Each month, monetary groups race towards time – reconciliations, approvals, and stories! 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 change into issues.
At present’s companies cannot afford to function in month-to-month cycles anymore.
That is why Sage Intacct, one of many main cloud monetary administration methods, 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 tips on how to broaden Sage’s AI capabilities.
Sage Intacct AI: Native options defined
The way forward for accounting is not about sooner month-to-month closes. The main target is step by step shifting to eliminating closing cycles. Not less than this has been the driving pressure behind Sage’s current updates.
The goal is to have AI always monitor your monetary information, catching points earlier than they change into issues and automating routine duties in real-time. Extra of steady accounting moderately than periodic sprints.
Let me stroll you thru Sage’s native AI options:
1. GL Outlier Assistant
It’s an AI-powered system that displays transactions in your basic ledger for anomalies and potential errors. The thought is to forestall errors from impacting monetary statements by catching them at entry, moderately than throughout month-end reconciliation.
The way it works:
- Critiques transactions towards historic patterns
- Makes use of customizable thresholds based mostly on enterprise guidelines
- Routes suspicious entries again to those that submitted it
- Learns from corrections to enhance accuracy
For instance, if you happen to 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 at the very least seen it. Properly, now Sage too has a Copilot. It’s principally an AI assistant that automates monetary evaluation, reporting, and routine duties. It hopes to cut back time spent on guide monetary evaluation and report creation.
You should utilize it to:
- Examine budgeted versus precise figures in real-time
- Get fast solutions to monetary queries by way of conversational search
- Streamline month-end shut processes
- Automate approval workflows and reconciliations
Say that you must examine funds variances for this quarter. Now you possibly can merely ask Sage Copilot to provide the variations between budgeted and precise figures. You possibly can go a step additional and ask the place the numerous variances are. It should allow you to drill down into particular transactions.
3. AP invoice automation
That is Sage’s native resolution for dealing with invoices. It goals to cut back the time your group spends on guide information entry and bill processing.
The way it works:
- Add payments instantly or ahead them to a devoted e-mail deal with
- System creates draft payments utilizing AI to extract bill information
- Matches info towards your chart of accounts
- Routes payments by way of your approval workflow
- Posts authorized payments mechanically to your GL
For instance, if you obtain an bill through e-mail, you possibly can ahead it to your devoted Sage e-mail deal with. The system reads the bill, creates a draft invoice with the seller particulars, quantity, and line objects already stuffed in. You simply must overview the small print and approve.
Now these native AI options from Sage Intacct might allow you to take first steps towards steady accounting. Nonetheless, it’s possible you’ll quickly discover out that you just want extra complete automation. They work properly for fundamental bill processing and anomaly detection, however dealing with advanced AP workflows, managing a number of enter sources, or coping with diverse doc codecs typically requires extra capabilities.
That is the place integration options like Nanonets are available in. Let me present you tips on how to broaden Sage’s AI capabilities to deal with extra advanced monetary workflows.
[Image source: Sage’s official website]
How one can broaden Sage’s AI capabilities
Nanonets is an Clever Doc Processing platform that integrates instantly with Sage Intacct. Whereas Sage’s native options deal with fundamental automation, Nanonets takes it additional by processing any kind of monetary doc and establishing automated workflows.
Let me present you the way Nanonets AI may also help broaden your automation capabilities:
1. Automated doc import
The primary problem in any AP course of is doc consumption. Nanonets provides many add choices, permitting you to mechanically course of and add extracted information to Sage Intacct.
- Robotically captures invoices from e-mail inboxes
- Displays particular folders in Google Drive, Dropbox, or your inside methods
- Accepts any doc format — PDFs, JPGs, PNGs, scanned paperwork, and handwritten paperwork
- Handles a number of doc varieties — invoices, buy orders, receipts, packing slips
You possibly can even use API integrations to mechanically feed paperwork out of your current methods instantly into the processing workflow. This ensures all monetary paperwork are captured and processed constantly, no matter their supply or format.
2. Clever information extraction and processing
As soon as paperwork are within the system, the following step is information extraction. That is the place Nanonets’ superior AI-OCR capabilities come into play.
You get to decide on between completely different AI fashions based mostly 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 varieties or particular necessities
You possibly can customise how the AI reads your paperwork by offering clear descriptions for every area. For instance, as an alternative of merely labeling a area as “invoice_number”, you possibly can specify “A novel alphanumeric identifier positioned on the high proper, beginning with ‘INV-‘ adopted by 8 digits.”
The system provides subtle information extraction:
- Extracts information from any doc with excessive accuracy, no matter format or construction
- Processes each single-value fields (like bill numbers) and repeating information (like line objects)
- Acknowledges and matches vendor particulars together with your Sage data mechanically
- Learns from consumer corrections to constantly enhance accuracy
- Validates extracted information towards predefined guidelines and flags discrepancies
Within the above GIF, you possibly can see how the AI immediately extracts normal fields and matches vendor names towards your Sage vendor checklist. You additionally get a dropdown to confirm or regulate matches when wanted.
For line objects, it captures all particulars in structured tables and mechanically maps every line to your Sage GL accounts. You possibly can overview and regulate these mappings by way of dropdowns, making certain your information is validated earlier than it reaches your accounting system.
The AI mannequin builds understanding by way of context, not simply textual content recognition. When processing an bill, it:
- Distinguishes between completely different deal with varieties (billing vs transport)
- Separates header info from line objects
- Acknowledges numerous tax classes and calculations
- Maintains relationships between associated information factors
The system additionally tracks AI confidence ranges, exhibiting you precisely how dependable the extraction is for every doc. This helps you resolve which paperwork want guide overview and which might be processed mechanically.
3. Automated GL coding and matching
Guide coding of transactions and matching paperwork towards buy orders are sometimes duties that no AP groups look ahead to. 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 way of:
- Automated GL code ideas
- Sensible matching between invoices, POs, and receipts
- Actual-time validation towards your online business guidelines
- Customized routing for exceptions and discrepancies
- Steady studying out of your group’s corrections
You possibly can arrange completely different validation guidelines based mostly in your wants, like:
- Match line objects individually for detailed reconciliation
- Examine whole quantities for fast validation
- Examine particular fields like tax charges or cost phrases
- Flag mismatches above sure thresholds
The impression might be important. It may possibly cut back processing time, save time, cut back error charges, and dedicate extra time to exception dealing with. The system additionally maintains an entire audit path of all matches and exceptions, making it simpler to trace points and exhibit compliance throughout audits.
4. Approval workflows
Getting invoices authorized is usually the place bottlenecks happen. You may need distributors chasing funds whereas invoices sit in somebody’s inbox ready for approval. Nanonets addresses this by way of clever workflow automation.
The system handles approvals by way of:
- Customized routing guidelines based mostly on quantity, vendor, or division
- Multi-channel notifications (e-mail, Slack, Groups)
- One-click approvals from any system
- Automated reminders for pending objects
- Actual-time visibility into approval standing
You possibly can arrange approval workflows that match your online business wants. For instance:
- Route invoices over $10,000 to senior administration
- Ship IT purchases to your IT group first
- Require a number of approvals for particular distributors
- Arrange parallel approvals for sooner processing
The system maintains an entire audit path of who authorized what and when, making it simple to trace accountability and guarantee compliance together with your approval insurance policies.
5. Getting your information into Sage Intacct
As soon as paperwork are processed and authorized, that you must get this information into Sage. Nanonets provides a number of methods to export your processed information:
- Obtain as CSV information for customized reporting
- Use APIs for customized workflow integration
- Direct sync with Sage
- Automated information compilation based mostly in your guidelines
The Sage Intacct-Nanonets devoted integration lets you:
- Create invoice data mechanically
- Sync vendor info in real-time
- Preserve constant coding throughout methods
- 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 to be like 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 group 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 frequent 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
- Employees may lastly concentrate on 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 study out of your corrections.
What to do subsequent? In the event 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 suits into your particular Sage Intacct workflows and assist automate your AP course of end-to-end.
