Bernard Marr’s article in Forbes “The 7 Real Reasons Why Tech Projects Fail?”,points out more than half of the technology project failures are in fact due to poor management, and only 3% are caused by technical problems. 

Let us examine a few issues that are quite often seen during the deployment of Robotic Process Automation in the accounting department. Accounting firms can easily build a flawless RPA program,if these scenarios are carefully avoided.

Confucius quotes “Plan ahead or find trouble on the doorstep”. Planning is essential for any project. Accounting firms need a flexible road map, inclusive RPA scope, skill set required by staff, best practices for implementation and testing for delivering the best results. 

Common issues observed during accounting RPA implementation program

1. Lacking a proper strategy:

When there is no proper strategy in place for RPA implementation, the end result might not be satisfactory. The common mistakes are seen in

• Failure - in building a proper team to receive input and suggestions from various members of key divisions.
• Not-selecting - an appropriate model can lead to bottlenecks at the later stage, if each division chooses their own platform such as centralized, decentralized or hybrid.
• Non-collaboration - with key divisions like IT, HR, operations will disrupt smooth functioning before and after deployment
• Resistance - from employees if they are not guided by the benefits of RPA.

2. Not selecting the right processes to automate:

The processes you select for automation should meet the criterion of time savings, ROI etc.

How companies select wrong processes for automation

• Lack of planning - to evaluate the metrics of automation contribution.
• Non-standardization - if no written template is available for the processes to be automated
• Priority - not given for tasks where ROI is easily measured.
• Convenient and least important tasks - having no meaningful impact to the business are selected
• Difficult and expensive tasks - requiring extensive human involvement is selected

3. Thinking RPA is simple and easier to implement:

It is true robotic automation is a simple technique, but the devil is in the details.

• Complexity – of the process selected
• Consistency - If the process selected changes frequently, then the result will be inconsistent.
• Cognitive - requiring lot of logical and problem solving techniques
• Non-optimised - for the business needs

4. Over-dependency on other departments:

It is necessary to collaborate with other departments (IT, HR, Sales, Operations) but over-dependency leads to

• Lack of creativity– in finding solutions for processes in automation
• Problem solving – skills in the team gets disrupted
• Insufficient testing – of the software bots during the normal and peak times

5.    Failure to address issues after implementation:

The success of automation is not realized just only implementation. It must be constantly followed up.

• Scalability   - as per the needs of the firm, in a steady and gradual manner
• Maintenance-  needs to be done with ease, following best practices. 
• Security - never to compromise on it, as the bots interact with all the business systems and applications
• Compliance -  to keep in par with the government regulations
• Missed requirement – during the development process

If you are looking for robotic accounting automation solutions, then our automation solution is the right one for you.  Please talk to us, for a demo.