The value of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the lives of companies is still somewhat overshadowed by the excessive growth of this technology. So a big misunderstanding is that people think it’s an intangible program or software that’s hard to understand, when in fact AI itself is a tool aimed at understanding and compliance.
Taking into account that, regardless of size or segment, companies today, if they want to stay active in the market, must continuously sift through large amounts of data to decode insights for strategic decision making, AI maximizes the time and money invested , thus boosting business efficiency and positive results.
If Lojas Americanas had thought like that, they would not have let the snowball reach the hole of R$ 42.5 billion in debts not recorded in their balance sheets, with the right to 9,713 creditors, including banks, employees, service providers and suppliers, the which were treated as “accounting inconsistencies” and were exposed to the market on January 11, resulting in a true frenzy among customers, financial institutions and financial market agents.
For comparison purposes, on that same date, the famous 3G Group company had a market value of R$14 billion.
Who best explains this situation is the CEO of ROIT, Lucas Ribeiro. “What happened at Lojas Americanas was an excess of ‘accounting creativity’, that is: they chose to account for operations in an unorthodox or even criminal way. To give you an idea, so far no one has been able to explain the source of the shortcoming and how the advances with suppliers entered the balance sheet inappropriately, or if these values were no longer included”, he says.
The accounting structure in which Americanas’ shortcoming is inserted is the “withdrawal risk”, also known as “forfait”, which corresponds to the fact that, when a supplier needs to anticipate receipt, who pays this supplier is the financial institution.
In the case of the retailer, in the way it occurred, the operation was configured as a loan and, therefore, a bank debt between the company and the bank. The problem, then, is not in the type of operation, on the contrary, there is a certain relevance in practicing the risk drawn, considering that obtaining credit is usually a major obstacle in Brazil, and the modality, in Lucas’ opinion, is extraordinary for a business to improve its cash flow.
Today, among the processes that can be effectively automated are:
- Correction of inconsistencies in advance;
- Receipt and automatic launch of Electronic Invoice (NF-e);
- Invoices for Services Taken (NFS-e), invoices and several other types of incoming documents, which generate payments, calculation and collection of taxes;
- Checking the CNPJ of the customer/supplier, among others.
The rewards for those who adopt Artificial Intelligence are total efficiency and compliance in finance and accounting operations, areas that can even be considered the vital organs of a business, producing positive effects for all departments.
In addition, AI reduces operating costs and guarantees the so-called “touchless document”, that is, documents that do not suffer human intervention.
The lack of an accounting process entirely based on AI could lead to the extinction of Lojas Americanas, with debts of approximately R$ 42 billion, a number that corresponds to the sum of the gap plus the company’s gross debt.
Source: Roit/Communication Engineering