Accounting & Internal Controls

Accounting tasks involve various activities related to recording, analyzing, and reporting financial transactions and information, enhanced through AI-assisted automation and support.

Accounting

Bookkeeping

Utilizing AI-assisted automation to record financial transactions, we maintain accurate and up-to-date records of income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and equity. This includes data entry, ledger maintenance, and account reconciliation, supported by our diligent team to ensure accuracy.

Financial Statement Preparation

We prepare financial statements, including balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements, through AI tools that streamline the compilation process. This provides an overview of your company’s financial position, performance, and cash flows efficiently, with human oversight for accuracy.

Accounts Payable

Our AI-assisted system manages and processes payments to suppliers, vendors, and creditors. This includes reviewing and verifying invoices, recording payment data, and ensuring timely payments, while our team ensures compliance and accuracy throughout the process.

Accounts Receivable

Leveraging AI support, we manage customer invoices and payment tracking effectively. This involves generating invoices, sending reminders for overdue payments, and recording incoming payments, ensuring a streamlined process with human intervention for complex issues.

Payroll Processing

Our AI tools assist in calculating and processing employee salaries, benefits, taxes, and deductions, ensuring timely and accurate payments. We maintain compliance with payroll tax regulations while our team ensures meticulous record-keeping and addresses any payroll-related inquiries.

Bank Reconciliation

Through AI-assisted reconciliation, we compare company records with bank statements to accurately account for all transactions. This automation helps identify discrepancies and errors swiftly, with our team available to resolve any inconsistencies.

Financial Analysis

We analyze financial data to assess your company’s performance, profitability, and liquidity using AI-driven analytics. This includes calculating financial ratios, interpreting trends, and delivering insights for decision-making, supported by experienced professionals.

Budgeting and Forecasting

Our AI-assisted tools create and manage budgets, aiding in planning and controlling expenses and revenues. We develop financial forecasts, monitor performance against budgeted amounts, and make necessary adjustments, all while providing expert human analysis.

Audit Preparation

We assist in preparing and coordinating external and internal audits with AI tools that organize and provide necessary financial information and supporting documents. Our team ensures compliance with audit procedures and requirements to facilitate a smooth audit process.

Financial Software Management

Utilizing advanced accounting software and ERP systems, we streamline accounting processes and maintain accurate records. Our AI support enhances data reconciliation and reporting, while our team is ready to troubleshoot and resolve any issues that may arise.

Financial Advisory

Through AI-assisted analysis, we provide financial advice and guidance based on trends and industry benchmarks. This assistance aids in decision-making, strategic planning, and risk management, ensuring that our recommendations are backed by data and human expertise.

Internal control

Internal control tasks are designed to safeguard assets, ensure accurate financial reporting, promote operational efficiency, and enhance compliance, supported by both AI tools and human oversight. By implementing effective internal controls, we work to mitigate risks, prevent fraud, and maintain the integrity of financial reporting for your business. Our team collaborates with AI systems to monitor processes and continuously improve internal control mechanisms, ensuring a solid foundation for your organization’s financial health.

Risk Assessment

Identifying and assessing risks that could impact the achievement of organizational objectives. This involves analyzing potential threats, evaluating their likelihood and impact, and prioritizing risks for effective control measures.

Segregation of Duties

Separating key duties and responsibilities among different individuals to minimize the risk of fraud or errors. This ensures that no single person has complete control over a critical process and provides checks and balances.

Authorization and Approval

Establishing clear levels of authority and approval processes for transactions, expenditures, access to resources, and other activities. This ensures that decisions and actions are properly authorized and comply with organizational policies and procedures.

IT General Controls

Implementing controls to safeguard information technology systems and data. This includes measures such as user access controls, password policies, data backups, network security, and regular system updates and patches.

Monitoring and Surveillance

Regularly monitoring and reviewing operations, processes, and transactions to detect and address any deviations, errors, or irregularities. This may involve periodic reviews, reconciliations, exception reporting, and data analysis.

Documentation and Recordkeeping

Maintaining accurate and complete documentation and records of transactions, policies, procedures, and controls. This includes maintaining records of approvals, authorizations, financial statements, and other relevant documents.

Training and Awareness

Providing training and guidance to employees on internal control policies, procedures, and best practices. This ensures that individuals understand their roles and responsibilities and are aware of the importance of internal controls.

Compliance Monitoring

Ensuring compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and industry standards. This includes monitoring changes in regulations, conducting compliance reviews, and implementing controls to address specific compliance requirements.

Incident Reporting and Investigation

Establishing a mechanism for reporting and investigating potential control breaches, irregularities, or suspicious activities. This enables timely identification and resolution of control weaknesses or fraudulent activities.

Management Review and Oversight

Regularly reviewing internal controls and their effectiveness at various levels of the organization. This involves management review meetings, internal audits, and addressing control deficiencies or recommendations for improvement.

Continuous Improvement

Implementing a process of continuous improvement for internal controls by periodically assessing the effectiveness of controls, identifying areas for enhancement, and implementing remedial actions.

Automated Bank Reconciliation

Context

Our Swiss client utilizes a cloud-based accounting platform for their bookkeeping and maintains multiple bank accounts with PostFinance. Accurate and timely recording of bank statements in the accounting system is a critical component of effective cash management. Currently, this process is performed manually: an accounting clerk downloads the bank statement from the e-banking system in CSV or Swiss-standard formats (camt.053/camt.054), uploads it into the cloud accounting tool, and manually assigns the transactions to the appropriate accounts in the general ledger, customer ledger, or AP ledger.

Proposed Solution

To optimize this workflow, we propose the implementation of a intelligent automation solution to fully automate the bank statement integration and reconciliation process. The robot will:

Automatically download bank statements from the e-banking platform and upload them to the cloud accounting system.
Match incoming payments to customer invoices using structured reference numbers. In cases where a reference number is missing, the robot cross-verifies the payer’s name against the customer ledger to determine the correct posting.
Process outgoing payments based on the accounts payable (AP) payment run, assigning them to the corresponding entries in the AP ledger.

Post all remaining transactions appropriately to the general ledger in accordance with the organization’s accounting structure.
Reconcile the closing balance recorded in the accounting system with the bank statement balance.
Upon completion of the reconciliation, the robot generates a verification report highlighting any discrepancies, which are then routed to the accounting team for manual validation.

At month-end, a comprehensive reconciliation report is delivered to the accounting department. This includes monthly bank statements, detailed reconciliation to the general ledger, customer ledger, and AP ledger. All supporting documents are archived in a secure repository for audit and compliance purposes.

Key Benefits

Up to 80% reduction in processing time and a significant decrease in error rates.
Human oversight limited to exceptions – typically fewer than 10% of transactions.
Reconciliation backup and bank statement copies are automatically archived as PDF files for audit readiness and future reference.

Systems Automated

Optimizing Order-to-Cash

Context

Our client distributes a wide range of wood products—including pallets, crates, and building and truss materials—across nearly all states in the U.S. Currently, the invoicing process is manual: invoices are created based on “completed load” reports from the dispatching system (Aljex) and sent to customers via email along with supporting documentation.

This manual workflow is time-intensive and prone to delays and errors. Moreover, data from the dispatching software (Aljex) must be manually reconciled with the accounting system, significantly increasing administrative workload.

Proposed Solution

To streamline operations and reduce manual effort, we implemented an automation solution using n8n, a flexible, cost-effective, and easily deployable automation platform. Key components of the solution include:

Automated Invoice Creation: Invoices are automatically generated in QuickBooks based on data received from Aljex via API integration.
Daily Confirmation Report: A bot generates a daily summary confirming that invoices have been successfully created for all completed loads.
Automated Email Dispatch: Invoices are automatically sent to customers. The system monitors for bounced emails and verifies that all messages have been successfully delivered.
Automated Reconciliation: Dispatch data from Aljex is automatically exported and reconciled with the accounting system to ensure completeness and accuracy.
Exception Reporting: A discrepancy report is produced, identifying any mismatches for further investigation.

Key Benefits

Up to 90% reduction in processing time with a significant drop in errors
Scalable and always-on solution – automation operates 24/7 without the need for manual intervention
Human oversight only where needed – employees focus solely on exceptions, typically less than 10% of the total volume

Systems Automated

Invoicing automation

Initial context

Our client processes between 80 and 100 invoices each month as part of their standard billing operations. The current process involves manually retrieving data from Abacus system (including billable hours, payroll counts, and fixed fees), preparing individual invoices in Excel, posting them into the Sage accounting system, and emailing them to clients. This repetitive and manual process consumes two full working days each month, carries a high risk of human error.

Proposed Solution

To streamline and optimize this process, VirtuDesk proposed the implementation of an attended solution that automates the end-to-end invoice workflow while maintaining human oversight at key control points. The robot will:

Retrieve relevant input data from Abacus and contract files to generate monthly Excel invoices and store them in a shared folder.
Post invoice entries directly into Sage, updating the customer ledger accounts and generating an activity log.
Create a reconciliation report comparing recorded invoices to posted entries, allowing for immediate review and validation.
Generate PDF versions of all invoices and send them to customers via a monitored functional mailbox.
Produce a report showing all sent emails, flagging any delivery issues such as bounced messages.
Provide intelligent insights, including revenue trends and variance analysis across periods, to support financial decision-making.

Key Benefits

The automation reduced manual effort by up to 80%, cutting the invoicing process from two full working days to just a few hours per month. It ensures improved accuracy and consistency, as all key actions are logged and reconciled. Human oversight is focused on reviewing discrepancies and validating outputs, allowing staff to shift attention to more strategic tasks. Additionally, the solution is fully scalable and audit-ready, with all documents and reports archived for compliance and future reference.

Systems Automated