Each month, monetary groups race in opposition to time – reconciliations, approvals, and experiences! The month-end shut can typically really feel like Groundhog Day, with groups working extra time to course of a whole lot of invoices, match numerous transactions, and catch any uncommon entries earlier than they grow to be 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 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 entice and transfer towards steady, real-time monetary administration.
On this information, I’ll take you thru Sage’s totally different AI options and find out 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 steadily shifting to eliminating closing cycles. At the least this has been the driving power behind Sage’s latest updates.
The goal is to have AI consistently monitor your monetary knowledge, catching points earlier than they grow to be issues and automating routine duties in real-time. Extra of steady accounting fairly 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 thought is to stop errors from impacting monetary statements by catching them at entry, fairly 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 the event 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 principally 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 need to use it to:
- Evaluate 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 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’s going to assist you to 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 workforce spends on handbook knowledge entry and bill processing.
The way it works:
- Add payments immediately or ahead them to a devoted electronic mail tackle
- System creates draft payments utilizing AI to extract bill knowledge
- Matches data in opposition to your chart of accounts
- Routes payments by way of your approval workflow
- Posts authorized payments robotically to your GL
For instance, once you obtain an bill by way of electronic mail, you possibly can ahead it to your devoted Sage electronic mail tackle. The system reads the bill, creates a draft invoice with the seller particulars, quantity, and line objects already crammed in. You simply have to evaluation the small print and approve.
Now these native AI options from Sage Intacct might assist you to take first steps towards steady accounting. Nonetheless, you could quickly discover out that you just want extra complete automation. They work nicely for fundamental bill processing and anomaly detection, however dealing with advanced AP workflows, managing a number of enter sources, or coping with various doc codecs typically requires extra capabilities.
That is the place integration options like Nanonets are available. Let me present you find out how to increase Sage’s AI capabilities to deal with extra advanced monetary workflows.
[Image source: Sage’s official website]
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 kind of monetary doc and establishing automated workflows.
Let me present you the way Nanonets AI can assist increase your automation capabilities:
1. Automated doc import
The primary problem in any AP course of is doc consumption. Nanonets presents many add choices, permitting you to robotically course of and add extracted knowledge to Sage Intacct.
- Mechanically captures invoices from electronic mail inboxes
- Displays particular folders in Google Drive, Dropbox, or your inner programs
- 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 robotically feed paperwork out of your current programs 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 subsequent 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 varieties or particular necessities
You possibly can customise how the AI reads your paperwork by offering clear descriptions for every subject. For instance, as a substitute of merely labeling a subject as “invoice_number”, you possibly can specify “A singular alphanumeric identifier positioned on the prime proper, beginning with ‘INV-‘ adopted by 8 digits.”
The system presents 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 along with your Sage data robotically
- Learns from consumer 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 listing. You additionally get a dropdown to confirm or alter matches when wanted.
For line objects, it captures all particulars in structured tables and robotically maps every line to your Sage GL accounts. You possibly can evaluation and alter these mappings by way of dropdowns, guaranteeing your knowledge 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 totally different tackle varieties (billing vs delivery)
- Separates header data from line objects
- Acknowledges varied tax classes and calculations
- Maintains relationships between associated knowledge factors
The system additionally tracks AI confidence ranges, exhibiting you precisely how dependable the extraction is for every doc. This helps you determine which paperwork want handbook evaluation and which will 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 sit 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 way of:
- Automated GL code ideas
- Good matching between invoices, POs, and receipts
- Actual-time validation in opposition to what you are promoting guidelines
- Customized routing for exceptions and discrepancies
- Steady studying out of your workforce’s corrections
You possibly can 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 fee phrases
- Flag mismatches above sure thresholds
The affect will be important. It will probably 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 display compliance throughout audits.
4. Approval workflows
Getting invoices authorized 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 way of clever workflow automation.
The system handles approvals by way of:
- Customized routing guidelines primarily based on quantity, vendor, or division
- Multi-channel notifications (electronic 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 what you are promoting wants. For instance:
- Route invoices over $10,000 to senior administration
- Ship IT purchases to your IT workforce 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 along with your approval insurance policies.
5. Getting your knowledge into Sage Intacct
As soon as paperwork are processed and authorized, you must get this knowledge into Sage. Nanonets presents 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 allows you to:
- Create invoice data robotically
- Sync vendor data in real-time
- Preserve 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 reworked 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 workforce 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 greatest efforts.
After implementing intelligent automation:
- Processing time dropped to 30 seconds per doc
- Groups saved 192 hours month-to-month
- Accuracy improved considerably
- Workers 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? In the event you’re trying to lower your bill processing time and save hours on AP duties, you possibly can schedule a personalized 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.
