Tecan, a global leader in laboratory automation, has long been known for its cutting-edge equipment and innovation. However, like many multinational organisations, its finance function faced difficulties as the business grew through acquisitions and the establishing of new entities.

With over 40 company codes, a tight 3-day closing window, and a fragmented control environment, Tecan needed a smarter way to manage its month-end closing.

In a recent webinar “Mastering Month-End Close: Strategies to Improve Speed Without Compromising Quality and Accuracy,” hosted by SSON, Lukasz Skapski, Corporate ICS Manager at Tecan, shared how Aico transformed their financial close, helping standardise and simplify processes, automate controls and make month-end less stressful. All without sacrificing quality.

Tecan’s Challenge: Fragmented Processes and Manual Controls

Before Aico, Tecan faced a struggle that was familiar to many complex enterprises. They had 40 company codes worldwide. Although they were all using the same ERP, as Lukasz put it, that meant there were "40 ways of doing stuff". This made audit reviews, both internal and external, extremely difficult. Controls were scattered, undocumented and heavily reliant on manual steps. Even worse, their SAP GRC system was outdated and clunky, relying on emails and flat Excel checklists during the closing cycle.

“We've got a pretty ambitious deadline, three days for local closing plus one day for consolidation. We have one global chart of accounts with one global IFRS Ledger. And there are about 110 people in finance-related functions. ”

— Lukasz Skapski

Why Aico? Coming Out on Top

One of the major factors that swayed Tecan was Aico’s ability to run programs on behalf of the user, with no human intervention at all.

“Now Aico is really lean about how you set up a task because it will just go into SAP and run the transactional program that a user can run. Rather than creating 40 variants for 40 company codes, Aico will use one, and then will automatically and smartly, using something that Aico calls smart tags, swap the company codes and the period. You can even swap other parameters, like accounts. So, you can be very lean with the setup in SAP and very efficient with the setup in Aico.”

— Lukasz Skapski

After an extensive selection process involving four vendors and a brutal 80-question RFP, Aico came out on top:

• Best functionality score for Tecan’s needs

• Best real-time live integration with SAP with no incremental uploads

• Ability to run and read out most SAP reports with no need to duplicate SAP’s functionality

• Empowers finance without overburdening the IT department. All you need are good Excel skills

• Integrated platform to cover the entire closing and controls

• Highly configurable solution tailored to your needs

• Candid communication and transparent pricing structure based on entity count

• Clarity on scope and cost control, minimising project risk and off-setting the risks of a market challenger

“We did have to address concerns from stakeholders that Aico is a relative newcomer compared to some of the other solutions that we were evaluating.

“What offset that risk was the fact that we were able to very precisely scope the project...Because we knew the cost of the total project as a kind of cap, as opposed to some of the other software where similar ballpark figures would be the opening of the entire journey.”

— Lukasz Skapski

Tecan chose Three Aico modules to meet their month-end close challenges:

• Closing Task Manager

• Account Reconciliations

• Journal Entries

They are also working with Aico to help configure a new Intercompany Reconciliations Module from existing Aico features, proving again how versatile Aico is.  

When it came to choosing Aico, Lukasz highlighted one key differentiator: true real-time integration with SAP, without creating a digital twin or needing constant data uploads.

"Aico emulates the way a real human being would work with SAP, without any kind of robotic automation, because it will run the task in the background."
— Lukasz Skapski

This direct integration proved crucial. During month-end, data constantly changes — static snapshots simply aren’t enough. Aico’s ability to extract live SAP report data directly into tasks, PDFs, or Excel files, where customer-configured rules automatically process and manipulate the data, empowered Tecan’s finance teams to perform actions instantly, reducing reliance on IT and improving accuracy.

“The more interesting part is that Aico can now put that data into Excel. And, as a finance person, you can do a lot of stuff with that. As a finance person, you get empowered to do stuff … without the involvement of IT.”

— Lukasz Skapski

Improved Closing Tasks for Tecan

“I could hold an hour's worth of seminars just to describe all the functionalities and the cool things that each module has to offer... I could then give you a couple of hours’ worth of seminars on how we approached the very specific problems that we had and the really cool use cases that you could do with any of those modules because Aico is very flexible. I cannot do that in this space!”

— Lukasz Skapski

Lukasz pointed to seven ways Aico solved its closing tasks challenges:

• Standardised Process

  • Ensures completeness

  • Cross-functional collaboration all in one platform

• Dependent Tasks with Notifications

  • Ensures steps are performed in the correct sequence

• Automated and Semi-Automated Tasks

  • Run SAP reports/transitions automatically

  • Execution based on fixed or conditional schedules

• Standardised Templates

  • Relevant instructions and up-to-date integrated templates

  • Enforced controls at relevant steps in the process

• Integrated Approval Workflows

  • Enforced Separation of Duties (Preparer, Handler and Approver)

  • No longer need to worry about storing proof of approval offline

• Live Dashboards

  • Provides an overview of outstanding tasks

  • Helps troubleshoot problems before it’s too late

• Archiving

  • Control documentation stored automatically in Aico as soon as you perform the control

  • Eliminate manually uploading control documentation to SAP GRC

“We only need IT these days just to make sure that we have the up-to-date functions that Aico provides or add a couple of access rights or authorisations for the Aico background user and that's it. So, it's extremely cool.”

— Lukasz Skapski

Aico helped Lukasz and his team simplify and take control over their financial close with:

1. Standardised Closing Tasks
   With Aico’s Closing Task Manager, Tecan finally replaced Excel checklists with structured workflows.
   The system enforces the correct task sequence automatically, helps new joiners navigate process complexity and ensures that controls and approvals are embedded at the right stages.

"Your month-end closing is a process. It's not a list of tasks you do. Quite often, the sequence is important. And this is something that Aico is able to help you with.”

— Lukasz Skapski

2. Embedded Controls and Documentation
   Aico doesn’t just automate; it documents. Every action is recorded in an auditable log. Instructions, self-assessments, and attachments are built into the workflow — no more searching for policies on the intranet.

“You can start automating things in Aico. You can run the task either based on the schedule, like the first workday of closing at midnight, but you can also still have those schedules, or even the entire month of the closing, mapped out as a process.”

— Lukasz Skapski

3. High Automation with Low IT Involvement
   Aico’s implementation was light on IT, requiring just two or three days of IT work. Finance was able to configure, automate and improve processes without waiting for developers.

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

Aico’s Closing Dashboard in Action

With Aico now live, Tecan’s month-end is visibly smoother. For just 9 entities so far, over 3,800 tasks were tracked in February alone, with the majority automatically executed or pre-prepared by Aico. Importantly, 66% of controls were automated, freeing up time and reducing human error.

"Aico performed two-thirds of the tasks that used to be done manually. And a lot of the tasks that required user interaction are still pre-prepared by Aico."
— Lukasz Skapski

Aico also provided Tecan with clear visuals of bottlenecks via dashboards and Gantt charts, helping teams to proactively manage the month-end closing.

Smarter Account Reconciliations with Aico

Account reconciliations are a key part of Tecan's month-end process, and Aico brought significant improvements here, too:

• Risk-based 100% coverage of Balance Sheet accounts

  • Focus only on accounts that are actually material

• Standardised Templates

  • Relevant instructions and up-to-date templates integrated into each step

  • Controls being enforced at relevant steps in the process

• Automated and Semi-Automated Tasks

  • Rule-based automatic reconciliation against sub-ledger for many accounts

  • Execution based on fixed schedule or conditionally (e.g. after leasing procedures complete)

• Prior Period Data Carried Forward

  • Prevents duplication of effort.

  • Only focus on what is relevant in this period.

• Integrated Approval Workflows for Unreconciled Differences

  • Separation of Duties enforced (Preparer, Handler and Approver)

  • No longer need to worry about storing proof of approval offline

• Live Dashboards

  • Provides an overview of outstanding tasks

  • Automatically notices when the balance changes and the reconciliation is no longer valid

• Archiving and Audit Trail

  • Control documentation stored automatically in Aico as soon as you perform the control

  • Say bye-bye to manually uploading control documentation to SAP GRC

Previously, reconciliations were manual, time-consuming and often lacked proper documentation. Now, with Aico’s Account Reconciliation module, reconciliations are integrated directly into the closing workflow, using SAP data and Aico's automation capabilities. Using real-time integration, Aico offers the end user the ability to refresh the current data directly from SAP at any point of the reconciliation process.

“The coolest solution is you can run a report in SAP and compare the output of that report with what the GL balance is. And you might think, for S4HANA, it doesn't play any significance. It does.

So it's an extremely powerful solution that you can then further customise with it. It works out for the box. But then you can also go into more custom solutions if you require.”

— Lukasz Skapski

The system allows for the automatic comparison of SAP reports with GL balances, including complex cases such as lease liabilities split between short-term and long-term portions. If reconciliations were performed and approved in the prior month, Aico can automatically pre-populate these in the current period, reducing repetitive work and ensuring continuity.

“The coolest solution is you can run a report in SAP and compare the output of that report with what the GL balance is. And you might think, for S4HANA, it doesn't play any significance. It does.

"For example, in the leasing process, you will split your liabilities into the long-term and short-term. There's a report in SAP that can get you the underlying data, the cash flows, and you can sum them up in Excel and compare the two. Because if someone forgot to properly process a contract or other the contract after all the postings, then that would show in this reconciliation.

"So it's an extremely powerful solution that you can then further customise. It works out for the box. But then you can also go into more custom solutions if you require.”

— Lukasz Skapski

Aico also continuously monitors reconciliations after they are completed. If a balance changes post-close, the system will flag it automatically, preventing surprises during audits or later reviews.

" Now you can also set up Aico to keep monitoring that account even after the original, first reconciliation has been performed. So if the balance changes, Aico will flag that if the reconciliation no longer is fulfilled."
— Lukasz Skapski

This combination of automation, continuous monitoring and audit-ready documentation significantly strengthened Tecan’s control environment while reducing manual effort across their finance teams.

Journal Entries: More Control, Less Effort

Posting journal entries is traditionally one of the most error-prone and manual parts of the month-end process. With Aico's Journal Entries module, Tecan streamlined this essential activity by embedding it directly into their closing workflow.

Here are the seven areas Aico made the difference for Tecan:

• Journal Templates

  • Create journal entries with ease

  • Leverage uploading templates

• Journal Validation

  • Validation against SAP rules ensures that no corrupt data is posted

  • Additional validations can be enforced

• Automated Posting of Journal Entries

  • Integrates with Task Manager’s automated tasks

  • Automatically calculates and post allowances or provisions

• Integrated Approval Workflows

  • Separation of Duties enforced (Preparer, Handler and Approver)

  • No longer need to worry about storing proof of approval offline

• Archiving and Audit Trail

  • Control documentation stored automatically in Aico as soon as you perform the control

  • Bye-bye manually uploading control documentation to SAP GRC

"You can have fully automated or semi-automated journals.  And if you do anything that from the task, it will be linked to that journal and any subsequent changes on that journal, say a reversal, will then again be marked and connected to the journal."
— Lukasz Skapski

Aico automates journal entry preparation by extracting data from SAP reports and automatically populating the entries. The results can be pushed to Excel for review or sent directly to SAP for posting. However, thanks to Aico's configurable logic, data is automatically evaluated and the outcome is clearly displayed within the Aico document itself, meaning users rarely need to open Excel. Users can manually validate the results or let Aico automate postings where appropriate, reducing bottlenecks and minimising errors.

A standout feature is live validation  — Aico communicates directly with SAP before every journal entry is posted to check for issues like blocked cost centres. Unlike other systems that rely on batch uploads, Aico returns validation results instantly.

"With Aico, if a journal fails validation, you don't need to wait for a batch job or IT support — you fix it and revalidate immediately."
— Lukasz Skapski

Additionally, every journal entry stays linked to the task that triggered it, creating a complete and auditable chain of evidence, which is invaluable during audits or internal reviews.

This seamless approach not only improved Tecan’s control quality but also enhanced user experience by reducing rework and eliminating delays.

From Pain to Confidence

Perhaps the most impressive result? Confidence.
Tecan not only improved efficiency but also enhanced their control environment, documented everything properly and simplified audits.

"After almost a year of using Aico productively, and I still have to find a topic where they overpromised or underdelivered."
— Lukasz Skapski

Aico helped Tecan solve challenges beyond just automation. The platform created structure, enforced controls, and gave Lukasz's team reliable data and peace of mind. For finance teams battling fragmented processes, poor documentation or legacy tools, Tecan’s story shows how a well-implemented solution like Aico can be a game-changer.

Watch the entire webinar now and find out exactly how Lukasz mastered his month-end close!