How a reputed auditing firm reduced cost of processing by 75% using AI
How a reputed auditing firm reduced cost of processing by 75% using AI
With increased tax regulations, the Accounts Payable (AP) process has become even more important in today’s dynamic business environment. Any negligence in complying with the statutory laws during invoice processing or payments can lead to severe financial implications for any company.
Our client, a reputed auditing and investigation firm, specialises in examining the accounting payable and receivable processes and identify any material misstatements, errors or frauds.
The firm works with companies and enterprises who are willing to improve their decision-making based on the key outcomes of various process reviews.
The Business Challenge
While making payment to the vendors or crediting their ledgers, a company has to deduct Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) and deposit it with the Government.
However, it is easier said than done. Several sections according to the purpose of payment, cumbersome threshold limits and detailed applicability criteria make TDS deductions an intricate process.
The firm’s client was a business enterprise who was procuring goods and services from hundreds of vendors, resulting in hundreds of thousands of invoices. The invoices also contained multiple line items comprising of materials (which do not have TDS) and services (which have a TDS component). The enterprise AP team was overwhelmed by the resulting millions of TDS decisions and made several errors and omissions while accounting for the transactions. This resulted in notices and severe penalties from the tax authorities.
Consequently, the business had to suffer huge penalties and interest, leading to a huge impact on the cashflows.
Taking a major decision, the client commissioned a review and investigation process to re-examine 100% invoices received from the vendors and identify the mismatches in TDS deduction.
Our client, the review and investigation firm, identified formidable challenges during this assignment.
Issues with Manual Data Processing
The Prudent AI advantage
Prudent AI not only countered these challenges expertly, but also helped the firm add significant value to the client enterprise.
The firm used following main features of Prudent AI product:
Data Highlights
Business Impact
The investigation and audit firm, with the help of Prudent AI, was able to achieve:
Road Ahead
Data analysis, audits and investigations are no longer formalities for an organisation. Companies are proactively recruiting the firms to examine the crucial processes and report key anomalies and process gaps. By controlling these gaps and eliminating anomalies, organisations are thriving and creating an edge over the competition.