Check Void Processing

The Accounting Department for a Major Global Law Firm is responsible for stacks of unused checks that need to be voided in an internal accounting system. This process involves looking up each check in an internal folder that is updated every day to capture the status of each check, whether it be outstanding or unpaid, and then voiding the check and invoice in the accounting system. This process is a year-round task that fluctuates in volume and on average requires the finance team to void tens of thousands of checks monthly. This highly manual task was one that our Business Analysts ruled as an ideal candidate for automation. In order to automate this process in it’s entirety, a data feed from the Law Firm’s bank was used to look up the check status, which would later be used to determine whether or not the check needed to be voided by the bot.

• Bot Uses OCR Data: Optical Character Recognition is used to scan checks and gather relevant information like amount, vendor name, check number, etc.
• Bot Determines Check Status: The Bot logs into the Law Firm’s Bank feed and determines the check status, whether it be outstanding, unpaid, or unused.
• Bot Logs the Data: The information gathered via OCR is entered into a CSV file to note the account number, names the file accordingly, and saves the file in the specified check storing location.
• Bot Matches Check Numbers: The Bot searches for a bank feed account number that matches one of the CSV file names created in the last step. If the number matches a CSV file name, the file is opened. If the CSV file name does not match that file is not processed at all
• Bot Fills Out Information: Once a match between the check number and the bank feed file is found and the matching dates are verified, the bot enters the check number, check date, and check amount from the CSV file into the system along with the corresponding invoice and vendor number
• Bot Cancels Checks: Bot voids all the checks in the CSV file that are matches. If the date on a check does not match, the bot labels that check as “not found”
• Bot Creates Report: The bot compiles all the information from the process into an excel report to send to accounting department
• Bot Aids in Data Sensitivity: Bot moves the output excel file to a remote folder that only the financial department has access to
• Bot Sends Location: Bot emails the accounting department the secure location information to inform the necessary accountants of where the file was secured, ensuring only they have access to and know the whereabouts of the file

*The higher the number of Critical Process Steps and If-Else Controls, the more places for error when completed by human employees. Automation eliminates all errors in the original process, executing it flawlessly with every run.