Introduction In today’s fast-paced financial sector, accurate and timely reporting is critical. Yet many mid-sized firms rely on manual data entry and spreadsheets—a recipe for errors, delays, and staff frustration. Recently, one such financial company turned to Ordron for help. By leveraging Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and a well-planned strategy, we helped them reduce their reporting time by a staggering 80%. Here’s a closer look at how we did it.
The Challenge: Manual Processes & Mounting Pressure
Our client, a mid-sized financial firm, handled daily, weekly, and monthly reporting across multiple departments—such as accounting, compliance, and client services. Their workflow relied heavily on employees copying data from invoices, bank statements, and internal systems into spreadsheets. This manual approach was:
- Time-Consuming: Staff spent hours each week gathering, validating, and reconciling data.
- Error-Prone: Human errors in data entry and transcription were leading to inaccurate reports.
- Resource-Intensive: Valuable employee time was spent on repetitive tasks instead of high-value analysis or strategy.
As the business grew, these issues began to weigh on the firm’s efficiency and jeopardized its ability to deliver timely, accurate financial insights to stakeholders.
The Approach: Identifying Bottlenecks with a Data Health Check
Before building any automation, our team at Ordron performed a Data Health Check (IDHC)—a comprehensive analysis of the firm’s dataflows, reporting structures, and bottlenecks. We focused on:
- Data Sources: Mapping out where data originated (bank transactions, internal bookkeeping, third-party systems).
- Workflow Gaps: Determining exactly which steps were manually intensive, repetitive, or prone to errors.
- ROI Potential: Estimating how much time, effort, and money could be saved if the processes were automated.
By the end of this assessment, we identified several key areas—like daily bank statement reconciliations and monthly client portfolio reports—as prime candidates for RPA.
The Solution: Tailored RPA Implementation
With those areas pinpointed, our development team crafted a series of UiPath automations to handle each task. Here’s how we did it:
- Automated Data Extraction
- We built bots that logged into secure banking portals daily, downloaded statements, and extracted relevant transaction details.
- The data was automatically validated (checking for missing or duplicated entries) before being pushed into a central database.
- Report Generation & Validation
- Next, we designed workflows to compile the data into standardized spreadsheet templates and online dashboards.
- Formulas, pivot tables, and summary snapshots were created automatically—cutting out the manual drudgery once handled by the staff.
- Real-Time Notifications
- Whenever a process completed or flagged an inconsistency, the system sent instant notifications to the relevant teams.
- This ensured issues were caught early—reducing the back-and-forth that often caused delays in final reporting.
The Results: 80% Faster Reporting & Increased Accuracy
Within weeks of going live, the financial firm saw transformative results:
- 80% Reduction in Reporting Time: Processes that once took hours of manual effort each day were completed in minutes—freeing staff to focus on analysis and strategy.
- Significantly Fewer Errors: Automation removed human error from repetitive data tasks, boosting accuracy and stakeholder confidence in the firm’s reports.
- Cost Savings: With fewer hours spent on manual entry, the firm redirected labor to client-facing roles and advisory services—generating higher revenue opportunities.
- Enhanced Team Morale: Employees could finally leave behind the mind-numbing cut-and-paste routine. Morale improved, and the team felt empowered to do more meaningful work.
Lessons Learned: Why It Worked
- Targeting Pain Points: By focusing on the most time-consuming tasks first, we delivered quick wins that built momentum for further improvements.
- Thorough Assessment: Our Data Health Check allowed us to plan the entire automation roadmap, ensuring consistent standards and a clear ROI.
- Seamless Integration: Designing flexible UiPath workflows allowed the automations to blend into existing systems with minimal disruption.
Ready to Transform Your Reporting?
If you’re tired of manual spreadsheets and bottlenecks holding your finance team back, we can help. At Ordron, we specialize in tailoring automation solutions that fit your unique processes and drive measurable results.
Interested in learning more about our Data Health Check or how we implement RPA?
Get in touch at info@ordron.com and let’s discuss how we can streamline your reporting—and more.
At Ordron, we believe in automating the tedious, so you can focus on what matters.