AI (artificial intelligence) is all the buzz right now. AI is sprinkled throughout our lives; in some cases, we may not even realize it. Think about the impact Alexa and Siri have on our daily lives; we can find out today’s forecast, ask for directions or even ask Alexa to turn off the lights!
These are all great uses in our daily lives, but what about the impact on our work lives? How can we leverage it to enhance human capabilities and contributions? AI is making great strides in helping finance and accounting teams. One example of this technology is Sage Intacct’s GL Outlier Detection and its counterpart, GL Outlier Assistant.
Sage Intacct GL Outlier Detection is a Machine Learning service that uses your historical transaction patterns to evaluate current transactions in the approval cycle. It will flag transactions that don’t match.
We all know mistakes can be costly; financial mistakes especially can be very costly! GL Outlier Detection can become your very own financial detective control. This little tool can turn your transactional historical patterns into reliable approval accuracy.
So how does this tool work?
When a GL transaction is sent for approval, the GL Outlier Detection tool jumps into action. It will use machine learning to help your approvers identify transactions outside your organization’s historical pattern. Let’s look at an example:
Let's assume Restaurant Incorporated’s transactions for the Marketing Department are always coded to the CORP Location. Now, suppose a transaction is sent for approval coded to the Marketing department and the Northeast location. (Note: For this example, both Location and Department are dimensions) The GL Outlier Detection tool might see the discrepancy and flag the transaction as an outlier. This alert will give the approver at Restaurant Incorporated another data point to use when deciding whether or not to approve the transaction.
What if your company doesn’t use GL approvals? Can you still take advantage of this great AI tool? YES! Sage Intacct also provides the GL Outlier Assistant. This AI tool was designed to be the only step in the approval process, allowing smaller organizations that do not have a large approval process to take advantage of Sage Intacct’s machine learning feature.
How does it work?
GL Outlier Assistant runs the evaluation process in the background. By allowing the user to self-approve their transactions GL Outlier Assistant runs in the background flagging those transactions that appear outside your company’s historical pattern. GL Outlier Assistant will return those flagged transactions for re-evaluation to the submitter. When the submitter receives it back, they can either adjust the entry or resubmit it without any changes—teaching the GL Assistant that this particular outlier was intended. If the entry is adjusted, the GL outlier Assistant will then recheck the revised entry.
Still not sure this AI tool is worthwhile.
Still don't see the value in these AI tools? Consider this: During the early adopter program for the GL Outlier Detection, Sage reported one organization was able to flag 12 anomalous entries in its first month of usage. Remember, even if your finance team is exceptionally diligent, they are still human. Mistakes happen. Sometimes they are small mistakes that can go unnoticed for months, building a foundation for a bigger mistake that can rock the confidence of your company’s investors or management team.
Sage Intacct’s GL Outlier Detection and its Outlier Assistant AI tool are included in your current Sage Intacct subscription. All you need to do to take advantage of this detective is to turn it on and watch it go to work! If you would like more information or to learn how this tool can be accessed, please get in touch with a Tablespoon team member.
