Future Finance Team

This autonomous finance workflow integrates Accounts Payable (AP), General Ledger (GL), and Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) to eliminate manual data entry and accelerate strategic reporting. Invoices are processed autonomously, books are auto-categorized, and all financial and operational data is consolidated for AI-driven forecasting and detailed scenario planning.

Step 1: Autonomous Invoice Processing (Vic.ai)

Route all vendor invoices to Vic.ai. The AI extracts key data, predicts the GL coding based on historical patterns, and sends it for approval. It learns your GL codes over time, eventually handling 90%+ of invoices without human touch. For mid-market companies, Airbase AI can manage the full procure-to-pay lifecycle, including corporate cards, expense reports, and touchless AP. - Action: Forward vendor emails or upload files to your Vic.ai dedicated inbox for autonomous coding and approval. - Benefit: Eliminates manual data entry, minimizes human error, and drastically reduces AP processing costs and time.

Step 2: Automated Bookkeeping and Exception Handling (Botkeeper)

For your client write-ups or subsidiary books, connect Botkeeper. It pulls bank feeds and categorizes transactions daily, using the clean, coded AP data from Vic.ai. Your accounting team only logs in to handle the few exceptions or questions that the AI couldn't resolve, ensuring real-time clean books for the entire organization. - Action: Review Botkeeper's 'Questions' tab weekly for any uncategorized transactions or data anomalies. - Benefit: One accountant can manage a significantly higher volume of clients/entities with reliable, always-current books, enabling a faster monthly close.

Step 3: Data Consolidation & Operational Context (Rows & Datarails)

Use Rows (the AI-powered spreadsheet) to pull in non-financial operational data from APIs (e.g., CRM, marketing tools) and Datarails (or Causal for enhanced scenario modeling) to consolidate all financial actuals from the ERP, Botkeeper, and Vic.ai into an Excel-native environment. Datarails acts as the single source of truth for planning and reporting. - Action: Use Rows' native integrations to pull real-time SaaS/API data for operational metrics (e.g., Customer Acquisition Cost, Lifetime Value) into your Datarails models. - Benefit: Merges financial actuals with key operational drivers to give a complete, holistic view of business performance for FP&A.

Step 4: AI-Driven Predictive Forecasting & Modeling (Akkio & Planful Predict)

Feed the consolidated actuals and operational data from Datarails/Rows into Akkio. The no-code AI platform instantly builds and deploys predictive models for key metrics like revenue, demand, or commodity prices. Alternatively, leverage Planful Predict's natively integrated AI engine for anomaly detection and intelligent forecast recommendations directly within the FP&A platform. - Action: Run the time-series forecasting model in Akkio before starting the monthly budgeting/forecasting cycle or leverage Planful Predict to instantly flag data errors. - Benefit: Supercharges forecast accuracy and speed, moving beyond simple trend-based models to sophisticated machine learning predictions.

Step 5: Executive Reporting & Analysis (Datarails)

Use Datarails' Excel plugin to build and refresh executive dashboards, variance reports, and board packages instantly from the consolidated data, incorporating the new AI-generated forecasts from Akkio. Utilize the analysis to drive strategic discussions rather than just data collection. - Action: Click "Refresh" in your Datarails Excel plugin to finalize and distribute the monthly board package in minutes. - Benefit: Complex, automated financial models and reports that are always up to date, enabling the finance team to focus purely on strategic analysis and decision-making.