“IT teams have had to pivot dozens of times since the pandemic hit. There’s little room for those who are stuck in old ways.” – Lev Gonick, CIO, Arizona State University
Dealing with extensive financial records involving thousands or millions of dollars must be mind-numbing as a financial fraud investigator. Unfortunately, since the pandemic hit, most things have gone digital, giving more leeway to the fraudsters. According to the Federal Trade Commission, in 2020, people reported losing more than $3.3 billion to fraud.
Source: FTC
As you know, these scams require thorough data preparation and analysis, which, when done manually, can consume all of your precious time, leaving little time and energy for more critical tasks. Luckily, you don’t have to carry on like this as there are solutions to automate your manual data entry and preparation processes. Let’s look at these two state-of-the-art solutions that can help you quickly prepare data for deeper analysis and accelerate workflow.
ScanWriter
Personable Inc. developed ScanWriter to overcome the difficulties in preparing and analyzing voluminous financial data. Its data entry automation feature can convert any paper or digital document, including bank statements, bills, invoices, receipts, check images (handwritten as well), phone records, insurance forms, wire transfers, etc., into Excel. Data cleansing and normalization is also something that ScanWriter takes care of to a great extent requiring you to do minimal effort. In addition, personable Inc. has partnered with Microsoft Power BI (Business Intelligence) to create financial data visualizations for better insights automatically.
Key Benefits
- Automates the manual filing processes to meet deadlines
- Effective and quick in converting years’ worth of documents into structured data within hours
- Simplifies the workflow with its user-friendly interface, and built-in features
- Maintains confidentiality of data by saving it locally and verifies the integrity of data
- Ensures 100% accuracy of data with its intelligent error detection
- Easy implementation into your current technology and processes
- Link analysis tools to help with data collection and analysis
- Run analytic models to scrutinize the movements of funds
Integration & Deployment
- Seamless integration with Excel and Microsoft Power BI
- Deployable on Cloud, SaaS, web-based, on-premise – Windows, on-premise – Linux
Financial Institutions Support
ScanWriter’s library has over 40,000 institutions, including over 10,000 financial institutions. Additionally, you can customize a format for your document within 24 to 48 hours of your request.
Language Support
ScanWriter supports 21 languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Arabic, etc.
Location
Personable has its corporate office in Fountain Valley, California, and a second office in Washington DC.
Client Base
ScanWriter’s client base consists of both government and private organizations.
Customer Feedback
Source: Capterra
Pricing
Standard ScanWriter Excel costs $5,495 per license for one workstation user and ten customized readers. Additionally, each standard license has a non-prorated $3,234 annual maintenance fee that covers unlimited usage by common readers, training, support, and software updates.
Demo & Free Trial
You can get an idea of the working of ScanWriter Excel Edition by viewing videos on their Youtube channel. You can also request a free demo on ScanWriter’s website.
Comprehensive Financial Investigative Solution (CFIS)
Actionable Intelligence Technologies, Inc. (AIT) designed Comprehensive Financial Investigative Solution (CFIS) to automatically perform rapid assembly and data capture of voluminous financial records. CFIS processes bank, brokerage, and credit card statements, supporting multiple languages and currencies. It increases productivity and the ability to conduct extensive, complex investigations.
Key Benefits
- Automate the analysis of complex investigations
- Reads all wire formats, Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) line of checks, & typed and printed checks
- Links support documents like wires, checks, deposit tickets, receipts, etc. to statement transactions showing the flow of funds
- Increases the speed of data preparation and ensures accuracy
- Allows collaboration and working together concurrently to input data
- Manage, organize, and quickly locate all records to export data immediately
- Automatically process paper and electronic financial documents and record data into a centralized, comprehensive database
Integration & Deployment
You can deploy the licensed software in a virtual software environment, e.g., VMware, Inc. products, Microsoft® Hyper-V, Microsoft® Virtual PC, Citrix® XenApp, etc., and a physical licensing device, e.g., licensing appliance or hardware dongle.
Financial Institutions Support
CFIS has over 11,500 formats in its library.
Language Support
CFIS supports multiple languages.
Location
Actionable Intelligence Technologies, Inc. is located in Virginia, United States, and provides global services.
Client Base
CFIS caters primarily to Federal, State & Local, Prosecutors, Law Enforcement, Regulatory Agencies, and Forensic Accountants. In addition, it also has a few commercial clients.
Pricing
The current price list for CFIS, its maintenance, and the related fee is available on their website.
Feature -Tool Matrix
| ScanWriter | CFIS | |
| Audit Trail | Yes | Yes |
| Accurate Conversion of Hand-Written Cheques | Yes | Yes |
| Language Support | 21 languages, including most European, Asian, Middle Eastern languages. | Multiple languages. |
| 100% Accuracy | Yes | Yes |
| Bank Institution Support | ScanWriter supports over 40,000 institutions, including more than 10,000 financial institutions. | CFIS has over 11,500 formats in its library. |
| Ease of Use | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing | Standard ScanWriter Excel costs $5,495 per license and a $3,234 annual maintenance fee. | Different pricing options are available as listed on their website. Seems a little complex to put in this tiny section. |
| Data Visualization | Yes | Yes |
| Data Confidentiality | Yes | Yes |
| Location | California and Washington D.C. | Virginia, United States |
Wrap Up
ScanWriter and CFIS are both great tools for data automation and analysis. However, ScanWriter offers more formats and languages. While CFIS is more focused on the government sector, ScanWriter equally caters to both the government and the private sector. The implementation and integration of ScanWriter with your existing processes are more straightforward. You can eliminate the manual data entry and analysis tasks that consume all your time and energy. ScanWriter allows you to focus on the more essential tasks as an investigator and enables you to lessen your workload. You can reach out to the ScanWriter team for more information and any queries regarding data entry automation. And the CFIS team as well through their website.
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