Do you remember that annoying, couple of years younger sibling, cousin or other child relative from the family parties of your childhood? The one who would follow you around and want to be included in the bigger children’s play? And, if you refused, your mum would come and tell you how nice it is to play with little Aino Connitan (name changed). So AiCo was unwillingly included and, what do you know, playing got more fun after a while – after which mum returned with more feedback. AiCo had been forced do all the boring and dangerous tricks so you could concentrate on the fun stuff.
Does this sound modern working life to you? The know-it-all director comes and tells you to include a robot in your play. You wouldn’t want to, after all the time you’ve spent building all kinds of makeshift Excels and recorded the best macros in the world into shortcuts with your own little hands. The cute bookkeeper from the neighbouring department often comes around and tells you how handsome you look today and would you mind (because you’re so good at it) showing her how the numbers were easily organized again.
You must have a very good imagination to find similarities between financial management and a 6 year old balancing back and forth on a rooftop. However, when building a hut in the forest it’s much more comfortable to sit back and enjoy your picnic and let the neighbour carry the branches and moss for building material, and then send them to get more biscuits and squash while you do the important construction work. In the end, you could praise yourself to the grownups about what a great hut you’ve built.
In financial management, you build the hut every month. For a successful hut, i.e. a well closed period and an opened new one, you have to make sure that all tasks have been carried out in the right sequence, at the right time. Also, someone needs to execute all the tasks. A robot is helpful in this, running all the reports making sure the figures are in line. It reconciles and clears items that are clear and only interrupts one’s coffee drinking in unclear issues. Aico sees to it that all bank materials are in and sends a follow-up email if there’s a missing file. If there’s anything to correct, it automatically adds the information it can gather on its own onto an accounting template.
Unlike the nuisance from the family party, the robot is always available. This means it can be timed to e.g. check clearing account balances every night. Also, if the boss develops an interest to check memos at nights, Aico automatically logs the memos into the ERP via integrations. As an added bonus, the robot only needs a one-off training, whereas the child relative must be explained what size branches to bring from the forest and what the mixing ratio of the squash should be. Plus, the hut’s roof is likely to leak anyway and the drink will be too bland.
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