Bank Reduces 25% of Reconciliation Volume Through ART

With nearly $2.2 billion in assets, over 300 employees, and 15 locations stretching across Maine, the team at Machias Savings Bank believes that with every relationship there is a way to keep customers moving forward, now and in the future. Founded in 1869, and a leader in customer experience and community, Machias makes an impact beyond products and services by donating nearly $1 million to Maine’s non-profits. Machias Savings Bank was named the #1 Best Small Bank in Maine in 2020 by Newsweek. In 2021, it ranked #2 in the Best Places to Work For and was ranked #8 in the Best Bank to Work Within the Nation by American Banker Magazine.

Historically, much like other community banks, Machias relied heavily on spreadsheets to manage month-end work. To track monthly reconciliations, the accounting team used a central spreadsheet that was managed throughout the close. In 2013, the bank crossed $1 billion in assets, which was when it became subject to more rigorous regulatory requirements. The accounting team knew it needed a stronger internal controls program.

The central spreadsheet was enhanced to become more complex, which also made it more cumbersome. It was effective, but extremely manual and needed constant attention. The responsibility of tracking and managing the central reconciliation spreadsheet was placed under the responsibility of one person, who spent a lot of time carefully double and triple checking during the close.

This prompted management to recognize a need to put a system in place to relieve leadership of such manual and administrative tasks. 

In 2018, the team at Machias Savings Bank scheduled introductory conversations with four different vendors to evaluate month-end close automation. From those, the team held product demos with three of the vendors.

They evaluated systems that offered everything from artificial intelligence and auto-matching activities to reporting systems that can pull data to build executive reports. While those technologies were interesting, the accounting team had a much more targeted focus on month-end needs.

The team was looking for a platform that could:

• Assist with reconciliations at month-end.
• Act as a central repository for documents.
• Replace the existing tracking spreadsheet.
• Provide a more robust closing checklist.

In addition, the team was also looking to partner with a company that could provide personalized customer service during the change process.

The Bank has a handful of accountants in the department that participate in month-end close and a three-day close schedule.

ART was implemented over the course of one month and all users were trained by a licensed CPA prior to going live on the first cycle. Within the first few cycles, the team started to enjoy the benefits of automation, including:

• Up to 25% reduction of reconciliation volume each month due to ART systematically completing those reconciliations due to preset algorithm.
• No more need to constantly update the central tracker to mark off reconciliation completion.
• Accessing real-time dashboards on close and reconciliation status completion throughout the month.
• A central location in which important documents can be stored alongside closing tasks and reconciliations and reducing the need to manage share drive folders and/or individual desktop folders.
• Having an organized method of presenting information for the auditor.

For other organizations looking to implement ART, Machias Savings Bank has the following advice: