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Let's be honest: while ERPs are great at keeping our financial data organized, they can sometimes feel like doing things 'the way they've always been done.' AI agents are making big splashes across different industries, acting as your tech-savvy financial sidekick that not only handles the mundane but also learns and adapts to your existing workflow to make your life easier.
Here are 10 examples of how AI agents are 'leveling up' tasks that traditional ERPs just weren't built to handle:
Chart of Accounts Mapping: From Manual Marathon to Smart
🚙 OG Way (ERP): Spending hours manually mapping subsidiary accounts to parent accounts feels like a never-ending quest. Whenever an upstream data source changes or a subsidiary updates its tags, the workflow breaks. Constant checking and reviewing are absolutely necessary.
🚄 AI Agent Way: Simply connect your systems and watch as AI learns and suggests mappings based on account patterns and names. It's like having a super-smart assistant who actually remembers how you like things organized. Whenever the dataset changes, AI agents automatically flag it, so you don’t have to play detective late at night to find that strange discrepancy.
Why It Matters: Save countless hours, reduce errors, and improve data accuracy in chart of accounts mapping.
Speaking Human: From Robot Rules to Natural Conversation
🚙 OG Way (ERP): Navigating complex menus and technical settings to implement new accounting policies. ERP automation is often rule-based and typically requires collaboration between both the data and engineering teams to implement new sets of rules. As a result, any workflow changes or discrepancies take time to evaluate, review, and implement.
🚄 AI Agent Way: No code and no engineering required. All datasets connect directly to your existing accounting systems. Whenever there is a workflow change or a modification in data setup, simply explain what you need in plain English: "Hey, we need to update our revenue recognition for our new subscription model." The AI understands and creates the workflow.
Why It Matters: No more translating business needs into technical rules - let AI handle that heavy lifting and set up your new workflows easily.
Variance Analysis: From Number Crunching to Story Telling
🚙 OG Way (ERP): Staring at spreadsheets, manually comparing numbers, and writing explanations for every significant change. The most time-consuming part? Moving from spreadsheet to spreadsheet to find those changes.
🚄 AI Agent Way: Automatic analysis of every transaction, generating clear explanations of what drove changes: "Revenue increased 15% due to the new product launch and three major enterprise deals." The best part - it’s generated automatically, and you can ask for a more specific report in English—like, “Provide a P&L report comparing this period with the previous period.”
Why It Matters: Get insights faster and spend more time acting on them rather than searching for them.
Error Detection: From Reactive to Proactive
🚙 OG Way (ERP): Finding errors only after they've triggered preset rules—often too late. We've all been there: it's the final stretch of a month-end close, but the numbers just won’t add up. Now, it’s going to take a few more days of work to investigate and comb through all the spreadsheets to see what changed. This often causes significant delays, and the team sometimes leaves unreconciled numbers until later just to meet the deadline.
🚄 AI Agent Way: Continuously learns from your data patterns to flag unusual activities before they become problems. Continuous close or real-time data is no longer just a dream. AI agents integrate into your workflow, understand and apply accounting principles to datasets, and process data without constant supervision. All discrepancies and unusual activities are immediately flagged, with suggested adjustment journal entries and action items.
Why It Matters: Catch issues early, maintain cleaner books, and spend less time on cleanup.
Multi-System Reconciliation: From Puzzle to Picture
🚙 OG Way (ERP): Manually comparing data across systems, often involving multiple spreadsheets and countless coffee breaks. Most companies use more than one software system to manage their financial records—from inventory software to accounting systems. Sometimes, different subsidiaries use multiple accounting systems. To reconcile and consolidate all transactions, you end up with 100 tabs in the same spreadsheet, and with multiple spreadsheet versions. This doesn’t even take into account intercompany transactions or currency exchanges. This complex setup makes reconciliation and consolidation both time-consuming and error-prone.
🚄 AI Agent Way: With direct integration across all systems, AI agents can automatically clean, match, reconcile, and consolidate data, including handling different formats, currencies, and timing differences with ease. For example, Nominal works with multi-entity organizations that use different ERP systems for each subsidiary, with varying currencies and upstream data sources. Nominal’s consolidation AI agent transforms all unstructured datasets into structured datasets. Then, it connects, matches, and consolidates all transactions—taking into account intercompany transactions and currency exchanges. With the click of a button, you get fully customizable financial reports at your fingertips.
Why It Matters: Reconciliations and consolidations that used to take days now take hours or minutes.
Intercompany Magic: From Missing Pieces to Complete Picture
🚙 OG Way (ERP): Hoping all intercompany transactions are properly tagged and matched. It takes hours—sometimes days—of investigation to find discrepancies caused by mistagged transactions or process changes.
🚄 AI Agent Way: Smart detection of potential intercompany activities, even when they're not explicitly marked. AI agents learn data patterns and suggest journal entries for intercompany eliminations. For example, at Nominal, with a predetermined organizational hierarchy, even transactions that were never tagged can be identified by our AI agent, which then determines and suggests appropriate journal entries to eliminate intercompany transactions independently.
Why It Matters: More accurate consolidations and less time hunting down mismatched transactions.
Document Processing: From Data Entry to Intelligence
🚙 OG Way (ERP): Basic Optical Character Recognition (OCR) automates data extraction from invoices, receipts, and bills, but it is often inaccurate and still requires significant manual review and entry. Finance and accounting teams often need to compile the data and manually feed it into accounting systems after processing.
🚄 AI Agent Way: AI agents act as personal assistants that analyze and understand the full context of documents, extracting relevant data and even flagging potential discrepancies. Simply upload PDFs or documents, and the AI will automatically extract relevant data and connect it directly to your accounting system.
Why It Matters: Less manual data entry, fewer errors, and more time for analysis.
Business Context: From Numbers to Knowledge
🚙 OG Way (ERP): Generating basic variance reports that still require human interpretation. Even after variance reports are generated, the FP&A team must connect the dots to understand what drove the changes and how they will impact the business.
🚄 AI Agent Way: Because AI agents can understand and learn business logic, they can generate comprehensive explanations that connect financial changes to business events: "Marketing expenses increased due to the Q4 campaign launch." For example, Nominal’s executive analysis provides quick snapshots of business insights in real-time, allowing the team to focus on which initiatives to work on next.
Why It Matters: Better insights for stakeholders and less time explaining basic changes.
Close Management: From Static to Strategic
🚙 OG Way (ERP): Following the same close checklist every month, regardless of changing circumstances. Some ERPs offer team collaboration, but most teams still operate outside these systems and rely on Excel spreadsheets. Any changes in data or processes cause significant delays—not to mention the frustration when the numbers don’t line up at the end of the month.
🚄 AI Agent Way: Many new accounting solutions now offer robust close management features—powered by AI, of course. You can assign tasks to team members, review journal entries, and more. AI agents learn from past closes to predict bottlenecks and suggest process improvements.
Why It Matters: Smoother, faster closes with fewer surprises.
Workflow Adaptation: From Fixed to Flexible
🚙 OG Way (ERP): Rigid workflows that require IT intervention to change. We all know that whenever there is a process or data change, an external consultant or the IT team must be involved to update the accounting system. Whether acquiring a new company or making changes to source data, the team must plan weeks or even months of integration before it can be fully deployed.
🚄 AI Agent Way: With AI-powered accounting solutions, no coding or engineering work is needed. All upstream data is connected directly, and AI agents transform unstructured data into structured data automatically. Your accounting workflows become a dynamic process that learns and adapts based on your team's patterns and needs.
Why It Matters: More efficient processes that evolve and scale with your business.
Why Make the Switch?
Think of it this way: your ERP is like a reliable car that gets you from A to B. Adding AI agents is like upgrading to a self-driving vehicle that not only handles the journey but also suggests better routes, anticipates traffic, and even reminds you when you're running low on gas or coffee.
You don't have to replace your ERP—AI agents work alongside your existing systems, mirror your GL, enhance rather than replacing them. It’s about working smarter, not harder, and finally having time to focus on the strategic work that truly matters.
Ready to give your accounting processes a serious upgrade? Let’s talk about how AI agents can transform your financial operations from mundane to magnificent. Your future self (and your team) will thank you!
Want to see these AI agents in action? Reach out to our team for a quick product tour and watch your consolidation and month-end close transform from a marathon into a sprint.
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