CASE STUDY
CASE STUDY
MHA
MHA is an independent accounting firm with 22 offices and 2,000 people across the UK. Specialising in audits, tax and advisory services, it’s a member of Baker Tilly International, the global network of accountants.
Alongside providing incredibly valuable consultancy, accountants perform a huge amount of admin. Tax returns, payroll, governance, and reporting fill the days of many highly skilled people, who undertake vital, yet repetitive tasks.
With accountants ensuring administrative duties are completed to a high standard, their focus is often drawn away from client counsel. So, there was a clear opportunity for automation which Gary Lee, CIO and Partner at MHA, spotted when he joined the business in 2018.
“I’d been exploring the technology in my previous role and saw how it could benefit a professional service setting,” he says. “However, back then it seemed better suited to large businesses where a few well-placed automations working at scale could make substantial savings. It felt like a gamble for a company of our size and type, so we were reluctant to commit.”
Unlocking the opportunity
This sentiment changed when Gary met UK-based UiPath partner, FD Intelligence. This award-winning intelligent automation specialist excels in designing and delivering projects for all sizes of accountancy and hospitality firms. “They initially helped us with a data extraction challenge, proving their worth and showing they really understood the accounting sector.”
This led to a discussion about the possibilities for intelligent automation, which prompted Gary to act. “We explained where we thought it could be used and FD Intelligence responded with some ideas,” he adds. This led to the game-changing concept of building a personal tax robot.
Intelligent automation of personal tax returns
MHA completes around 15,000 personal tax returns every year. “FD Intelligence was creating a robot uniquely capable of automating this process – faster, 24X7 without errors, while allowing accountants to focus on customers. We were keen to get involved along with two other firms,” Gary recalls.
Personal tax returns all require similar information from clients. Once received, the accountant must add the data into the return before it’s added to a system. Most of it is standard and repetitive. “Intelligent automation used optical character recognition – a type of AI – that understands text sent to us by customers, then extracts the data and adds it to the return. This is what makes it intelligent,” Gary explains.
What’s particularly impressive about the robot is that it deals with unstructured information. “Most of the time, the robot is taking details from standardised tax forms a customer might get from their employer. But thanks to AI, it can also understand an email. It gets context, pulling out data that a human would normally need to decipher.”
The result is the accountant receives a tax return that’s 90 percent complete, leaving them to validate it and undertake the last leg.
“In our first year, the robot worked better than expected, completing 5,000 tax returns on time, with incredible accuracy. We’d aimed to save at least an hour of time for each tax return. In fact, we saved up to three hours,” Gary enthuses. “When we roll out the robot to all offices, it’s expected to save 45,000 hours of work each year.”
The business now has four robots, delivering tax and audit intelligent automations, which generates huge value for the business. Another robot supports the Corporate Tax team. Gary explains. “When we complete tax work for business clients, we present them with a detailed report highlighting the value of the engagement. This includes lots of data and graphics to illustrate the tax position, which had to be found and added manually. Now a robot does it, so our people focus on interpretation and client services.”
“In our first year, the robot worked better than expected, completing 5,000 tax returns on time, with incredible accuracy. We’d aimed to save at least an hour of time for each tax return. In fact, we saved up to three hours,” Gary enthuses. “When we roll out the robot to all offices, it’s expected to save 45,000 hours of work each year.”
Gary Lee, CIO and Partner at MHA
