As we are progressing towards a world full of process automation, the use of new technology to make the accounting and return filing process integrated, accurate and less time consuming is becoming a reality much faster.
This does not mean that it will do away the need of humans in processing, but will surely automate the low end processes such as data entry, formatting and simple analysis.
These new technologies like ICR/OCR, robotics and artificial intelligence will make the task easier for human beings by presenting the data which can then be sliced and diced to extract the required analysis and present in a required format.
There are many tools, some of them are also freeware; which are available in the market to read your invoices and convert them to text. More over other global and Indian technology companies then help you pick data from these texts intelligently to place them in your required fields through robotics and machine learning. Considering that more and more invoices are now system generated and standard in format has made this tasks easier.
These new OCR and robotics tools can help you in various areas like accounts payable processing, tax return filing, supply chain management, Human resource process. These tools will specially come in hand for small and medium sized enterprises which neither have the resources nor the expertise to handle these kind of support functions.
Though as have seen a lot of development in these technologies in the recent time and there are lot of service providers in these areas, but lack of proper input data (scanned invoices etc.) and capable trainers and proper implementation partners has played spoil sport for the users. Companies are unable to extract the full return on their investments and in some cases these technologies remain just on paper.
A mind that has belief in the true potential of these new technologies and equipped with core area expertise can do wonders for the blossoming world of start ups in the area of accounting and tax filing
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