Each month, monetary groups race in opposition to time – reconciliations, approvals, and reviews! The month-end shut can usually really feel like Groundhog Day, with groups working extra time to course of tons of of invoices, match numerous transactions, and catch any uncommon entries earlier than they develop into issues.
Immediately’s companies cannot afford to function in month-to-month cycles anymore.
That is why Sage Intacct, one of many main cloud monetary administration techniques, 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 the right way to develop 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 focus is regularly shifting to eliminating closing cycles. At the very least this has been the driving power behind Sage’s latest updates.
The intention is to have AI continuously monitor your monetary knowledge, catching points earlier than they develop into issues and automating routine duties in real-time. Extra of steady accounting quite 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 basic ledger for anomalies and potential errors. The concept is to stop errors from impacting monetary statements by catching them at entry, quite than throughout month-end reconciliation.
The way it works:
- Evaluations 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, when 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 a minimum of seen it. Effectively, 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 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 should examine 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 possibly can go a step additional and ask the place the numerous variances are. It is going to make it easier 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 guide knowledge entry and bill processing.
The way it works:
- Add payments straight or ahead them to a devoted electronic mail handle
- System creates draft payments utilizing AI to extract bill knowledge
- Matches info in opposition to your chart of accounts
- Routes payments by way of your approval workflow
- Posts authorised payments robotically to your GL
For instance, whenever you obtain an bill by way of electronic mail, you’ll be able to ahead it to your devoted Sage electronic mail handle. The system reads the bill, creates a draft invoice with the seller particulars, quantity, and line gadgets already crammed in. You simply must evaluate the main points and approve.
Now these native AI options from Sage Intacct might make it easier to take first steps towards steady accounting. Nevertheless, you might quickly discover out that you simply want extra complete automation. They work properly for primary bill processing and anomaly detection, however dealing with complicated 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 the right way to develop Sage’s AI capabilities to deal with extra complicated monetary workflows.
[Image source: Sage’s official website]
Methods to develop Sage’s AI capabilities
Nanonets is an Clever Doc Processing platform that integrates straight with Sage Intacct. Whereas Sage’s native options deal with primary automation, Nanonets takes it additional by processing any kind of economic doc and establishing automated workflows.
Let me present you the way Nanonets AI may help develop your automation 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 electronic mail inboxes
- Screens particular folders in Google Drive, Dropbox, or your inside techniques
- 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 possibly can even use API integrations to robotically feed paperwork out of your present techniques 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 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’ll be able to specify “A singular alphanumeric identifier situated 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 along with your Sage information 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’ll be able to see how the AI immediately extracts normal fields and matches vendor names in opposition to your Sage vendor record. 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 possibly can evaluate and regulate 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 completely different handle sorts (billing vs transport)
- Separates header info from line gadgets
- Acknowledges varied 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 guide evaluate and which may 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 big distinction.
The system streamlines coding and matching by way 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 workforce’s corrections
You possibly can arrange completely different validation guidelines primarily based in your wants, like:
- Match line gadgets individually for detailed reconciliation
- Evaluate complete quantities for fast validation
- Verify particular fields like tax charges or fee phrases
- Flag mismatches above sure thresholds
The impression may be important. It may 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 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 gadget
- Automated reminders for pending gadgets
- Actual-time visibility into approval standing
You possibly can 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 workforce first
- Require a number of approvals for particular distributors
- Arrange parallel approvals for quicker processing
The system maintains an entire audit path of who authorised what and when, making it straightforward 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 authorised, you should get this knowledge into Sage. Nanonets affords 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 robotically
- Sync vendor info in real-time
- Preserve constant coding throughout techniques
- 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.
Seems good on paper? Effectively, 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 workforce 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
- 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 study out of your corrections.
What to do subsequent? In the event you’re seeking to minimize 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.
