Apr 3, 2025

In a 2022 study of 320 controllers using the Jobs To Be Done framework, Excel was voted the #1 software over niche Record-to-Report (R2R) vendors. The study found that 80% of close and consolidation work still happens in Excel. Accountants spend less than 20% of their time in ERPs or specialist R2R software. Traditional close software can't replace Excel - Companies rely on over 2,000 Excel sheets for close, reconciliation, and consolidation tasks. Each sheet reflects a logical unit of work, such as PO accruals, bank recon, or credit card recon. Niche R2R vendors support generic workflows for GL and sub-GL activities like close checklists, approvals, and audit trails. But all the real math happens in Excel and is simply attached to the tasks. HighRadius LiveCube R2R Agents - Companies can upload their 2,000+ R2R Excel sheets into LiveCube no-code platform. LiveCube generates an AI Agent for each R2R use case by parsing each Excel and all of its sheets. Pre-trained on thousands of R2R use cases, LiveCube AI agents run daily or monthly to automate over 60% of the work. The accountant's role evolves to verifying results rather than running reports, exporting to Excel, and manually calculating GL balances ( see how it works in this video Holly DeSantis, EVP & CFO at Konica Minolta said, “With HighRadius, we achieved 75% faster daily bank reconciliations. AI/ML-powered transaction matching automates nearly 99% of our 45,000+ line items processed monthly.” Close is still a month-end cram - While continuous close has been discussed for decades, accountants remain overloaded during the 10-day window around month-end. Capacity constraints force them to focus on high-risk areas rather than reviewing the full ledger. CFOs still wait 2–3 weeks after the month-end for financial reporting. Niche R2R vendors lack the architecture for anomaly detection and automation of R2R tasks across the month. HighRadius Anomaly Detection - HighRadius' AI-based anomaly detection monitors all GL and sub-GL transactions in real time. Over 15 machine learning algorithms flag errors and omissions daily to enable continuous close. Up to 70% of anomalies are auto-detected and resolved across the month. Month-end workload is reduced by 30%, allowing accountants to work normal hours while still performing a comprehensive review of the books. Eva Forberger, EVP of Finance at ConferenceDirect said, “With HighRadius, we reduced our close time from 10 days to under 5. By automating 75% of our revenue and commission journal entries, we uncovered anomalies in commission calculations that could've cost us millions. ” “I was shocked to realize Excel is still the #1 tool in R2R! LiveCube No-Code Platform was born out of necessity to build a mini SaaS app for every GL account. With 200+ pre-built AI agents, our focus has always been value creation, not AI hype. Each agent is tied to a guaranteed business outcome, collectively automating up to 60% of R2R tasks. This is expected to exceed 90% as the platform becomes autonomous by 2027,” said Sashi Narahari, Founder & CEO at HighRadius. Read the full Gartner report to learn why HighRadius was named a Challenger [ here ] Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. About HighRadius HighRadius provides a single Agentic AI platform for the Office of the CFO. It integrates 200+ agents that orchestrate end-to-end processes across Order-to-Cash Close & Reconciliation Consolidation & Reporting Accounts Payable B2B Payments , and Treasury . HighRadius guarantees operational KPI improvements by mapping them to specific agents on the platform. With a 3-6 month go-live period, HighRadius drives value creation at 1100+ enterprises such as 3M, Unilever, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Red Bull, Lufthansa, and more. HighRadius has been consistently recognized as a market leader by IDC and Forrester. For more information, visit HighRadius' Website View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250401179773/en/ Contacts Media Contact HighRadius Communications Team press@highradius.com