Siegfried professionals integrate seamlessly into client teams to support both strategic initiatives and day-to-day execution. We absorb the common challenges associated with large projects – like process improvement initiatives, system implementations, complex transactions, and more – to get work done better, faster, and more cost-effectively. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful tool in making this possible.
For Adi, Associate Manager in Atlanta, AI is a multiplier. It helps accounting and finance professionals refine ideas for process improvements, extend them into action, and then use the time savings earned to tackle other areas of need – making those processes better and more efficient.
“In any client environment, I always look at the balance between accounting quality – information quality, accuracy, and efficiency – and operational cost,” Adi explained. “With AI, Siegfried professionals can initiate improvements that move client processes from low-quality and high-cost to high-quality and low-cost.”
When he joined the highly manual controllership team at a national security integration and products client, Adi saw the opportunity to enact this shift. Almost immediately, he began utilizing AI – in accordance with client guidelines and confidentiality – in journal entries, cash reconciliations, and overall general ledger (GL) processes, all in the quest to increase efficiencies and decrease time and resources spent.
Continuous improvement, compounding value
Adi quickly saw added value in terms of organizing data and creating and analyzing complex formulas. He leveraged AI for reconciling payments and cash more efficiently and effectively, recording journal entries – including payroll and tax entries – with greater frequency and speed, and reviewing and building out formula-heavy cash reports with enhanced accuracy.
“AI allowed me to test concepts for improvement and ultimately save a lot of time,” said Adi. “I used it to reconcile data dependencies between cash transactions, cash journal entries, and cash forecasting so that I could better understand cash activity and the impact it had on those three areas simultaneously. I started communicating payroll cash activity for forecasting and recording journal entries weekly, which was previously done on a monthly basis.”
Adi became the first on his team to record all journal entries on or before the first day of the close. He created reliable Excel workbooks that formatted complex data automatically, and he cut down monthly cash reconciliations from a multiple-month catchup nightmare to a week-and-a-half-long process. Further, Adi ensured lasting value by consistently identifying ways to better document journal entries, separate procedures into simplified steps to onboard staff, and communicate downstream reporting impacts.
“I think the most impactful way to leverage AI in the accounting industry is as a thought partner because you can immediately effect change,” Adi reflected. “My strategy with AI is to build solutions that my clients can easily understand and adopt without significant tech translation to start. I streamline processes first, then new technologies and systems can be added on top. Once you start implementing AI, it has a compounding effect.”
In summary, Adi’s AI use case included:
- Improving the quality, speed, and accuracy of journal entries, cash reconciliations, and GL accounting processes.
- Reducing manual effort and errors through AI-enabled reconciliation, reporting, and formula-building capabilities.
- Enhancing visibility by enacting more proactive and frequent reporting.
- Improving process documentation and creating sustainable workflows that enhanced consistency and future scalability.
