Automation of the bad debt relief process

About the client

One of our strategic partners, who has been automating with the G1ANT solution for years, noticed that one of their subsidiaries had a problem with unpaid invoices. The logistics company mentioned above provides many transportation services every month, which also involved many invoices and documents.

Motivation to implement RPA solution:

Every business owner has been in a situation where a customer has not paid the bill for a purchase or service rendered. This is a doubly painful loss because the business must pay taxes in addition to the costs incurred. Because bad debt costs reduce the value of receivables on a company’s income statement, bad debt affects financial projections and cash flow.

Fortunately, many countries have so-called “bad debt allowances” in their tax laws. The specific criteria and conditions vary from country to country, but tax authorities generally allow companies to recover output tax already paid on bad debts. However, this always requires filling out numerous documents and meeting deadlines, one by one. Often the time involved in the reimbursement process deters potential beneficiaries.

The audit covered activities:

The application processing time is approximately one hour. However, to start the process of applying for debt relief, you must first verify the debtor’s status (whether he is an active VAT payer), the time elapsed since the payment deadline and the fact that the debt has not been sold, and collect the necessary documents. Therefore, the entire process may take up to several hours for each unpaid invoice.

In the month before the introduction, 87 bills were eligible for reimbursement. Even assuming one hour to prepare the documents, that comes to almost 11 days of full-time work for one employee.

Our partner offered the customer a billing option that is only available with the G1ANT solution – “Pay As You Robot”. With this payment model, users only pay for the robot’s working time. This has proven to be incredibly beneficial for this process.

In the automation phase our partner:

• developed an automation methodology using the “Record” function of the G1ANT system,
• measured the parameters of the solution following the specific needs of the client and adjusted the robot’s settings to the standard document flow in the company,
• prepared training for the company’s employees who ensured the correctness of the process,
• made improvements based on customer feedback.

Description of the work performed by a robot

The G1ANT robot was started once a month to collect all necessary documents and prepare pre-filled forms. The whole procedure took the robot about one hour. Then prepare a report containing a list of deadlines that must be met to obtain a tax refund and send it to the designated employee.

The robot also monitored incoming mail with signatures on documents and created a collective document for the accounting department. The role of staff is to work with the reports generated by the robot and complete documentation in exceptional cases.

Results:

In addition to saving time, the most significant benefit of automating the process was that the robot closely monitored application deadlines, resulting in a higher overall return on investment. In addition, the robot, set up based on the rules, independently searched for invoices that were eligible for the write-off of bad debts. This significantly reduced the losses incurred due to debts. In the first month after implementing the automation, almost PLN 30,000 (USD 7,500) was recovered.

Entrusting the robot with repetitive, monotonous, but meticulous work significantly improved money flow in the client’s company.

Choosing the right partner to implement RPA solutions in your business not only gives you peace of mind that all processes will run properly. It’s also a lot of inspiration that can help you save both your employees’ time and money.