements by catching them at entry, somewhat than throughout month-end reconciliation.
The way it works:
- Critiques transactions in opposition to historic patterns
- Makes use of customizable thresholds primarily based on enterprise guidelines
- Routes suspicious entries again to those that submitted it
- Learns from corrections to enhance accuracy
For instance, should you mistakenly enter a month-to-month provide cost of $500 as $5,000, the system flags it instantly for correction, stopping downstream reconciliation points.
2. Sage Copilot
A few of you’ll have used Microsoft’s Copilot or not less than seen it. Properly, now Sage too has a Copilot. It’s mainly an AI assistant that automates monetary evaluation, reporting, and routine duties. It hopes to scale back time spent on handbook monetary evaluation and report creation.
You need to use it to:
- Examine budgeted versus precise figures in real-time
- Get fast solutions to monetary queries by means of conversational search
- Streamline month-end shut processes
- Automate approval workflows and reconciliations
Say it is advisable verify price range variances for this quarter. Now you possibly can merely ask Sage Copilot to provide the variations between budgeted and precise figures. You’ll be able to go a step additional and ask the place the numerous variances are. It’ll assist you drill down into particular transactions.
3. AP invoice automation
That is Sage’s native resolution for dealing with invoices. It goals to scale back the time your staff spends on handbook knowledge entry and bill processing.
The way it works:
- Add payments straight or ahead them to a devoted e-mail tackle
- System creates draft payments utilizing AI to extract bill knowledge
- Matches data in opposition to your chart of accounts
- Routes payments by means of your approval workflow
- Posts accredited payments robotically to your GL
For instance, if you obtain an bill through e-mail, you possibly can ahead it to your devoted Sage e-mail tackle. The system reads the bill, creates a draft invoice with the seller particulars, quantity, and line gadgets already crammed in. You simply must assessment the main points and approve.
Now these native AI options from Sage Intacct could assist you take first steps towards steady accounting. Nevertheless, it’s possible you’ll quickly discover out that you just want extra complete automation. They work effectively for fundamental bill processing and anomaly detection, however dealing with advanced AP workflows, managing a number of enter sources, or coping with diversified doc codecs typically requires extra capabilities.
That is the place integration options like Nanonets are available in. Let me present you broaden Sage’s AI capabilities to deal with extra advanced monetary workflows.
[Image source: Sage’s official website]
The way to broaden Sage’s AI capabilities
Nanonets is an Clever Doc Processing platform that integrates straight with Sage Intacct. Whereas Sage’s native options deal with fundamental automation, Nanonets takes it additional by processing any sort of economic doc and establishing automated workflows.
Let me present you the way Nanonets can assist broaden your Sage Intacct’s AI capabilities:
1. Automated doc import
The primary problem in any AP course of is doc consumption. Nanonets affords many add choices, permitting you to robotically course of and add extracted knowledge to Sage Intacct.
- Robotically captures invoices from e-mail inboxes
- Screens particular folders in Google Drive, Dropbox, or your inside programs
- Accepts any doc format — PDFs, JPGs, PNGs, scanned paperwork, and handwritten paperwork
- Handles a number of doc sorts — invoices, buy orders, receipts, packing slips
You’ll be able to even use API integrations to robotically feed paperwork out of your present programs straight into the processing workflow. This ensures all monetary paperwork are captured and processed persistently, no matter their supply or format.
2. Clever knowledge extraction and processing
As soon as paperwork are within the system, the following step is knowledge extraction. That is the place Nanonets’ superior AI-OCR capabilities come into play.
You get to decide on between completely different AI fashions primarily based in your wants:
- Zero-shot fashions that work instantly with out coaching
- On the spot Studying fashions that adapt to your corrections in real-time
- Pre-built fashions for traditional paperwork like invoices
- Customized fashions for distinctive doc sorts or particular necessities
You’ll be able to customise how the AI reads your paperwork by offering clear descriptions for every subject. For instance, as an alternative of merely labeling a subject as “invoice_number”, you possibly can specify “A singular alphanumeric identifier positioned on the high proper, beginning with ‘INV-‘ adopted by 8 digits.”
The system affords subtle knowledge extraction:
- Extracts knowledge from any doc with excessive accuracy, no matter format or construction
- Processes each single-value fields (like bill numbers) and repeating knowledge (like line gadgets)
- Acknowledges and matches vendor particulars together with your Sage data robotically
- Learns from person corrections to repeatedly enhance accuracy
- Validates extracted knowledge in opposition to predefined guidelines and flags discrepancies
Within the above GIF, you possibly can see how the AI immediately extracts normal fields and matches vendor names in opposition to your Sage vendor checklist. You additionally get a dropdown to confirm or regulate matches when wanted.
For line gadgets, it captures all particulars in structured tables and robotically maps every line to your Sage GL accounts. You’ll be able to assessment and regulate these mappings by means of dropdowns, guaranteeing your knowledge is validated earlier than it reaches your accounting system.
The AI mannequin builds understanding by means of context, not simply textual content recognition. When processing an bill, it:
- Distinguishes between completely different tackle sorts (billing vs delivery)
- Separates header data from line gadgets
- Acknowledges numerous tax classes and calculations
- Maintains relationships between associated knowledge factors
The system additionally tracks AI confidence ranges, displaying you precisely how dependable the extraction is for every doc. This helps you determine which paperwork want handbook assessment and which could be processed robotically.
3. Automated GL coding and matching
Handbook coding of transactions and matching paperwork in opposition to buy orders are sometimes duties that no AP groups stay up for. They are often time-consuming and error-prone. That is the place Nanonets’ clever matching capabilities make a major distinction.
The system streamlines coding and matching by means of:
- Automated GL code recommendations
- Sensible matching between invoices, POs, and receipts
- Actual-time validation in opposition to your small business guidelines
- Customized routing for exceptions and discrepancies
- Steady studying out of your staff’s corrections
You’ll be able to arrange completely different validation guidelines primarily based in your wants, like:
- Match line gadgets individually for detailed reconciliation
- Examine complete quantities for fast validation
- Verify particular fields like tax charges or fee phrases
- Flag mismatches above sure thresholds
The affect could be vital. It may cut back processing time, save time, cut back error charges, and dedicate extra time to exception dealing with. The system additionally maintains a whole audit path of all matches and exceptions, making it simpler to trace points and display compliance throughout audits.
4. Approval workflows
Getting invoices accredited is commonly the place bottlenecks happen. You may need distributors chasing funds whereas invoices sit in somebody’s inbox ready for approval. Nanonets addresses this by means of clever workflow automation.
The system handles approvals by means of:
- Customized routing guidelines primarily based on quantity, vendor, or division
- Multi-channel notifications (e-mail, Slack, Groups)
- One-click approvals from any machine
- Automated reminders for pending gadgets
- Actual-time visibility into approval standing
You’ll be able to arrange approval workflows that match your small business wants. For instance:
- Route invoices over $10,000 to senior administration
- Ship IT purchases to your IT staff first
- Require a number of approvals for particular distributors
- Arrange parallel approvals for quicker processing
The system maintains a whole audit path of who accredited what and when, making it simple to trace accountability and guarantee compliance together with your approval insurance policies.
5. Getting your knowledge into Sage Intacct
As soon as paperwork are processed and accredited, it is advisable get this knowledge into Sage. Nanonets affords a number of methods to export your processed knowledge:
- Obtain as CSV information for customized reporting
- Use APIs for customized workflow integration
- Direct sync with Sage
- Automated knowledge compilation primarily based in your guidelines
The Sage Intacct-Nanonets devoted integration lets you:
- Create invoice data robotically
- Sync vendor data in real-time
- Keep constant coding throughout programs
- Present detailed sync standing updates
- Use accomplice SenderID for seamless connectivity
The platform is designed for finance groups to handle independently, with out requiring technical experience.
Appears good on paper? Properly, let me share an actual instance of how an organization remodeled their AP processes utilizing Nanonets’ AI-powered workflows.
Asian Paints, a number one producer of paints and coatings, automated their complete AP workflow utilizing Nanonets. Earlier than automation, their AP staff spent hours manually processing invoices, matching paperwork, and updating their accounting system. Every doc took about 5 minutes to course of, and errors have been widespread regardless of their finest efforts.
After implementing clever automation:
- Processing time dropped to 30 seconds per doc
- Groups saved 192 hours month-to-month
- Accuracy improved considerably
- Workers might lastly give attention to strategic duties
- Buyer satisfaction reached 8/10
The system begins delivering worth instantly with Zero Shot fashions, whereas Customized and On the spot Studying fashions enhance accuracy over time as they be taught out of your corrections.
What to do subsequent? Should you’re trying to reduce your bill processing time and save hours on AP duties, you possibly can schedule a customized demo with us. We’ll present you precisely how Nanonets matches into your particular Sage Intacct workflows and assist automate your AP course of end-to-end.
