Alexis

Episode #1 – Get to know Alexis Chevallot

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“Disclaimer: This is an AI Generated Summary, Detailed Overview, and Transcript”

The first ever “Agents of AI” podcast features an anonymous “Special Host” and Alexis Chevallot, CEO of Capto. Get to know Alexis as he shares his career path from PwC to co-founding Capto, including our company’s natural evolution from Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to AI Agents. Alexis emphasizes the importance of high-quality work, client service, and adapting to new skills like business development. The main talking points also include Capto’s independent research and client feedback, their approach to onboarding AI agents like new employees, and their differentiator of delivering highly tailored processes within four weeks.

The Details

 

Capto’s Agents of AI Podcast Introduction The “Agents of AI” podcast series began with its first episode, hosted by an anonymous individual who will reveal their identity in episode two, and co-hosted by Alexis Chevallot, CEO of Capto. The hosts aim to introduce Capto, discuss its evolution, and seek potential guests who identify as agents of AI to share their insights.

  • Alexis Chevallot’s Background and Career Path Alexis Chevallot shared that they grew up in France and pursued studies that led them into technology and coding, culminating in their first job at PwC in Luxembourg and then London, where they focused on automating tax departments for clients. The experience gained in automation and identifying areas for improvement in proprietary solutions ultimately led them to co-found Capto almost five years ago.
  • Key Skills and Traits for Success at Capto Alexis Chevallot highlighted that the commitment to high-quality work and client service, a standard from their time at a “big four” firm, has been crucial for Capto’s success. They also noted that learning business development and how to build a brand and reputation without a well-established corporate name was a significant new skill acquired while building Capto.
  • Evolution of Capto: From RPA to AI Agents Capto initially focused on Robotic Process Automation (RPA), but the company’s direction shifted significantly over five years due to advancements in AI technology and internal projects. Alexis Chevallot recounted a pivotal moment where, through independent research and client feedback, they realized Capto was already building what was being branded externally as “AI agents,” prompting a strategic pivot to this new focus.
  • Lessons Learned and Internal Business Acceleration Alexis Chevallot identified two main failures that led to significant improvements: initially trying to do everything themself, which highlighted the importance of building a highly talented team, and not seeking coaching sooner, which has since accelerated their learning and development. Internally, Capto leverages AI to streamline operations, saving considerable time in documentation processes—reducing a week’s work to a day or less—and accelerating development efforts for their small but growing team.
  • Client Conversations and Capto’s Vision for AI Agents Client conversations have evolved from basic automation discussions to a deeper focus on how Capto helps build “hybrid teams” of humans and AI agents. Alexis Chevallot emphasized that Capto’s approach involves onboarding AI agents like new employees, teaching them specific company processes, values, and reputation to ensure tailored and effective solutions, rather than generic “gadget” applications of AI.
  • Capto’s Differentiators in the AI Agent Space Capto differentiates itself in the rapidly expanding AI agent market by focusing on delivering highly tailored processes rather than generic solutions. While this bespoke approach requires more effort, it yields greater benefits and higher quality, with projects typically delivered within four weeks, a much faster turnaround than large corporations, even though it takes more time than onboarding an off-the-shelf AI agent.
  • Purpose and Vision for the “Agents of AI” Podcast The podcast was launched because Capto recognizes the value and experience they have to share, aiming to provide deeper insights and real-world use cases beyond what is available on other platforms. The Mystery Host added that the podcast is an opportunity to highlight impactful work being done by companies, even if they are not widely known, fostering “co-opetition” and sharing detailed insights that can be easily missed in shorter online formats.
  • Superhero Analogy and Future Guests As a recurring segment, the hosts introduced a question about favorite superheroes and who should be the next “Agent of AI” guest. Alexis Chevallot named Iron Man as their favorite superhero, citing the inspiration from their basement lab and making robots and AI agents. They nominated Antoine, a CFO known for their insightful vision around finance, as a potential future guest for the podcast.
 

Full Transcript

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: All right. Let’s do it, everyone. Welcome to episode number one of Capto’s Agents of AI podcast, speaker series, interesting guest, feature, soapbox for AI, whatever you want to call it. To be honest, we’re still figuring it out.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah, definitely.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: and we so much so that me as your host today, I’ve been anonymized and I’ll reveal my identity in episode number two. So for those of you that are already excited to follow along, I look forward to meeting you all officially in episode number two. So but we still have a special guest. And they aren’t from outside the walls of Capto.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: It’s Alexis. Is it Alex?

 

Alexis Chevallot: Hello everyone. Yeah, I think today is a quite a good episode and we will be the co-host for the whole series. So that will be a that’s a good first way to start.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah. Yeah. and we’re kicking things off with him because we kind of realized that, you know, not only if you’re a new viewer, like obviously you should get to know the CEO of Capto and one of the main hosts of

 

Alexis Chevallot: Sure.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Agents of AI, but also a lot has changed in Capto’s business and basically, you know, the evolution here. So, if you’re a familiar face or a new one entirely and believe that you’re an agent of AI, what I’ll also say is get in touch with Alexi or myself at a later date.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: We’ll put our LinkedIn profiles and links to Capto’s website wherever this gets posted. We’d love to have you. So we’re looking for guests and we’re looking for things to talk about. So with that said, we’re going to focus on just like an introduction of Capto introduction starting at the very beginning. So introduce yourself, Alexi. We’ll talk about the AI stuff later. Where did you grow up? How did you get started with Capto?

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: What do you like to do outside of Capto?

 

Alexis Chevallot: Oh, yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Let’s let’s go let’s go there.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Let’s take a step back.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. But thanks for the intro. Yeah, I think it’s perfect. Nothing to add on my side. So, I grew up in France. You’ll probably recognize it from the accent which is still very strong. Stayed in France for 18 years and wanted to travel the world. So did that for until now. So it’s been like 14 years. Then kind of during my studies on unis went more and more into text and more and more into like actually technical on code and really getting curious about that which led me to my first job. To give you like a bit of a history I was working at PWC in the Luxembborgish branch where basically we were automating at the beginning the tax department then after was sent to London to do a lot of that for clients and then as everyone have been marked by COVID happened and I had kind of in mind at that stage like already all this automation on how to do it better than all those proprietary solutions or like there was a lot of different things to improve.

 

Alexis Chevallot: I saw and that’s so basically we started Capto almost five years ago now. It’s been a while Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Nice. Nice. And what about your like early life or career has set you up for success most with Capto? What skill sets and traits have you kept continuously as you move from big four Price Waterhouse Coopers consulting organization to now Capto being a digital nomad running your own business?

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: What are the things that like you look back on and say like all right these are the these are the traits that like make me successful at Capto and like are most important? Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s a good question actually. I would say that like the first one that comes to mind is actually the the way we always try to make like super high quality work.

 

Alexis Chevallot: That’s something that when you are in a big four it’s like the standard and the client service around it like the quality of the relationship that you build with clients is another thing. Then after I would say that I when I left PC I saw that business development was a thing that I learned and that I knew from PC because I was building a team on dealing with clients. But it’s definitely a different game when you don’t have a brand that as famous as like the one from the big four. So I think that’s the first thing that I learned actually with Capto. How to build a brand, how to build a an identity, a reputation and I’m quite actually excited to have you joining and have you announcing yourself in the next episode for for that reason because I know like yeah that we will do a on that aspect like this is a new beginning.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Cool. Well, speaking of new beginnings, because you know, we’re introducing today, but you already said it.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Capto’s been around for five years, and it’s changed a lot.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: I know this because I know you all well and everybody will figure that out very shortly. But you’ve been around for a while. What has changed? Well, how about this? Like what was Capto up until recently?

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: What changed? And then you know, how did it all like it, you know, evolve or like what what’s different today? And when did that happen versus you know when you started 5 years ago and you were doing just automation you know what would was at the time process automation.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. No, no.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah, definitely. But first like actually we know each other so to give tips to people but we know each other since the the beginning. So we know each other since almost five years now and what like what we were doing at the beginning was like RPA automation. So robotic process automation. And it was purely like automation and two thing changed in between that time when we started and now the first one was the technology outside of Capto. A lot of things changed a lot of abilities. When we started just five years ago imagine like there was no chat there was not a lot of things like this so AI was definitely not like as powerful and as easy to on board so that’s the first thing the second thing is internally and that’s from Capto what happened bit by bits actually over the five years it wasn’t like a a one night everything changed it was more like we had year after year we had more and more project with the eye on We started to play around and to actually give you the the story.

 

Alexis Chevallot: What changed was purely in term of we what we realize what we are doing change over a weekend because we are already doing a lot of things around AI but over a weekend like you know on LinkedIn everyone was speaking about AI agents and stuff like that. I was like okay so that seems to do pretty much what we are doing but it’s this those people seems to be calling it differently. So I went on a on a weekend I went on a YouTube channel on like how to build an AI with Python an AI agent with Python and I went on it and I went I did a video and I was like what the hell it’s actually what we have been doing for like the past year and so it was a shock actually for me and then after I went on like all the other competitors like in AI agents and understood that basically we were doing that without realizing it with a layer of automation on process analysis that gives much more like confidence within the result that you get and so yeah we can go long time on the technical aspect but yeah that’s how it happened on how things changed on how people understood better what we were doing and how we started growing like crazy since 12 months and now since like six months sort of like my mind’s changed as where like the way we want to to change the industry on the way business is done in Europe wanted me to build an team of a player

 

Alexis Chevallot: and that’s what we are building now we have like a an amazing team now and like each people that comes are like crazy crazy high quality and so yeah very excited about what’s to what’s to come but yeah that’s how it happens

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah, that that’s a pretty cool story how like basically and I think it you know it’s probably too long for this episode but like I think even a a client you told me pointed out like hey you all

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: are building AI agents like why aren’t you branding it as such.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: It was like so simple that it just kind of clicked.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. It was Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah. Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Basically I was like in a networking event and the client introduced us to someone and they they were like oh they are doing AI agent before like they were doing AI agents even before people were talking about it.

 

Alexis Chevallot: I was like okay maybe they don’t have an understanding perfectly of what we are doing because me I was still on my old like RPA branding and stuff like that technical stuff and then after when I discovered I was like oh god like these clients knew better what we were doing than us. So yeah that’s sometime it’s interesting how you find out things.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah. And you know, we’re always like positive and enthusiastic people like that. But like I think like a part of that change like you know be inspiring to other pe other leaders that are in your seat that have run businesses for five years. What do you look back on like now that you’ve made this evolution and business has picked up in the last 12 months, especially the past six months? You’re riding like a very hot wave of people demanding AI agents and demand for what you’re doing.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: What were as you look back like what are some of the failures that stuck out to you and one how did you get over them and then two like how did it kind of like change what you are offering today? Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. I think the first one that comes to mind is the team. At the beginning I was trying to do everything myself to learn everything and you never do as good as like with people that actually have done that like I expert in that and so that’s the first one that comes to mind because that’s definitely the thing that changed over the past year with getting like really super talented people. It’s exciting to work with them and people are excited to work with each other. So that’s like one of them. The second one I am French and actually the the mindset around coach and coaching in France is a bit different.

 

Alexis Chevallot: It’s actually quite traditional. And so the second mistake I think would have been to I should have I I’ve like I’ve got help from a coach like back like since a while now and this also transformed or kind of sped up

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Cool.

 

Alexis Chevallot: my the way I’m learning and so I think that’s the second thing if I had to to if I had to give two the difference there.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: So, shout out to that coach and shout out to leaders who are vulnerable enough to ask for help, right? I think that that’s like one of the main lessons that you learned like over the course of the past few years is like hey it’s okay to not do everything yourself. I think like for owners of businesses sometimes it’s difficult to like you know separate yourself from that burden but cool cool

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. Yeah. And it can be simpler than people think.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Like it doesn’t have to be crazy or you can just like have guidance and things like that and do it yourself after, but at least to ask for it.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: and okay so AI is a buzzword it’s become a cliche now you’ve talked about how it’s helpful for your business and how you’re delivering it for customers, but you know, you’re still a small team.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah, I am. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Like the team’s growing, but you’re still a small team. Like talk about like for again like let’s talk about for the small business owner or like the the you know the person that looks like you across the globe, how are you using AI internally to like accelerate the company’s business as well too?

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: So that’s yeah that’s that has been also internally like way transform the way we do things in many ways.

 

Alexis Chevallot: I think the first one where we started to do to to save a lot of time was the documentation when you do like code when you do open source solutions which tend to be the highest quality of solutions but they kind of like their flow is that you need a lot to actually understand what’s going on and to do that you actually need to get the help to make it understandable by anyone and so that takes a lot of work and what we have done is like the first use of AI for us was this and it took us previously kind of one week to get some documentation done and now it takes something like a day or sometime even less. So it’s a huge difference. The second one is development like the developers are massively hit by the by AI for for developing.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Cool.

 

Alexis Chevallot: It’s not solving everything and doing everything but it does enable to actually get things like much faster.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Cool.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: All right. And we’re going to circle back on like the client conversations and all the success that you’ve been having like in the past year. You know, what are those people coming to you with today that’s different than what they were coming with you when you were working with them three or four years ago? Are they just like, you know, are they seeing the hype that AI is and they’re confused about what that actually means? Like, how are you how have the conversations changed with clients in terms of like what you’re delivering for them? Is it still just always focused on the outcomes or is it now like okay people want to be aligned with what the future of you know a finance department looks like or a logistics department looks like? What’s what are are those have those conversations changed over the past four years or are they relatively the same?

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: No they have been quite different like when we started it was much much more limited for two reasons the size of Capto the ability to our ability or technical like knowledge on how to deliver on what to deliver

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: when actually along the way we built a whole vision on our side. So now like what what we talk about with CFOs is like how we build for them like this what I call an hybrid team al human alpha agents which will happen anyway in the five to 10 years time on how we help the best way towards this what I mean by the best way it’s not like what I always often see and I don’t like this buzz word AI because it’s a lot of gadget around and So it doesn’t really help and it kind of lose the reputation that it’s actually what it can provide and what it will provide. And so what we do is kind of like this expertise with a process on we onboard AI agents the way you onboard an employee which is like you teach them the processes that there is within the company, the company’s reputation, the company’s values and then you on board them like you do with an employee and then after in the team you have this hybrid approach with like II agents and like humans and that’s what actually

 

Alexis Chevallot: makes like the whole change on makes things better.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Great. Great. Okay. So, let’s talk about a little bit of what differentiates Capto as a company and what you deliver for your clients. like just talk about what separates you in what’s really rapidly become like we keep saying the word buzzword but it’s AI agent is like a it’s become so rapidly overnight a noisy space. I think we could like admit that and just be like you know self-aware that we’re not the only company that’s building AI agents.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: So talk about what differentiates a Capto AI agent versus the the other companies that you see at the top of your LinkedIn feed or Twitter feed every single day.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: I think there is like a a flow on equality.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: I will start by the I don’t know if I should but I will start by the flow of of Capto. Is that we are pretty honest with like the work it’s require it requires work to do the AI agent that we are doing but the quality behind it is that all agent are doing like not generic processes but actually tailored process that you have within your company might it be the closing the accounts and so you need to know all the accounting and how the way it is done the way your company is like naming things and doing things so all the process that you have in finance that are very specific sometimes companies to companies industries to industries so I think that’s like the differentiator is is one but there is like the two sides it takes it takes more work but it takes like also like it gives much more benefits

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Nice.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Nice. It’s probably I don’t know. I’m going to use an analogy here and don’t let me don’t let it if it’s wrong, you tell me. It sounds like you can go and buy a suit at like a department store and pull it off the rack and do your real best to like tailor that and make it fit you better by taking it someplace that somebody’s going to do the best they can with what it is. And then you also have the option to go to like Seville Row in London and get like a what they call the bespoke suit that literally like to the millimeter is size to you and it’s all the perfection

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: that you want and it’s everything that you know it’s this higher quality and this higher standard of customization.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Is it is it okay to d describe Capto as like the civil row tailor of of suit making? And that’s not like at all taking away from the department stores either because sometimes department store suits look really really nice as well too.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: What do you Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. No, I think I think it’s kind of like I would say it’s kind of in between there like we are not like a huge corporate that do those things. So, often I see like this like or people see this higher end in like big corporation. But what definitely so so what I’m very proud of sometimes is that we deliver our projects on our agent within like four weeks on average and that’s super fast however when you compare it to AI agent that you can see on platform that are basically on boarded within like minutes and so yeah it’s it is definitely like super tailored it does like much more and it’s also quity but indeed it takes a

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: bit more time on a bit more work. So yeah, all the preparation, the cuts on making things to the millimeter.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Cool. All right. So, we’re coming towards the end of what we like prepared to talk about today. I think like the other thing that stands out is this is the first episode.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: For those of you that are still listening, thanks for sticking with us because we still have a lot to figure out of what we want to do with the format and the production.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: You know, at a very minimum, your mystery host here will not be a robot the next time that we do this call.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: But why are you doing a podcast now?

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Like what?

 

Alexis Chevallot: Um yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Like there’s so much content out there. Like what’s why are you doing it? And how is it going to be different? Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. Um I think this question we can both answer to it because I definitely would like to since it’s the first episode I would definitely like to have your your input on that.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Um but on my side I would say that like first we get we got so much more experience. We recognize that we have something that’s valuable to say in the things we do. We actually recognize finally like the value that we bring and I think that’s something that we have been doing for a while but that we didn’t realize. And the second thing is that like we want to happen and share from people that knows.

 

Alexis Chevallot: So not only us but actually the people that are in in the industry CFOs and like people that are like that are hands-on on share and so I think this will be pretty fun on a different way to present it the format will be different but the value will also be much much more much deeper on for people that are following me on LinkedIn I always try to like share real use cases and that’s the point of the podcast as well is like since we are getting more and more knowledge to actually be able to share this on with real cases here. But as you said just before before I get you like answering this this question, yeah, big thank you to the one that are watching until now the the format like it’s the first episode. So that’s pretty cool. But one of the thing I’m super grateful for is like the support Capto is getting for people around us in our community. And the last reason that I would add on top of that is that we do want to build a community to help people to help clients but to also help people from the help that we are providing to our clients outside of Capto.

 

Alexis Chevallot: And I think that’s a a way that we want to share more and more not only on on podcast but also on any other format that we might can do.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But my two cents here since you asked Alexa, like I think that one of the things that’s most appealing about me joining and working with Capto more intensely after we’ve known each other for so many years is that

 

Alexis Chevallot: Thanks.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: consistently you’ve had a lot of grit and perseverance in building your business and also just really genuine approach in terms of building and I think that we can bring that to the AI eye space as well and maybe

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: even like take a step back and take a step away from all the influencers that are just attaching themselves to it because it’s the next hypy thing.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: I think that especially a lot of what Capto is delivering to its clients at companies that admittedly probably the rest of the world might not have heard of is not like you know on their refrigerator. They’re not well-known names, but they’re doing impactful things for the people that work for them and with them.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: And I view, you know, this agents of AI platform as a place to elevate those people that are doing real work at places that, you know, I I I just think of use cases that are that are micro

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: in size but big in that could be potentially big in impact. And for those of you that will meet me officially and know me, like one of my main words is co-opetition. I think that there’s an opportunity for us to highlight what somebody is doing in a certain region or a certain space that could trigger, you know, more use cases and more use of AI around the world.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: And I think that that could be like a really really like just inspiring goal for us to do this this thing. I think also it’s a great opportunity to get detailed insights from people.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: You and I post so much on LinkedIn. We post on other platforms. Those insights are getting so bite-sized and so l so easily missed that this is another way for us to deliver, you know, meaningful insight to people.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: So, we have one final question that is hopefully going to be a tradition and hopefully going to be something fun that we could do with other agents of AI.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Oh, well.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: And again, this is your reminder to reach out to us because we’re, you know, currently recording other episodes with other people and we want to get the the backlog going.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: So, please come come our way. The title of the show is an intentional play on like secret agents or superheroes.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Happy.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: So, I guess the the way that we could potentially do this going forward is one, what’s your favorite superhero or what’s your favorite, you know, and how does that relate to AI or who do you view as a superhero in the AI space? So, who’s your referral? Who should be the next agent of AI on this? We I just put you on the spot and I can tell that you’re thinking, but go ahead. Take a shot. Take a shot at it. Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Oh. So basically like to tell you who should be who would be great as a next invite.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah. Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: I would say like CFO I know well Antoan yeah is like would be a great great invite.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Mhm.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Antonella he has like a vision around finance that’s super insightful super interesting I I didn’t realize it at first but while like learning about him and seeing oh see finance and makes it move forward I I was very like I learned a lot from him actually so yeah I would say that that would be a great a great next invite which actually I don’t know if he would be keen for it, but

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Cool. That’s a really good one.

 

Alexis Chevallot: I like it.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Well, hope hopefully we’ll have to reach out to him and see if he’s okay if it for us calling him out in this first episode.

 

Alexis Chevallot: It would Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: But in any case, and you know, do you want to take a stab while we have each other?

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Who Who’s your favorite superhero you think like would be a Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. Oh, I I would say it’s like not original at all, but Iron Man was definitely mine.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah. Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: I dream of having one days at basement working. I have I do have the impression in this episode to be with Jarvis.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Yeah.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Um, but like yeah, like the basement with like all the text making things happen when I’m getting in my zone with the music on getting like I do less codes lately, but like when I was doing a lot of code at the time, I was putting music getting in the zone on like getting things done and making like robots and like AI agents happen.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Um, that was like yeah, that was one of of the inspirations. I definitely would say tell him

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Cool. All right. Well, I’m envisioning a an AI generated image of Alexis like merging personas with Iron Man. We’ll have to get your face on an Iron Man suit, I think. So, All right.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah. Yeah.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Well, bye everyone. Thanks for sticking with us for the first episode. The next one will get better and the next one after that will get better and better. So, reach out to us.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Yeah, comments, comment your feedbacks.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Let us know what you think.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Like this we we keep on improving on the way on teaching you the things that you want to learn. So yeah, do it.

 

Mystery Host – To Be Announced in Episode #2: Awesome. All right.

 

Alexis Chevallot: Okay, cheers. Done.

Want to see Capto’s AI employee in action? 🚀

Contact us today for a personalized demo and discover how Capto can transform your finance team 🙂

Contact us

Episode #1 – Get to know Alexis Chevallot Read More »

Automated Odoo invoicing process by Capto – Streamlining CFO workflows with fast, error-free invoice automation.

Capto’s Odoo Automation: Transforming Invoicing for CFOs with Seamless Efficiency

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At Capto, we are dedicated to revolutionizing business processes through innovative automation solutions. 

Recently, we collaborated with a client to enhance their invoicing operations within the Odoo platform. Odoo is a powerful open-source ERP system designed to streamline business operations, including invoicing automation. 

This initiative underscores our commitment to streamlining complex workflows and empowering businesses to focus on strategic growth.

The Challenge

Our client faced several hurdles in their invoicing process:

  • Diverse Information Sources: Invoicing data was dispersed across multiple platforms, necessitating manual consolidation.

  • High Invoice Volume: The substantial number of invoices processed daily was overwhelming existing manual methods.

  • Inconsistent Data Formats: Variations in data presentation led to processing delays and increased the potential for errors.

  • Manual Data Entry: Critical contextual information required manual input, further slowing the process and introducing opportunities for mistakes.

The Solution

To address these challenges, we developed a tailored automation solution that seamlessly integrates with Odoo’s invoicing system. The automated process performs the following functions:

 

  1. Data Aggregation: Automatically collects all necessary information from various sources, ensuring comprehensive data capture.

  2. User Input Integration: Incorporates additional data provided by users, allowing for flexibility and customization.

  3. Data Summarization: Compiles the aggregated information into a structured file formatted for Odoo import.

  4. Standardized Formatting: Ensures all data conforms to Odoo’s specific requirements, facilitating smooth integration.

Why Choose Capto for Odoo Automation?

Our expertise in automation, combined with a deep understanding of Odoo’s capabilities, positions us uniquely to optimize your business processes. We tailor our solutions to meet specific client needs, ensuring seamless integration and measurable improvements in efficiency.

Explore the Potential of Odoo Invoicing

Odoo’s invoicing application offers a user-friendly, powerful solution to streamline billing operations and ensure timely payments. Features include automated invoice creation, payment management, and comprehensive reporting, all designed to simplify your accounting workflows.

Conclusion?

At Capto, we are passionate about leveraging technology to simplify complex business processes. Our recent project exemplifies how targeted automation can overcome operational challenges, leading to significant gains in efficiency and accuracy. We invite you to explore how our solutions can be tailored to enhance your organization’s workflows and drive success.

Note: For more insights into our automation projects and how they can benefit your business, feel free to reach out to us.

Want to see Capto’s Odoo automation in action? 🚀

Contact us today for a personalized demo and discover how Capto can transform your invoicing process 🙂

Contact us

Capto’s Odoo Automation: Transforming Invoicing for CFOs with Seamless Efficiency Read More »

Free Robot for CFOs: Automate Salesforce Report Extraction Today

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At Capto, we believe in empowering businesses to focus on what matters most—strategic growth and decision-making. That’s why we’re thrilled to share our Python-based robot designed to automate Salesforce report extraction, no string attached.

Whether you’re managing financial operations or simply looking to streamline reporting, this robot eliminates the repetitive, manual process of pulling data from Salesforce. It’s easy to use, highly effective, and available for you to download and implement today.

Access the Robot Here

The problem

Faced with complex Salesforce data, a client’s finance team hit a roadblock—it was impossible to extract and manage daily reports manually without delays, errors, and significant resource strain. These reports were critical for compliance and decision-making, yet the manual process consumed hours, increased risks of inaccuracies, and diverted focus from strategic tasks. A more efficient solution was essential.

Why Automate Salesforce Reporting?

Manual Salesforce report extraction is complex, require a lot of dirty copy/paste and error friendly. CFOs and finance teams spend countless hours preparing data for financial reporting, which can slow decision-making and increase operational costs. Or worse, they don’t use the information in Salesforce because to hard to get.

This is where automation steps in:

Save Time:  Automate repetitive data extraction tasks, giving your team more time to focus on strategy.

Improve Accuracy:  Minimize errors in financial reporting with a reliable, consistent data pipeline.

Boost Productivity:  Free your team from mundane tasks and let them focus on high-value activities.

Why We’re Sharing This Robot

At Capto, we thrive on driving innovation and helping businesses embrace automation. By sharing this Salesforce extraction robot, we aim to:

Foster Collaboration

We believe in open sharing and helping the broader community automate better.

Demonstrate Value

Automation isn't just a concept; it's tangible measurable results.

Build Relationships

If this robot sparks interest, we're here to support you with expertise to scale it up.

What Does the Robot Do?

Our Salesforce extraction robot is a Python script built with simplicity and scalability in mind. Here’s what it can handle:

1. Automated Report Extraction

The Python robot simplifies the entire report extraction process by automating every step:

 

  • Secure Authentication: The robot logs into Salesforce using secure protocols to ensure your data remains protected.
  • On-Demand Access: With just a few commands, you can retrieve specific reports instantly, eliminating the need to navigate Salesforce manually.
  • Scheduled Retrievals: Set up the robot to pull reports automatically at specified intervals—daily, weekly, or monthly—ensuring you always have up-to-date data without lifting a finger.

2. Customizable Data Outputs

We started Capto with the  understanding that every business has unique automation needs. This robot is designed with flexibility in mind:

 

  • Multiple File Formats: Export data in your preferred format, such as CSV or Excel, to integrate seamlessly with your existing analytics tools.
    Filter and Tailor
  • Data: Define parameters to extract only the most relevant data, reducing the noise and ensuring you get actionable insights.

3. Easy Integration

Designed for simplicity, the robot can be deployed without overhauling your current systems:

 

  • Plug-and-Play Functionality: Whether you use Excel, Google Sheets, or a sophisticated BI tool, the robot outputs data in a format that fits effortlessly into your workflow.
  • Minimal Setup Required: With clear instructions and an intuitive structure, you can deploy the robot quickly, even with minimal technical expertise.

4. Ready for Scale

This robot isn’t just for small tasks; it’s built to grow with your needs:

 

  • Handle Large Volumes: Whether you’re extracting a handful of reports or thousands, the robot can be scaled up to meet increasing data demands.
  • Adaptable Architecture: Its Python-based code is easy to modify, allowing you to add features like advanced filtering, dynamic scheduling, or even integration with other platforms.
  • Enterprise-Grade Potential: With additional support from Capto, this robot can be transformed into a robust, industrial-grade solution tailored to your organization’s unique requirements.

By combining ease of use, flexibility, and scalability, this Salesforce report extraction robot is a powerful tool for CFOs and finance teams looking to optimize their reporting processes.

The Value for CFOs and Finance Teams

Time Savings

Save up to 30+ hours per month by automating report extraction.

Error Reduction

Reduce reporting errors by 75%, ensuring data accuracy and compliance.

Enhanced Efficiency

Cut operational costs by 20%, reallocating resources to higher-value activities.

Ready to automate your Financial Reporting

Reach out to us today to discuss how we can meet your specific needs with a tailored solution and usher in a new era for finance and payment processing 🙂

DM us on LinkedIn

Free Robot for CFOs: Automate Salesforce Report Extraction Today Read More »

eFlow Processing and a Top Tier Bank: Pioneering Fraud Automation

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In the accelerating landscape of finance and payment technologies, automation emerges as a transformative force.

 

Leading this charge is eFlow Processing, renowned for its customer care and advanced technology in enhancing financial operations. Their latest project, a robot designed in partnership with Capto to manage daily fraud and chargeback information from their partnered bank, marks a significant stride in financial automation. A top tier acquiring bank, acclaimed in the finance sector and recently acquired by a payment processing giant, is at the heart of this initiative.

 

This cutting-edge fraud robot is a testament to the power of automation in business optimisation. This article explores the impact of this automation tool, shedding light on its capabilities, advantages, and the wider implications for the finance industry.

The problem

Confronted with vast financial data, the business had a roadblock … it was impossible to handle 800,000 values a day and filter through 6 categories of reports entirely manually on a daily basis. Performing this process means delivering live fraud & chargeback information to clients which is key to ensure the correct process of merchant payments. Operating those tasks manually meant also a higher risk of errors, delays in payment analysis & a real strain to the company resources in managing these critical operations effectively.

The Solution

Enter Capto’s solution:

 

A custom-designed robot that automates the process while leveraging Capto’s experience in the payment industry. The robot securely manages the data flow and reports the data coming from the payment processing partner in minutes, enabling near-to-live analysis of all merchant transactions.

 

The process is simple:

 

The robot autonomously starts every morning, connecting to the bank’s online platform and gathering all reports published on the previous day. Once all the reports are collected, the robot categorizes the different types of transactions and sorts them per merchant before importing them into one single database.

BEFORE

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Step 1: Initialization and Secure Connection

Activity: The Daily “Bank” Robot starts automatically on each business day at a pre-set time.

Process Detail: It establishes a secure connection to the bank’s web-based platform using advanced encryption protocols to ensure data privacy and security.

 

Step 2: Data Retrieval

Activity: The robot identifies and retrieves the latest financial transaction reports generated for the previous day.

Process Detail: It focuses on comprehensive transaction data, including but not limited to sales transactions, refunds, chargebacks, and fraud alerts. These reports are critical for financial reconciliation and all fraud management processes.

 

Step 3: Sorting and Categorization

Activity: Upon retrieval, the robot sorts the reports based on predefined categories such as merchant ID, transaction type (e.g., sale, refund, chargeback), and fraud status.

Process Detail: This step is vital for organizing the data in a manner that simplifies analysis and reporting. The categorization is customized to meet the specific needs of eFlow Processing and its financial operations, ensuring that all relevant data points are efficiently segmented.

 

Step 4: Data Cleansing and Preprocessing

Activity: Before further processing, the robot cleanses the data to remove duplicates and corrects any discrepancies.

Process Detail: This includes validating transaction details, standardizing data formats, and reconciling transaction amounts. This step is crucial for maintaining data integrity and reporting accuracy.

 

Step 5: Data Integration and Database Update

Activity: The robot then integrates the sorted, categorized, and cleansed data into a central database.

Process Detail: It uses sophisticated algorithms to ensure that each piece of data is accurately matched and integrated with existing records. This database serves as the foundation for all subsequent financial analysis and reporting, enabling real-time access to up-to-date financial information.

 

Step 6: Distribution and Notification

Activity: Finally, the robot sends the integrated data to designated stakeholders within eFlow Processing and, if applicable, to external partners.

Process Detail: These notifications include but are not limited to daily activities, status and error handling (if any). The notifications are tailored to the specific requirements of eFlow Processing, providing insights into financial performance, operational risks, and areas for improvement.

 

Why bother automating your Fraud Management Process?

Time Savings

Reports are prepared in mere seconds, dramatically reducing the manual work required.

Error Reduction

Automation minimizes human error, ensuring accuracy in data entry completion.

Enhanced Efficiency

Secure, automated operations streamline the entire process.

Ready to automate your Fraud Management & Reporting

Reach out to us today to discuss how we can meet your specific needs with a tailored solution and usher in a new era for finance and payment processing 🙂

DM us on LinkedIn

eFlow Processing and a Top Tier Bank: Pioneering Fraud Automation Read More »

Urbanism Certificate: Capto’s Revolution in Public Administration

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En Francais?

In the realm of public administration, the automation of urbanism certificates process stands as a beacon of progress. Capto, dedicated to pioneering innovative solutions, transformed the cumbersome process of urbanism certification in Listrac-Médoc, France. 

 

This advancement is not just a technological leap; it represents a new era of efficiency and precision in local government operations – a leap forward in administrative efficiency 🚀.

The problem

“Every time a change happens in the city, from a house extension to a new district, the urbanism team of the city hall manually processes a high volume of very specific information in order t to prepare the required urbanism certificate – a repetitive task leading to delays, errors and a lot of boring work. Each month this process requires a significant amount of work, burdening staff and causing frustration among the teams of Listrac-Médoc city hall.”

The Solution

Enter Capto’s solution: 

 

A custom-designed robot (RPA), called the Urbanism Robot. This advanced technology leverages our expertise in web-based interactions, automating the preparation of urbanism certificates at an accessible cost for local administration. 

 

The process is simple: 

 

The city hall staff provides the robot with the request number, and the robot autonomously completes and stores the certificate, revolutionizing administrative efficiency.

BEFORE

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In-Depth Look at Capto's Automation

1. User provides request number & relevant files

To start the automated process, the user provides the robot with the request tracker file that contains all information about the urbanism requests and provides the request number that a certificate needs to be prepared for. 

 

2. Robot extracts all required information

The robot picks up all required information from the file and checks whether any necessary information is missing. This is pre-configured in the robot’s logic so it knows exactly what details to extract every time it runs. 

 

3. Robot connects to the public administration website

After the data is extracted, the robot connects to the urbanism repository platform. This platform tracks all the urbanism information of the public administration, i.e. contains all historic data about every plot on the territory, and has all the information required for the preparation of urbanism certificates.

 

4. Robot explores website and extracts data

To complete the certificate, the robot navigates through the platform. It explores all available categories in order to capture all information required for the certificate preparation (i.e. is the plot part of a protected area? Is it part of the city center? Is it part of a natural zone?).

 

When required, the robot even goes into the archives of the last ten years, extracts any relevant information, and adds it to the certificate. The level of detailed information the robot is able to handle was the reason why, at first, the urbanism team could not believe it was possible to completely automate the process. 

 

5. Robot prepares the certificate

Once the robot has collected all the information required to prepare the certificate in full, it copies an empty certificate template and one by one, it completes all lines within the form. It modifies as needed, answers all questions, and checks that all data has been added in order to prepare the certificate in full.

 

It takes the robot 15 seconds to open and complete one certificate in full.

 

6. Robot saves the certificate for review

Job is done so the robot saves the newly prepared certificate to a shared location of the urbanism team for anyone available to review it and share it with the relevant administrations and notaries.

 

Why bother automate your Urbanism Certificate process?

Time Savings

Certificates are prepared in mere seconds, dramatically reducing administrative workload.

Error Reduction

Automation minimizes human error, ensuring accuracy in data entry and certificate completion.

Enhanced Efficiency

Secure, automated operations streamline the entire process.

“Today we would not be able to work without the robot which allows us to respond to those administered more quickly but above all without any error.”

Ready to automate your Urbanism Certificate Process

Reach out to us today to discuss how we can tailor our solutions to meet your specific needs and usher in a new era of administrative efficiency 🙂

DM us on LinkedIn
In english?
france

Automatisation du Certificat d'Urbanisme : La Révolution de Capto dans l'Administration Municipale

Dans le domaine de l’administration publique, l’automatisation du processus de délivrance des certificats d’urbanisme se présente comme un progrès significatif. Capto, engagé dans le développement de solutions innovantes, a transformé le processus laborieux de certification d’urbanisme à Listrac-Médoc, en France. 

Ce progrès représente non seulement un bond technologique, mais aussi l’avènement d’une nouvelle ère d’efficacité et de précision dans les opérations municipales.


– une avancée dans l’efficacité administrative 🚀.

Le Problème

“À chaque changement dans la ville, que ce soit une extension de maison ou la création d’un nouveau quartier, l’équipe d’urbanisme de la mairie traite manuellement un volume important d’informations très spécifiques pour préparer le certificat d’urbanisme nécessaire – une tâche répétitive entraînant des retards, des erreurs et beaucoup de travail ennuyeux. Chaque mois, ce processus exige un effort considérable, alourdissant le personnel et causant des frustrations parmi les équipes de la mairie de Listrac-Médoc.”

La Solution

Voici la solution de Capto : 

 

Un robot personnalisé (RPA), nommé le Robot d’Urbanisme. Cette technologie avancée utilise notre expertise dans les interactions web pour automatiser la préparation des certificats d’urbanisme à un coût accessible pour l’administration locale. 

 

Le processus est simple : 

 

Le personnel de la mairie fournit le numéro de la demande au robot, qui complète et stocke automatiquement le certificat, révolutionnant ainsi l’efficacité administrative.

 

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1. L'utilisateur fournit le numéro de demande et les fichiers pertinents

Pour démarrer le processus automatisé, l’utilisateur fournit au robot le fichier de suivi des demandes d’urbanisme contenant toutes les informations sur les demandes d’urbanisme et le numéro de la demande pour laquelle un certificat doit être préparé.

 

 

2. Le robot extrait toutes les informations requises

Le robot récupère toutes les informations nécessaires du fichier et vérifie s’il manque des informations nécessaires. Ceci est préconfiguré dans la logique du robot, afin qu’il sache exactement quels détails extraire à chaque exécution. 

 

3. Le robot se connecte au site web de l'administration publique

Une fois les données extraites, le robot se connecte à la plateforme de répertoire d’urbanisme. Cette plateforme suit toutes les informations d’urbanisme de l’administration publique, contenant toutes les données historiques sur chaque parcelle du territoire, et a toutes les informations requises pour la préparation des certificats d’urbanisme.

 

4. Le robot explore le site web et extrait les données

Pour compléter le certificat, le robot navigue sur la plateforme. Il explore toutes les catégories disponibles afin de capturer toutes les informations nécessaires à la préparation du certificat (par exemple, la parcelle fait-elle partie d’une zone protégée ? Fait-elle partie du centre-ville ? Est-elle dans une zone naturelle ?).

 

Si nécessaire, le robot va même dans les archives des dix dernières années, extrait toutes les informations pertinentes et les ajoute au certificat. Le niveau de détail que le robot peut gérer était la raison pour laquelle, au début, l’équipe d’urbanisme ne pouvait pas croire qu’il était possible d’automatiser entièrement le processus. 

 

5. Le robot prépare le certificat

Une fois que le robot a collecté toutes les informations nécessaires pour préparer le certificat, il copie un modèle vierge de certificat et complète, un par un, toutes les lignes du formulaire. Il apporte les modifications nécessaires, répond à toutes les questions et vérifie que toutes les données ont été ajoutées pour préparer complètement le certificat.

 

Il faut 15 secondes au robot pour ouvrir et compléter un certificat en entier.

 

6. Le robot enregistre le certificat pour révision

Une fois le travail terminé, le robot enregistre le certificat nouvellement préparé dans un emplacement partagé de l’équipe d’urbanisme pour que quiconque disponible puisse le réviser et le partager avec les administrations et notaires concernés.

 

Pourquoi automatiser votre processus de Certificat d'Urbanisme ?

Gain de Temps

Les certificats sont préparés en quelques secondes seulement, réduisant considérablement la charge de travail administrative.

Réduction des Erreurs

L'automatisation minimise les erreurs humaines, garantissant la précision de la saisie des données et de la complétion du certificat.

Efficacité Accrue

Des opérations sécurisées et automatisées simplifient l'ensemble du processus.

“Aujourd’hui, nous ne nous passerions

plus du robot qui nous permets de répondre aux administrés plus rapidement mais surtout sans aucune erreur.”

Prêt à automatiser votre processus de Certificat d'Urbanisme ?

Contactez-nous dès aujourd'hui pour discuter de la manière dont nous pouvons adapter nos solutions à vos besoins spécifiques et inaugurer une nouvelle ère d'efficacité administrative 🙂

Contactez nous sur LinkedIn

Urbanism Certificate: Capto’s Revolution in Public Administration Read More »

Fraud & Chargeback reporting automation

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Fraud & chargeback reporting is a very common use case for automation that we work on almost every week. From navigating to internal and external systems, copying and pasting data from Excel and Google sheets, to preparing the reports and emailing them internally or to 3rd party stakeholders, this is a great example of the power and importance of automation for risk, data quality, and time-efficiency management.  

 

That’s why we were hired to automate this process! 

The problem

“Every day we have to go onto the Visa platform to extract the case activity for each of our clients and email them the report. This is a very time-consuming and highly manual task that easily saves us hours each day. We needed to automate this to direct the time toward more valuable tasks.”

The Solution

A robot that navigates to the relevant Visa platform, filters for the correct date, and takes from a Google sheet all client names which it searches for in the Visa platform to extract the daily case activity for each client. It then renames the downloaded reports and emails them to each client (with a pre-configured message).

How it works? ... in 4 Simple Steps

1. Robot navigates to the Visa platform

When the robot starts, it navigates to the Visa platform and inserts the log-in details to gain access.

 

2. Robot applies the correct filters

In order to extract the correct case activity from the platform, the robot adjusts the platform fields for Start and End Date.

 

3. Robot copies Client Names from Google Sheet

In order to search for the case activity data for each client at a time, the robot navigates to a Google Sheet table containing all client names, copies and pastes a client name into the Visa platform, and clicks on a “Search” button within the platform to generate the data. 

 

It performs the same action for all client names within the Google Sheet.

4. Robot generates the report, renames it and emails to each client

Once the report is generated, the robot renames the file using a pre-configured logic, navigates again to the Google sheet to find the email address for each client, and sends the unique report to each client.

 

The robot completes this in 2 minutes per client, saving valuable time for the team and ensuring the process runs even on days off. Pretty great, no?!

Save time

A robot extracts all case activity data for each client, renames the downloaded report, and emails it to each client in seconds. With complete consistency!

Reduce error

Focusing on a manual task for hours is tiring and boring so the scope for error is huge. A robot doesn't get tired and works with 100% accuracy.

Improve service

With increased efficiency, reduced errors, and more engaged staff, the quality of data and service improves, and with that the loyalty of clients too.

Ready to automate your fraud &chargeback reporting?

Let's talk about your fraud & chargeback reporting and see how we can automate it best 🙂

Talk to us

Fraud & Chargeback reporting automation Read More »

Financial Statement Appendices prepared automatically

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Whether you work for a company that prepares its financial statements in-house, or you’re a lawyer or accountant doing this for clients, or you’re an auditor who audits manually prepared accounts, you will be painfully familiar with the burden it is to prepare the financial statements and their appendices manually. 

 

That’s why we were hired to automate this process! 

The problem

“Every year we prepare the financial statements for hundreds of client portfolio companies. This means hundreds of appendices that we prepare manually by going back and forth between our Excel worksheets, the trial balances, and other supporting documents, to make sure we capture all information correctly into the appendices. Unsurprisingly, this is taking us weeks to complete and review and the risk of manual error is just so huge that every year we dread this period because it’s always so stressful for the whole team .”

The Solution

A robot asks for the entity’s prior year appendices, current year trial, and all other supporting documents. Using a pre-configured Excel template, it completes all tabs within the template by populating each field with the correct amount, entity name(s), or date. This is performed using a pre-configured mapping which determines which FS line corresponds to which TB codes. It also performs all necessary calculations. 

How it works? ... in 4 Simple Steps

1. Robot asks you to provide all required files

To start the process all you need to do is provide the robot with the files that contain all the information that is needed to complete the appendices. This includes prior year appendices, current year trial balance, interest of ISL, and others.

 

2. Robot extracts all required information

The robot picks up all the required information from the different documents. This is pre-configured in the robot’s logic so it knows exactly what details to extract every time it runs. 

 

3. Robot completes the template & updates all dates

After the data is extracted, the robot populates the template. This includes all amounts corresponding to the various financial statement lines in order to complete all appendices. 

 

It also updates all dates within the template, updates for FX rates where necessary, and completes all entity name(s), including relevant subsidiary names (using prior year appendix information).

 

4. Robot generates the completed Appendix file

To complete the process, the robot pushes a Dialog window where you click to see the newly prepared Appendix file for entity XXX. All you have to do is sense check. 

 

The robot completes this in 1 minute per entity. It now saves our client 1 full month of work since they had hundreds of entities to prepare financial statement appendices for. Pretty great, no?!

 

Why bother automate your Financial Statement Appendices?

Save time

A robot is able to prepare an entity's appendices in 60 seconds and provide you with a summary of any information it couldn't find, meaning all you have to do is investigate the exceptions (if any).

Reduce error

Focusing on a manual task for hours is tiring and boring so the scope for error is huge. A robot doesn't get tired and works with 100% accuracy to prepare all appendices in a few seconds or minutes.

Smarter Operations

The robot works in the background so you can easily continue doing other value-adding work whilst the robot does the rest. That way you do the valuable job whilst the robot handles the admin.

Ready to automate your Financial Statement Appendices

Let's talk about the preparation of your appendices and see how we can automate them best 🙂

Talk to us

Financial Statement Appendices prepared automatically Read More »

6 Robotic process automation examples for scaling businesses

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Scaling up your business requires selecting the right settings for your company’s digital workflows. Scaling depends on adapting quickly and synchronizing within a dynamic environment. However, if not planned well for the long term, you may, at some point, get overwhelmed, or lost, failing to achieve your business goals. By scaling, you want to stimulate sustainable growth as much as possible. Do you wish to scale your business easier? If the answer is yes, then this article is exactly for you.

Why use RPA for scaling your business?

The accelerating development of Robotic Process Automation has a huge potential to enable businesses to scale organically and sustainably. Each startup aims to reach the point where revenue is increasing without substantial growth in resources. As such, scaling comes as a result of the right planning and improved process workflows. However, the truth is that expansion contains risks.

 

Acquiring a bigger market share is essential, but it could also become a threat if it happens too fast at a given point. That is why organizations have to be prepared to avoid overloads and use technology to leverage risk. RPA is becoming widespread amongst scaling businesses because of the numerous opportunities for shifting rule-based mundane tasks from humans to digital workers. This opens up a growing room for team members to perform more creative activities, contributing to the company’s growth strategy.

In a previous article, we explained what the benefits of RPA are. However, in a nutshell, Robotic Process Automation is well-known for improving overall business efficiency across industries. It brings higher quality and consistency, saving time and money. It is also recognized as a powerful asset for increasing productivity among team members. This translates directly into scalable growth and higher profits for your company.

According to analyses performed by Deloitte, “only a tiny minority (3 percent) of progressive leaders have reached any form of scale with more than 50 robots in service. Organizations must make the right strategic choices—laying the right foundation to enable a “premium” digital workforce to support their drive for competitive advantage.” It is further suggested that “given the relative immaturity of the automation market, it is taking time for large organizations, in particular, to learn about and adopt RPA at scale.” This demonstrates the advantage startups have to make RPA a crucial part of their scale-up strategy as this would enable them to compete for market share with far larger but digitally immature organizations.

Top 6 RPA examples for scaling businesses:

We divided our list of RPA examples into six major sections based on the key business functions where software robots can help the most with the growth of your business. We hope this list will give you a useful overview of the practical applications of RPA to help you scale your business. Now let’s dive in.

You don’t have time to read the whole article right now? Download a free one-page infographic that summarizes the key details you need to know about RPA and its benefits and applications for scaling businesses. Download it here.

1. Customer Support & Client Onboarding

Common, yet, outstanding examples of RPA are the auto-responding to queries and auto-sending of notifications which are both essential for an effective customer support function. Nowadays, users require quick answers to their questions or instant help with problems that they face. A great part of these requests can be handled by RPA digital agents in a routine, standardized manner. This saves valuable resources for companies and improves customer satisfaction. For instance, Facebook has already automated most of its customer support. As a result, the human workload has substantially decreased, while customer satisfaction has gone up.

 

New client onboarding and new account openings are also processes easily handled by a robot. In addition, more and more often, a lot of scaling businesses delegate to software robots call center operations, including help desk services. In fact, RPA can take care of most of the common queries and repetitive issues. Robots effortlessly help agents by displaying a dashboard with suggested solutions and summarizing relevant information.

2. Accounting & Admin

Most administrative tasks like generating, preparing, and processing documents must be automated in each growing business today. For example, handling invoices is a fundamental task in accounting. It is also one of the most time-consuming processes that companies of all sizes have to tackle. The good news is that today digital workers can execute the entire process instead of humans, with zero interruptions and mistakes. 


Creating and delivering invoices, like most rule-based activities, can be automated by linking accounting and ERP systems. By extracting data from submitted receipts robots can even handle the expense management process and generate expense reports. Essentially, all the data entry and manual work involved can be done by robots to make processes automated, paperless, and efficient.

3. Finance Operations

If deployed strategically within the finance function, robots are able to perform not only simple individual tasks but even finance sub-functions such as procurement and tax compliance. Surveys show that one robot can be up to 30 times more productive than a full-time working human. The truth is that the evolution of RPA in finance has reached the stage of full automation. This means that the opportunities for a scalable finance function range from simple everyday processes, such as bank reconciliations, to complex operations such as financial analysis and forecasting.

Common RPA use cases within finance:

  • Transaction processing - approval, due diligence, and onboarding processes;
  • Payroll operations - including changes in records, attendance management, time entry validations, resignation, and deductions;
  • Bank statement reconciliation - extracting data from bank statements and comparing it to the company’s records;
  • Issuing refunds - prompt refunds to customers requesting refunds;

Some enterprises are going a step further by automating requests for approval and as a result, are reducing their processing time by 75%. Banks, for example, automate their commercial lending processes by completing standardized data forms, which help them to accelerate new account opening and new client onboarding.

4. Human Resource Operations

RPA has significant use cases for scaling the human resource function. Among the operations that a digital workforce can perform instead of humans are:
  • Candidate sourcing - pulling data from job search platforms, auto-reviewing applications, aggregating resumes, auto-scheduling meetings, taking notes from interviews;
  • Hiring - comparing candidate data, assessing results, preparing paperwork such as HR contracts and agreements;
  • Onboarding employees - ensuring compliance with Policy & Procedures by auto-sending relevant information like Welcome Materials, Company Guidelines, or Training Resources;

5. Sales Operations

One of the most fundamental challenges during the scaling phase is how to speed up the sales cycle with efficiency and precision. Speed is important but so is the accuracy of the pricing proposals, the sales contracts, the timely notifications, and follow-ups. These are all areas that require significant attention to detail in order to perform these routine administrative operations diligently and correctly. Software robots come in to support the sales process by handling numerous administrative tasks.

 

Common processes that should be automated within scaling businesses include:

  • Preparation and delivery of accurate sale quotes;
  • Checks of supplier portals to confirm availability and price;
  • Preparation and updates of pricing models based on a pre-configured logic;
  • Extraction of data from supplier portals and inserting it into pricing models;
  • Preparation of sales contracts;
  • Update of CRM systems;
  • Interaction with ERP systems;

6. Compliance & Data-Related Operations

Statistics show that implementing RPA improves compliance accuracy by 93%. In the dynamic business environment, compliance is vital for each scaling business. For example, a change in tax or regulatory conditions would require numerous validations of records.

 

Here’s a list of data-related RPA use cases ensuring better compliance for scaling businesses:

  • Check for completeness;
  • Data entry from files to ERP;
  • Read and process paper forms, and transfer them into digital forms;
  • Annual tax return preparation;
  • Filling in and submitting of compliance forms & returns;
  • Check validity of VAT numbers via API;
  • Copy and move data between systems;
  • Generation of reports;
  • Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks;

Download a free one-page infographic that summarizes the key details you need to know about RPA and its benefits and applications for scaling businesses. Download it here.

Conclusion

Technological advances have made intelligent automation possible across a wide spectrum of manual processes. Scaling companies should strategize on how to optimize operations to meet business and investor goals and stay on track. By implementing RPA, you can build scalable processes and optimize business resources to make sure budgets last longer and human capacity is invested in value-adding business functions.

However, when it comes to adopting RPA for scaling, insecurities still prevail in most companies. That is why RPA continues to be overlooked despite its fundamental benefits. So, it is crucially important that decision-makers continuously dedicate time to identifying processes within their business that could and should be automated to achieve a scalable future.

At Capto, we believe automation should be implemented gradually and strategically. Our team has automated many processes already and we’d happily suggest RPA solutions that are flexible and tailored to your company’s scale-up needs. If you are looking to scale your business, meet investor goals, and make your resources last longer, then have a chat with us. We are here to help you leverage automation to drastically save time & resources and grow with scalable processes.

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Sources & references:

 

1. Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/operations/articles/global-robotic-process-automation-report.html

2. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/marksettle/2020/10/20/the-proper-path-to-achieving–automation-at-scale/?sh=538509922a4a
3. Bernard Marr. https://bernardmarr.com/10-amazing-examples-of-robotic-process-automation-in-practice/
4. Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/en/finance/insights/robotics-in-finance
5. AI Multiple. https://research.aimultiple.com/robotic-process-automation-use-cases/

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Prepare Corporate Tax Return Appendices automatically

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If you’re working in compliance, then you’ll be quite familiar with the idea of Appendices and the painful process of preparing them. Companies of all sizes are still copying and pasting information into Appendix templates to produce these data summaries, often spending days and weeks to ensure every digit is correct. It’s time we stop this madness … 

The problem

“We have dozens of clients with hundreds of entities each that we prepare tax returns for. This means we’ve got an enormous number of appendices we need to prepare for each annual compliance process and the task is simply exhausting. We have put in place numerous levels of review to make sure all information is reported correctly. Unfortunately, this “peace of mind” takes us weeks to finalise.”

The Solution

A robot that takes your appendices templates and completes them with all information from the prior year’s Appendix and the current year’s trial balance as well as any other relevant data. It also reconciles the final Appendix with the Annual Accounts to ensure a correct disclosure.

How it works? ... in 6 Simple Steps

1. Robot asks you to provide the files containing all required data

To start the process all you need to do is provide the robot with the files that contain all data that needs to be transferred into the Appendix. This could be in any format and it could include, but is not limited to, prior year Appendix, current year trial balance, a working file with any adjustments put through in the year, a mapping file, final Annual Accounts, etc.

 

2. Robot extracts the required information

The robot picks up all required information from the various documents and stores the data, ready to be imported into the Appendix template in the next step of the process. 

 

3. Robot takes the Appendix template and imports the data

The robot imports all the information extracted from the various files and inserts it into the correct placeholders within the template, using a pre-configured logic. 

 

4. Robot updates the dates within the template

The robot uses the timestamp function to update all dates within the template. The reason for this is that in 2022, the return in preparation is 2021, and so on, so by using the timestamp the robot makes sure it captures the correct period.

 

5. Robot performs a reconciliation to the Annual Accounts

To complete the process the robot performs a health check to highlight any differences between the finalised Appendix and the Annual accounts, ready for you to investigate. 

6. Ready to save your Appendix

Finally, the robot pushes a message that informs you that its work is now done and gives you the option to save the Appendix to your preferred location. Job done!!


Why automate the preparation of your Appendices?

Reduce error

Focusing on a manual task for hours is tiring and boring so the scope for error is huge. A robot doesn't get tired and works with 100% accuracy to prepare all Appendices quickly & diligently.

Increase efficiency

A robot works without a break and it doesn't mind the work it needs to do so you can fully focus on the value-adding tasks whilst it handles all the admin.

Save time

A robot is able to prepare all Appendices in a fraction of the time and provides reconciliation with the Annual Accounts, so all you have to do is investigate the odds.

Ready to automate the way you prepare your Appendices?

Let's talk about the way you generate your Appendices and see how we can automate the process 🙂

Talk to us

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Automatically validate VAT numbers using VIES API

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Lawyers and accountants will have experienced firsthand the pain of manually validating every single VAT number in the EU VAT Information Exchange System (VIES). It sounds like a little step in a big process but if not performed diligently, it can cost businesses thousands or in some cases even millions of funds in irrecoverable VAT so it’s pretty important to get this right. 

The problem

“We have hundreds of VAT numbers that we need to verify weekly and checking every single number manually is not only very unexciting but it’s also hugely time-consuming. The biggest problem is that after a few dozens of checks, the attention to detail starts to escape and that increases the scope for errors and slows down the process even further.”

The Solution

A robot picks up all VAT numbers that need to be validated, performs a check against the VIES platform using an API, creates a report showing you exactly which VAT numbers were validated and which were not, and emails you the findings.

How it works? ... in 4 Simple Steps

1. Robot asks you to provide the file containing all VAT numbers

To start the process all you need to do is provide the robot with the file that contains all the VAT numbers you need to verify. This could be in any format and it could contain numerous columns. The robot will identify the column with the VAT numbers and will use only that information for the next steps.

 

2. Robot picks up the VAT numbers and performs a VIES check

The robot picks up all VAT numbers, and using an API connection, it checks if the VAT numbers can be found on the VIES database.

 

3. Robot prepares a PDF report with the results

After the check is complete, the robot calculates the % of VAT numbers that were successfully validated, the % of those that were not validated, and the % of those that had an invalid format. It presents this visually too in a little graph.

 

The robot also prepares an Excel table showing the status of each VAT number check, indicating that the number is one of the following: Validated, Not Validated, Invalid Format. 

 

That way, all you have to do is investigate the exceptions. 

4. Robot sends you an email with the results

To complete the process, the robot sends you all results directly via email so you don’t have to wonder when it’s finished. Job done!!

 

 

Why bother automate your VIES Check?

Save time

A robot is able to verify the VAT numbers in seconds and provide a clear analysis showing all VAT numbers that were successfully validated and those that failed, meaning all you have to do is investigate the exceptions.

Reduce error

Focusing on a manual task for hours is tiring and boring so the scope for error is huge. A robot doesn't get tired and works with 100% accuracy to validate all VAT numbers in a few seconds or minutes.

Smarter Operations

The robot works in the background so you can easily continue doing other value-adding work whilst the robot does the checking. That way you do the valuable job whilst the robot handles the admin.

Ready to automate your VIES check?

Let's talk about your VIES check process and see how we can automate it best 🙂

Talk to us

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