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
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 🙂
