Power Automate: automation at the service of financial performance
In an economic environment where the speed of execution and the reliability of data are essential, financial departments must juggle a multitude of tasks with low added value and growing needs for analysis and management.
Power Automate, a process automation solution developed by Microsoft, is emerging as a strategic tool to meet these challenges (of course it is not the only tool on the market and we are used to using others that we will present to you soon in another article).
What is Power Automate?
Power Automate is a cloud platform that allows you to create automated flows to execute repetitive tasks, triggered by an event or at a given frequency. Without advanced development skills (low code/no code), it becomes possible to:
- Connect different applications and databases.
- Automate recurring treatments.
- Trigger actions in response to specific events (receiving an email, adding a file, modifying a record, etc.).
- Standardize and make business processes reliable.
It integrates naturally into the Microsoft ecosystem (Excel, Power BI, BI, SharePoint, SharePoint, Outlook, Teams...), but also with more than 1,000 third-party connectors, paving the way for cross-cutting automations throughout the company.
Why should a CFO be interested in it?
The finance function is without exception facing the multiplication of data and tools. Accounting, management control, cash flow, reporting teams still spend too much time collecting, sorting and transferring information instead of analyzing it.
With Power Automate, it becomes possible to save several hours per week, while improving data quality and reducing human errors.
Concrete use cases in Finance
Here are some examples that can be directly applied in a financial department and that we were able to set up at Apage:
1. Automated processing of supplier invoices
Problem: Each invoice received by email requires opening, downloading, storing in the correct file, entering it in the ERP, then should be transferred for internal validation.
Automation:
- Automatic detection of emails containing an invoice as an attachment.
- Save the attachment in a cloud folder (SharePoint, OneDrive).
- Automatic extraction of invoice data via IA Builder.
- Direct integration into the ERP and automatic dispatch to the person in charge of validation.
Benefits: 70% reduction in processing time, complete traceability, fewer input errors.
2. Automatic monitoring of cash flow indicators
Problem: Bank data is often extracted manually and formatted to update dashboards.
Automation:
- Secure connection to banking APIs.
- Daily collection of balances and movements.
- Direct feeding of an Excel file connected to Power BI for real-time reporting.
Benefits: Clear and up-to-date vision of cash flow, automatic alerts in case of critical thresholds reached.
3. Automated customer reminders
Problem: Manual reminders for unpaid invoices are time-consuming and sometimes forgotten.
Automation:
- Automatic detection of invoices that are due in the ERP.
- Generation and sending of a personalized reminder email with the invoice as an attachment.
- Automatic update of the follow-up of reminders in a shared table.
Benefits: Improvement of the DSO, systematic and personalized reminders, time savings for accounting teams.
4. Centralization of expense receipts
Problem: Expense reports come in various formats, and are often scattered.
Automation:
- Creation of an online form (Microsoft Forms) for submitting supporting documents.
- Automatic storage in a structured file per employee and per month.
- Automatic accounting notification for processing.
Benefits: A clear, centralized process with no loss of information.
Conclusion
The adoption of Power Automate within a financial department is much more than a time saver: it is a strategic lever to make data reliable, standardize processes and refocus teams on analysis and decision-making.
At Apage, we support our customers in identifying the processes to be automated, their implementation, and their integration with existing tools, to make finance a performance driver and not only a cost center.