What does AI do in finance? Four use cases powered by a Financial Controller Agent

Finance and accounting departments face many expense management challenges, not least the time-consuming task of collecting, chasing, and deciphering documents across multiple platforms. But also, manual oversight, compliance risks, and cumbersome processes, all of which lead to chewed-up time on manual admin, employee stress, and drawn-out month-closings.

So, what's the alternative?

A rapid month-end close supported by automated data chasing & collection, real-time reconciliation, secure controls, visibility and more via an innovative enterprise expense management system like ours.

Say hello to our Financial Controller Agent

Put yourselves in the shoes of one of our customers across 32 countries. Now, imagine a friendly and intelligent assistant working alongside your human finance team members to enhance their work delivery and outcomes — but with exactly the same resources.

Our financial controller agent will do just that. It's the ultimate way to streamline expense document collection and analysis so you don't have to.

This agent directly integrates with your existing Payhawk system (meaning no new processes to learn), helping you shift from reactive manual processes to proactive and automated interactions with employees and providing tangible benefits in efficiency and accuracy.

How is it different from many other AI capabilities popping up out there? Our specialised approach contrasts with generic AI tools (which might introduce new vulnerabilities). By integrating AI features explicitly designed for finance workflows, we're keeping your data secure and your processes smooth from day one.

Four ways our intelligent Financial Controller Agent can support your finance team

So far, so good, but how does it look in practice, and what does this all mean for your organisation?

1. Cross-platform document chasing

Let’s say each expense claim takes 15-20 minutes: You have to chase both the receipts for each one and the supporting documents, such as travel itineraries or mileage logs. That’s a massive drain on admin resources, and we all agree that chasing documents is tedious.

It would be better if someone else could do the legwork so you could save time and focus on important decisions. Here’s where our Financial Controller Agent shines: Your employees receive a polite but timely reminder to submit their receipts or deal with a pending action for approving expenses via in-platform comments and Slack.

This AI agent support means your managers can say goodbye to chasing missing documents and wasting time on follow-ups for good.

2. Intelligent expense document analysis

Easy access to accurate financial insights means accurate business decisions. With the AI agent collecting and reviewing each expense entry line-by-line, you get accurate insights without lifting a finger.

The smart tech classifies each line item for compliance and analysis — and provides expense summaries directly in Slack or in-platform comments.

3. Spotting unusual spending patterns and ensuring compliance

Did you know that 57% of companies report low employee expense policy compliance?

The good news? Our Financial Controller Agent has anomaly detection built in, helping ensure invoice validity by confirming information like supplier payment details.

The software also flags unusually high amounts for suppliers and notes deviations from usual payment methods, e.g. paying via bank instead of card, adding an extra layer of security and risk prevention.

Without fraud detection and policy enforcement within your corporate finance processes, you risk shattering your bottom line. But here, the AI agent will flag missing details, detect out-of-policy transactions, and ensure compliance before submission — minimising risk.

4. Seamless integration with our enterprise-grade infrastructure

Our AI agent respects role-based access controls, which means all your existing Payhawk permissions, audit trails and workflow rules remain intact.

Critical and sensitive operations will always require human intervention, so humans remain in control, just with the AI doing the heavy lifting.

It's vital that AI adds value; that much is obvious, so we make sure it doesn't disrupt the finance team process. Instead, it seamlessly integrates into established workflow approval chains while ensuring complete transparency over every transaction.

The benefits of an integrated Financial Controller AI agent

The business impact is wide-reaching. Here are just five of the time-saving things our new agent does for you:

1. Reduces admin overheads: The AI agent transforms manual into automation, giving your finance teams more time to focus on big-picture decisions, like strategic finance, cash flow forecasting, and budget planning.
2. Gives you access to more accurate expense reporting: By streamlining & automating data collection and anomaly detection, your finance controllers can enjoy quicker (stress-free) month-end reconciliations and better, more accurate reporting.
3. Improves employee experience: The AI agent reduces friction throughout the expense submission process, enhancing your finance team’s overall experience with the software.
4. Reduces cost: Automating tasks like document collection means fewer human errors and more ways to save unnecessary costs in finance. Your finance team doesn’t have to spend time correcting small but important mistakes, making everyone more efficient and productive.
5. Enables process scalability: As your organisation grows and scales, processes become more cumbersome and more complex. Managing this without the help of artificial intelligence means more mistakes and admin resources and less efficiency and visibility. Let AI support you as you scale without adding more tools or complexity.

Reduce the operational burden

Enterprise finance teams can only run so fast when they’re weighed down by manual admin. To stay agile and scale efficiently, you need to shift gears. That’s where AI agents come in — not to replace humans, but to boost their impact.

With routine tasks like expense chasing and payment queries off your finance team’s plate, they can focus on what really matters: Strategy, insights, and driving the business forward.

Want to speed up month-end, cut admin time, and finally take “chasing receipts” off your to-do list? Book a personalised demo of our complete platform (and get a first look at our AI-powered agents) in action.