Every company has one. A report that takes somebody two or three days at the start of each month: download from this system, export from that one, match the rows, fix the mismatches, paste into the template. It is tedious and error-prone, and it depends on one person.
Which reports are worth automating
- The same steps are followed every time.
- The data comes from systems that offer an export or an interface.
- The matching follows rules a person could write down.
- Mistakes are costly, or the report is always late.
How the automation works
A small program runs on a schedule. It collects the data from each system, matches the records by the same rules a person uses, and produces the report in the format the team already works from. It needs no server of its own. When a record does not match, it is listed for a person to look at.
What makes it reliable
- It retries. Outside systems are sometimes unavailable, and the job should try again before it gives up.
- It tells someone when it fails. A report that silently does not arrive is worse than a manual one.
- It keeps the source files, so any figure can be traced back.
- It is tested against past months where the correct answer is already known.
What it changes
Finance teams we have done this for now receive the report ready to review. Their time goes on the exceptions, which is where judgment is needed. Because the process is written as code, it no longer leaves the building when an employee does.
Related service: Programming & API integrations.