Chatbot

A chatbot is a feature of modern software that serves as a virtual assistant designed to simulate conversations with human users through text or voice interactions. Within AB Report, the chatbot takes on the role of a virtual accountant, controller and CFO to assist business users, accountants and management. The intelligent virtual assistant uses natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) to understand user queries and provide timely and relevant responses.

The AB Report chatbot is finely tuned to perform a wide range of tasks, from efficient information retrieval and business intelligence to active support in day-to-day business operations.

Chatbot for Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence (BI) is the process of transforming raw data into actionable insights that can drive business decisions. While traditional BI tools often require technical expertise, AB Report's chatbot simplifies the BI process and makes it accessible to a wider audience.

Traditional BI: predefined templates and reports

At the heart of BI lies the ability to query data sources directly and retrieve meaningful information. However, this level of flexibility can be challenging for business users without extensive technical knowledge. To bridge this gap, BI platforms (including AB Report) use predefined and customizable templates and reports, limiting the ability to ask specific questions and gain tailored insights. In addition, customizing reports to meet specific needs often requires additional consulting fees.

The chatbot: a direct path to meaningful insights

The chatbot overcomes traditional BI limitations and provides a direct route to meaningful insights. Its natural language interface eliminates the need for specialised knowledge, enabling users to ask complex questions, drill down to specific data points, identify trends and gain a deeper understanding of their business performance.

Business terminology, not accounting language

Accounting is a regulated field, and financial information is stored in information systems using accounting terms. This can make it difficult for business users who are not immersed in the financial world. The AB Report chatbot offers a solution by allowing users to interact with business language. Instead of struggling with accounting terms such as "accounts receivable", users can ask questions in a conversational way, such as "who owes us money?".

Chatbot for data entry

AB Report offers convenient data entry through forms. However, the chatbot is proving to be a game changer, streamlining and simplifying the process in many cases. For example, instead of filling out a form to record a cash payment, users can simply dictate information about the payment amount and recipient to the chatbot. This can even be done on the move using a mobile phone.

The chatbot can simplify data entry for untrained employees by providing a conversational interface that guides them step-by-step through the process. For example, a chatbot can walk an employee through creating an invoice by asking questions about the customer, products and quantities.

Chatbot for accountants

AB Report is a solution meticulously designed to free accountants from the clutches of routine, repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on higher-level functions and provide value-added services to businesses. At the forefront of this innovation is the chatbot.

The AB Report chatbot is adept at retrieving information and inputting data seamlessly through both text and voice interactions, ensuring accessibility for both management and staff. No longer will accountants be besieged by queries such as "How much money is in my bank account?" or even "What is our tax liability and when is it due?". The chatbot empowers users to retrieve such information independently, freeing up valuable time for accountants to focus on higher-level responsibilities.

With AB Report, business users take responsibility for entering source documents to the best of their ability, while AB Report orchestrates the automated accounting processes. The accountant's role becomes one of oversight and control, ensuring the accuracy and integrity of business user input and automated processes.

The chatbot is specially trained to answer the question: "So, how's the accounting going?" It meticulously analyses registered documents, assesses the accuracy of accounting entries, ensures consistency between actual and budgeted transactions, verifies the completeness of contract information, checks the classification of business partners and products, validates VAT information, identifies issues, suggests solutions and works with the accountant to resolve problems - all through an informative dialogue.

The subsequent steps, including closing periods, generating financial statements and distributing them, can be done either through a traditional interface or by issuing commands to the chatbot.

It's important to note that while the AB Report chatbot enables a high level of automation, it's not intended to replace the accountant entirely. The nuances of accounting require a skilled human touch.

Chatbot requests samples (not a complete list)

• Information Retrieval

  • Who owes us money?
  • How much money is in my bank account?
  • Can you provide a statement of bank account for the last month?
  • What is the average age of our inventory?
  • What is our average sales per customer?
  • What is the current stock price of [Product Name]?
  • How much did we spend on marketing last month?
  • Ok, group this information by business partner
  • Get the numbers for this month and last month
  • Detail the row 3
  • Email this information to me

• Data entry

  • Create an invoice
  • Record payment of [100 EUR] to [Company Name] in cash
  • Do I need to sign any documents?

• Financial Monitoring

  • Are there any overdue invoices or outstanding payments?
  • Have there been any unexpected fluctuations in expenses or revenue?
  • Are there any anomalies in the financial statements?

• Workflow Tracking

  • Is there any order that has been stuck in processing for an unusually long time?
  • Have there been any delays in the order fulfillment process?
  • Have there been deviations from the standard workflow?

• Performance Against Plans

  • How is our performance tracking against the budget for this quarter?
  • Have we deviated from the sales forecast?
  • Have there been any resource overruns in ongoing projects?

• Accounting

  • Are there any unrecorded expenses or revenues that should be recognized?
  • Are there any accounting issues that need attention?
  • Close period

• Security and Data Breach Detection

  • Have there been any security breaches or unauthorized access attempts?
  • Are there any unusual patterns of data access that might indicate a potential breach?

Of course, you don't need to be so verbose - chatbot will understand you with any phrases and will adjust to your terminology.

Conversation Sharing

You can share chatbot conversations by sending the conversation link to colleagues.

In version 1.4, the chatbot is in preview.

Next: Financial statements