AI automatically analyzes vast amounts of journal entry data with just one click to streamline monthly closing and reporting

Money Forward Consulting, Inc., a Group company of Money Forward, Inc., has launched the “Business Performance Analysis Agent,” an AI agent for its corporate performance management platform, “Manageboard.” This agent automates the breakdown and aggregation of account titles — previously a manual process — to significantly improve the efficiency of monthly closing operations and support swifter management decisions.

The “Business Performance Analysis Agent” is an AI agent designed to streamline tasks such as creating monthly closing reports, reporting to management, and performing monthly reviews for clients, typically handled by corporate accounting and management planning personnel, as well as accounting firm staff. On the ledger screen, the AI automatically analyzes vast amounts of journal entry data with a single click, displaying breakdowns and aggregated results by category.

This significantly reduces the time previously spent on data processing, enabling staff to focus on their primary responsibilities, such as analysis and improvement proposals.

URL: https://biz.moneyforward.com/ai-agent/ai-business-management/journal-analysis/ (Japanese)

■ Key Features of the “Business Performance Analysis Agent”
1. Automated categorization and aggregation with a single click
Simply by clicking the “Analyze with AI” button on the ledger screen, the AI reads and analyzes departmental information and text data in the description column of journal entries. Even with inconsistent notation or irregular descriptions that are difficult to categorize with rule-based systems, the AI analyzes the context to list amounts and transaction counts for each category along with their component ratios.

2. Automated generation of factor analysis comments
In addition to data processing, the AI automatically generates comments summarizing analysis results and trends. This enables evidence-based responses to questions regarding the breakdown of specific account titles or factors for fluctuations during management meetings and other such meetings, based on data presented by the AI.

3. Standardization of analysis quality and elimination of dependency on specific individuals
The AI automates the categorization and aggregation of journal entries — tasks that previously relied on the knowledge and experience of individual staff — based on consistent criteria. This maintains consistent analysis quality regardless of personnel changes or handovers, eliminating reliance on specific individuals.

■ Background
Amidst a rapidly changing business environment, swift management decision-making based on budget-to-actual analysis is increasingly essential. However, processing the underlying actual results requires manually reviewing vast amounts of journal entry data and working with spreadsheets, placing a significant burden on staff. Such manual processing leads to dependency on specific individuals and is prone to errors. Furthermore, the inability to provide immediate answers to spontaneous questions from management often necessitates subsequent investigations and reporting, leading to delays in management decisions.

This agent addresses these challenges through its AI-powered automated aggregation and analysis functions. In the future, we plan to sequentially roll out multi-dimensional analysis functions, such as point-in-time comparisons.

We will continue to provide AI agents across a wide range of back-office operations, evolving our products into tools where AI performs tasks autonomously, thereby contributing to the business growth of our users through automation.

■ Featured Landing Page
・”Money Forward Cloud” with AI
URL: https://biz-ai.moneyforward.com/ (Japanese)

・About the AI agents provided by Money Forward
URL: https://biz.moneyforward.com/ai-agent/ (Japanese)

■ About the “Manageboard” Corporate Performance Management Platform
Manageboard is a cloud-based corporate performance management platform that enables budget planning and variance analysis, simultaneously achieving “flexible management to navigate change” and “planned management for achieving goals.” In addition to financial planning functions that link PL/BS/CF data, which are the three key financial statements, it also allows for formulating non-financial plans such as KPIs. It can also create reports for variance analysis in a matter of minutes through various integrations with accounting software.
URL: https://service.manageboard.jp/ (Japanese)

■ About Money Forward Consulting, Inc.
Name: Money Forward Consulting, Inc.
Location: 21F msb Tamachi Station Tower S, 3-1-21 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0023
Representative: Hiroshi Shimanouchi, President and CEO
Business: Providing SaaS and consulting services in the corporate performance management domain
URL: https://corp.moneyforwardconsulting.com/ (Japanese)

■ About Money Forward, Inc.
Money Forward, Inc. is the leading SaaS / Fintech company from Japan, listed on the Prime Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (3994.T). We mainly provide B2B SaaS such as online bookkeeping, HR management, contract management, and payroll; now serving more than 442,000 paying customers nationwide. Our consumer-facing service for personal finance management (PFM) now has 17.8M users.
URL: https://corp.moneyforward.com/en/

* All company names, product and service names, and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

For further information, please contact:
PR Division, Money Forward, Inc.
Email:pr@moneyforward.co.jp