Prototyping and implementing robotic process automation in accounting firms: Benefits, challenges and opportunities to audit automation.

The paper has significant relevancy to industry as it discusses the potential for robotic process automation (RPA) to improve the efficiency and accuracy of audit tasks. We propose and implement RPA-enabled solutions to make various procedures more efficient and effective. We present four practical business process scenarios and the prototyped RPA solutions. In each scenario, we explain our automation strategies and the duration of development. We also describe the implementation benefits and challenges, as well as analyze how we have helped the accounting firms automate their real-world audit tasks by providing the as-is and to-be Business Process Model and Notation that one can extend for future RPA development. Finally, we discuss the future challenges and opportunities regarding the broader implementation of RPA in accounting and audit tasks.