Each month, monetary groups race in opposition to time – reconciliations, approvals, and stories! The month-end shut can usually really feel like Groundhog Day, with groups working extra time to course of a whole bunch of invoices, match numerous transactions, and catch any uncommon entries earlier than they change into issues.
At the moment’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 entice and transfer towards steady, real-time monetary administration.
On this information, I’ll take you thru Sage’s totally different AI options and tips on how to increase 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 focus is regularly shifting to eliminating closing cycles. At the least this has been the driving drive behind Sage’s current updates.
The intention is to have AI continuously monitor your monetary knowledge, catching points earlier than they change into 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 displays 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, in case 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’d 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 cut back time spent on handbook monetary evaluation and report creation.
You should use it to:
- Evaluate budgeted versus precise figures in real-time
- Get fast solutions to monetary queries via conversational search
- Streamline month-end shut processes
- Automate approval workflows and reconciliations
Say you should verify finances variances for this quarter. Now you’ll be able to merely ask Sage Copilot to provide the variations between budgeted and precise figures. You may go a step additional and ask the place the numerous variances are. It would enable you drill down into particular transactions.
3. AP invoice automation
That is Sage’s native answer for dealing with invoices. It goals to cut back the time your crew spends on handbook knowledge entry and bill processing.
The way it works:
- Add payments immediately or ahead them to a devoted e-mail deal with
- System creates draft payments utilizing AI to extract bill knowledge
- Matches data in opposition to your chart of accounts
- Routes payments via your approval workflow
- Posts authorised payments mechanically to your GL
For instance, once you obtain an bill by way of e-mail, you’ll be able to 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 have to evaluate the main points and approve.
Now these native AI options from Sage Intacct might enable 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 usually requires extra capabilities.
That is the place integration options like Nanonets are available. Let me present you tips on how to increase Sage’s AI capabilities to deal with extra advanced monetary workflows.
[Image source: Sage’s official website]
Find out how to increase Sage’s AI capabilities
Nanonets is an Clever Doc Processing platform that integrates immediately with Sage Intacct. Whereas Sage’s native options deal with fundamental automation, Nanonets takes it additional by processing any sort of monetary doc and establishing automated workflows.
Let me present you the way Nanonets AI will help increase your automation capabilities:
1. Automated doc import
The primary problem in any AP course of is doc consumption. Nanonets gives many add choices, permitting you to mechanically course of and add extracted knowledge to Sage Intacct.
- Routinely captures invoices from e-mail inboxes
- Screens 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 sorts — invoices, buy orders, receipts, packing slips
You may even use API integrations to mechanically feed paperwork out of your present methods immediately into the processing workflow. This ensures all monetary paperwork are captured and processed constantly, 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 totally different AI fashions primarily based in your wants:
- Zero-shot fashions that work instantly with out coaching
- Prompt 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 may customise how the AI reads your paperwork by offering clear descriptions for every discipline. For instance, as a substitute of merely labeling a discipline as “invoice_number”, you’ll be able to specify “A novel alphanumeric identifier positioned on the prime proper, beginning with ‘INV-‘ adopted by 8 digits.”
The system gives refined 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 objects)
- Acknowledges and matches vendor particulars together with your Sage information mechanically
- Learns from consumer corrections to constantly enhance accuracy
- Validates extracted knowledge in opposition to predefined guidelines and flags discrepancies
Within the above GIF, you’ll be able to see how the AI immediately extracts commonplace fields and matches vendor names in opposition to your Sage vendor checklist. You additionally get a dropdown to confirm or modify matches when wanted.
For line objects, it captures all particulars in structured tables and mechanically maps every line to your Sage GL accounts. You may evaluate and modify these mappings via dropdowns, guaranteeing your knowledge is validated earlier than it reaches your accounting system.
The AI mannequin builds understanding via context, not simply textual content recognition. When processing an bill, it:
- Distinguishes between totally different deal with sorts (billing vs delivery)
- Separates header data from line objects
- 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 resolve which paperwork want handbook evaluate and which may be processed mechanically.
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 look ahead to. They are often time-consuming and error-prone. That is the place Nanonets’ clever matching capabilities make a big distinction.
The system streamlines coding and matching via:
- Automated GL code solutions
- Sensible matching between invoices, POs, and receipts
- Actual-time validation in opposition to your enterprise guidelines
- Customized routing for exceptions and discrepancies
- Steady studying out of your crew’s corrections
You may arrange totally different validation guidelines primarily based in your wants, like:
- Match line objects individually for detailed reconciliation
- Evaluate whole quantities for fast validation
- Examine particular fields like tax charges or cost phrases
- Flag mismatches above sure thresholds
The impression may be important. It might probably scale back processing time, save time, scale 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 authorised 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 via clever workflow automation.
The system handles approvals via:
- Customized routing guidelines primarily based on quantity, vendor, or division
- Multi-channel notifications (e-mail, Slack, Groups)
- One-click approvals from any gadget
- Automated reminders for pending objects
- Actual-time visibility into approval standing
You may arrange approval workflows that match your enterprise wants. For instance:
- Route invoices over $10,000 to senior administration
- Ship IT purchases to your IT crew first
- Require a number of approvals for particular distributors
- Arrange parallel approvals for sooner processing
The system maintains an entire audit path of who authorised what and when, making it straightforward to trace duty and guarantee compliance together with your approval insurance policies.
5. Getting your knowledge into Sage Intacct
As soon as paperwork are processed and authorised, you should get this knowledge into Sage. Nanonets gives a number of methods to export your processed knowledge:
- Obtain as CSV recordsdata 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 information mechanically
- Sync vendor data in real-time
- Keep constant coding throughout methods
- Present detailed sync standing updates
- Use companion 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 crew spent hours manually processing invoices, matching paperwork, and updating their accounting system. Every doc took about 5 minutes to course of, and errors had 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
- 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 Prompt Studying fashions enhance accuracy over time as they be taught out of your corrections.
What to do subsequent? Should you’re seeking to reduce your bill processing time and save hours on AP duties, you’ll be able to schedule a personalised 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.