Finance & Reporting
Expense report processing and policy compliance
Automatically review expense submissions against company policy. Flag non-compliant items, duplicate claims, and unusual patterns. Approve straightforward claims without manual review.
50–70%
reduction in expense processing time
Opportunity assessment
Negligible commercial impact. Saves time at the margins but won't move the needle on revenue or profit.
Relatively straightforward. Off-the-shelf tools handle the core task. Implementation is well-understood with good examples to follow.
Light data requirements. Uses straightforward inputs — documents, product descriptions, customer records — that are usually accessible with minimal prep.
Moderate risk. Some customer or external exposure. Errors create rework or reputational impact but are recoverable.
Light people impact. A new tool slots into an existing workflow. Minimal training needed. Most people will adapt quickly.
Tooling required
Things to consider
Expense policies need to be unambiguous and machine-readable. Vague rules like 'reasonable dining expenses' need to be translated into specific thresholds.
OCR receipt reading is mature but not perfect — handwritten receipts, faded thermal prints, and foreign-language receipts still need manual review.
The deterrent effect of automated checking is as valuable as the direct detection — knowing every claim is automatically scrutinised changes submission behaviour.
Experiment starter: Run your last 500 expense claims through automated policy checking. Compare the flags against what your finance team caught manually. If the automation catches the same issues plus additional ones, pilot auto-approval for compliant claims.
Go deeper in the playbook
Section — Opportunity Identification, including the AI Opportunity Assessment ScorecardSection — The Tooling LandscapeThis is an automation opportunity — see the relevant playbook section for how to approach it.More in Finance & Reporting
Period-end commentary drafting
Convert financial data into narrative commentary for management accounts. Finance team reviews and adjusts. Eliminates the blank-page problem at month end.
Invoice exception identification
Flag invoices with missing PO references, duplicate submissions, price variances, or unusual payment terms before they reach approval.
Contract data extraction
Extract key commercial terms from supplier and customer contracts — payment terms, renewal dates, liability caps, exclusivity clauses — into structured records.
AI Transformation Playbook
Ready to assess your own opportunities?
The playbook gives you the full 150-opportunity directory, scoring tools, and 100+ templates for every stage of an AI transformation programme.