How Real-Time SAP Integration with Aico Outperforms File-Based Integration

In today’s dynamic financial landscape, having access to current, accurate financial data is more vital than ever. For finance leaders using SAP, real-time integration ensures that the data being worked on is always up-to-date, enabling better decision-making and improved compliance. While this blog focuses on SAP, as the largest and most widely used ERP system globally, the benefits of real-time integration apply universally across all ERP platforms. Regardless of the system in use, real-time integration offers clear advantages in speed, data accuracy and process efficiency over traditional file-based methods.

Aico’s real-time SAP integration ensures that data remains current, improving accuracy, enhancing compliance and enabling faster, more strategic decision-making.

For roles such as CFOs, Finance Transformation Leads, R2R Process Owners and Heads of Digital Transformation, real-time data is essential for driving strategic initiatives, ensuring compliance and enabling accurate financial reporting.

When it comes to posting journal entries in SAP, the integration method directly impacts data accuracy, process efficiency and strategic agility.

While traditional file-based integration methods are still prevalent, they come with limitations that can slow financial processes and introduce unnecessary risks. In contrast, Aico’s real-time SAP integration ensures that financial data is always current, empowering finance teams to make informed decisions more quickly and effectively – raising the bar where many competitors fall short.

1. Timeliness and Efficiency

• Real-time SAP integration ensures that journal entries are validated before approval and reflected in SAP as soon as they are posted, keeping financial data consistently up-to-date.

• File-based methods rely on batch uploads, often revealing validation issues too late, causing delays and leaving decision-makers with outdated data. Even systems offering frequent updates – every 30 minutes, for example – cannot match the immediacy of Aico’s live integration.

2. Reduced Manual Intervention

• Real-time integration ensures the data in SAP is the most recent transactions, enabling users to work with the latest information.

• File-based methods introduce delays as they require manual uploads that can slow access to the most current data. Aico’s real-time integration’s core benefit is ensuring data accuracy in the moment.

3. Enhanced Data Accuracy and Validation

• With Aico’s real-time SAP integration, entries are validated before posting, catching issues immediately for more accurate financial data.

• File-based integration detects errors post-upload, complicating reconciliations and delaying reporting. Competitors relying on periodic data refreshes cannot provide the immediate validation Aico delivers.

4. Strengthened Auditability and Compliance

• Aico automatically links related journal entries within the Aico platform, providing a real-time audit trail that supports internal controls and regulatory compliance, which is especially valuable for Finance Transformation Leads and Heads of Financial Accounting.

• File-based processes often complicate audit trails due to manual interventions and delayed postings, leaving gaps in compliance documentation.

5. Streamlined Workflow and User Experience

• Real-time SAP integration enables seamless journal entry workflows, from creation to posting, eliminating unnecessary file handling.

• File-based methods introduce additional steps that slow down financial operations and increase bottlenecks.

6. Proactive Exception Handling

• With Aico, errors are detected and flagged immediately in real time, allowing for swift corrections and reducing the risk of delays.

• File-based uploads often highlight errors only after processing, leading to time-consuming rework. Aico’s proactive detection supports a smoother reconciliation process, addressing discrepancies before they escalate.

7. Scalability for Growing Enterprises

• Aico’s real-time SAP integration scales with increasing transaction volumes, supporting business growth without adding manual workload.

• File-based methods become increasingly inefficient and error-prone as transaction volumes grow, even if they offer frequent synchronisation.

"All of this was done without any SAP development, any army of consultants. It was all done by one person at Tecan."
— Lukasz Skapski

8. Empowered Decision-Making

• Real-time integration provides instant access to accurate financial data, enabling faster, better-informed decision-making for roles like Heads of Digital Transformation and Accounting Process Owners, who drive strategy and enable other teams to operate effectively.

• File-based methods delay data availability, potentially leading to decisions based on outdated information – impacting financial strategy and risk management.

9. Fewer Errors and Easier Reconciliation

• By reducing manual data handling and offering immediate validation, Aico’s real-time integration significantly minimises errors and streamlines reconciliation.

• File-based uploads increase the risk of manual errors, leading to additional time spent identifying and correcting discrepancies post-upload.