Welcome to my third blog post in the series of Intelligent Technologies for Finance with SAP S/4HANA Cloud. If you missed the earlier ones click here – Intelligent Accounts Receivable, Intelligent Accounts Payable.

In this blog post we will see how the traditional Record to Report processes which were manual, tedious, time consuming can get automated, simplified with innovations in intelligent technologies like SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation, Embedded Analytics.

Record to report (R2R) involves collecting, processing, and presenting accurate financial data. R2R provides strategic, financial, and operational feedback on the performance of the organization to inform management and other stakeholders.

Record to Report processes –

1. Journal entry posting
2. Accrual creation
3. GL reclass postings
4. Exchange rate updates
5. Financial Planning & Analysis
6. Reporting

RTR team traditionally used to perform these tasks manually in system making them time consuming, requiring more full-time employees, also their repetitive nature made them tedious, error prone. With innovations in Intelligent technologies, these tasks can be automated, simplified, thus RTR team can focus on more strategic tasks that create actual business value.

SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation

Let’s see how Innovations in Intelligent Robotic Process Automation automates the Record to Report processes.

Standard Bots –

Automated Upload of General Ledger Entries (48I)

This bot collects the journal entry templates from the user’s mailbox and uploads them using the standard Fiori application. Afterwards, the user gets notified on the status of the upload, receiving a list of accepted and rejected entries with the explanation included in the application log.

Smart Accruals Collector (4FN)

Creating manual accruals is a repetitive task that involves getting information from a spreadsheet to copy/paste it in the accounting system. In some cases, the accountant need to create accrual objects manually in the occurrence of a purchase order not created in time. The accountant need to get information from business and create document manually. With this bot we will automate the accrual creation process.

Automated Generation of GL Re-class Postings (5AK)
The bot checks journal entries created with specific company codes and G/L accounts and reclassifies the journal entries by transferring the amounts to other G/L accounts based on predefined mapping rules. The reclassified journal entries will be created as Excel template files.

Demo: Automated Generation of GL Re-class Postings

Inconsistent New-GL Open Item Exclusion for Migration Cockpit (4JD)
In a two-step approach, this bot automatically executes the report to get information on the inconsistent documents and then removes the inconsistent documents from the SAP S/4HANA On-Premise 1909 system. Currently, the exchange/orchestration of information between various frameworks like readiness check and migration cockpit requires a tremendous amount of effort due to the volume of data involved in it. Ensuring data consistency during migration is one of the most common and complex challenges for transformation to the SAP System. This bot simplifies the work of SAP S/4HANA users, who are responsible for data migration projects, and core business users, who are responsible for business decisions.

All the standard Bots listed are available Out of the Box in Intelligent RPA Store.

Refer blog post for more details.

Custom Bots: Use Cases

Simpler Custom Bot building with No code/low code approach with SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation 2.0.

Below examples show different ways to build Custom Bots for the Use cases in RTR.

Demo: SAP Intelligent RPA 2.0 Automation – Easily automate Outlook and email activities

Demo: SAP Intelligent RPA 2.0 Automation – SAP Logon Pad and SAP GUI

SAP Analytics

Embedded Analytics:

We get embedded Analytics in SAP S/4HANA Cloud and on premise systems which gives us real-time data in Analytical Apps,  Dashboards, Data Analyzer.

Analytical Apps:

•  General Ledger Overview – With this analytical overview app you can monitor important general ledger accounting indicators and access the relevant general ledger accounting apps.

Dashboards:

• Group Financial Statements – You use this app to display group financial statement reports.

Data Analyzer:

• Group Data Analysis – Analyze consolidated financial statements, such as balance sheets and profit and loss statements by drilling down to specific dimensions.
• Group Data Analysis with Reporting Rules – Use this app to perform ad hoc analyses for rule-based reports, such as cash flow statements, statement of changes in equity, and comprehensive income statements, by drilling down to specific dimensions.
• Cash Flow Comparison by Time – Cash Flow Comparison by Timestamp with SAC

You can also create custom analytical reports and dashboards, for details see blog post – Custom Stories/Dashboards, Embedded Analytics FAQs

What’s New?  

Important Highlights of SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation 2.0​

Simpler Custom Bot building with No code/low code approach.

Building Bots is more User friendly, even Business Process Experts can easily build Bots with easy drag and drop.

Ability to build Bots through Studio in cloud, orchestrate in cloud & execute wherever customers infrastructure is on premise.

Additionally, now you can monitor the Bots on CALM.

What’s New Blogs –

Unveiling SAP Intelligent RPA 2.0 : Hyper automation for everyone

Join the Future of Automation with SAP Intelligent RPA 2.0

What’s New for SAP Intelligent RPA with SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2102

Additional References –

SAP Note 2788986 – Release Strategy for SAP Intelligent RPA

Discover SAP Intelligent RPA at SAP TechEd 2020

Try SAP Intelligent RPA for Free: Trial Version | Pre-built Bots

Offerings for Business Transformation as a Service: Rise with SAP

Get started with SAP S/4HANA Intelligent ERP

Learn more: Webinars | Help Portal | openSAP

Explore: Product Information | Successful Use Cases

Exchange knowledge: SAP Community | Q&A | Blog

Do stay tuned with the latest updates in Intelligent Technologies with SAP S/4HANA Cloud.