Case Study: Financial Report Analysis, Digitization and Automatization of Physical Documentation in the Fintech Industry

Industry: Fintech

Market: Serbia and region (pending global expansion)

Project duration: 5 months (ongoing)

1. Role-based access control (RBAC) 
2. Managing clients and companies
3. Storing companies’ financial documentation
4. Law-driven data mapping
5. Templates for financial analysis
6. Generating, storing and exporting financial analysis reports
7. Exporting reports as Excel and Word docs

1. Platforms: AWS
2. Backend: MongoDB, Nest.js
3. Frontend: React with styled components
4. CMS: Sanity

Digitization is the process of converting any type of physical information into digital format. It has shaken up businesses of all sizes across the globe in the past few years, especially after 2020. The urgent call of technology to approach consumers and users to various services and products online 24/7 brought many changes and strategy challenges to various industries, no matter the business size.

 

Despite the fact that technology rapidly spreads, with AI, ML, AR, and VR taking the lead, it seems like it brought massive chaos into businesses’ roadmaps, rushing to adjust their course of action to maintain their competitiveness in the market. Still, if done right, this furious wave of opportunities can be turned into an improvement on a larger scale.

 

Transferring on-hand paperwork into online data management systems has shown to be of great benefit for the ones handling large amounts of paperwork. According to Gartner’s study on digital transformation, 91% of businesses are already engaged in turning digital in some form, with 87% of senior business leaders stating that digitization is in their main focus. 

 

Digitization is not only about converting physical documentation into a digital format but also about the possibilities this new environment creates for its users. Depending on their needs, data can be easily arranged, extracted, and processed, which saves space and time, reduces manual work and errors, and keeps data transparent while better protected from breaches and fraud.

 

Going digital has become a critical factor for companies across the globe. For example, all limited liability companies established in the EU must prepare financial statements to monitor the health of their business and provide a true and fair view of their financial performance and financial position. In 2021, the UK established a new rule called ESEF – the European Single Electronic Format, for all the companies bound to submit annual financial reports, making the packed data digitally accessible.

 

In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission – SEC, mandates electronic filing through the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval System – EDGAR, for various financial reports and analyses.

 

Rooting in the financial world, especially in accounting and administration, the demanding adjustments to digitization reached our software development channels, requiring the team to assist in building the project from scratch for our long-term client.

After 20 years of advancing in consulting practices, as well as refining and innovating services in accounting, financial reporting, and business analysis, our client has initiated the project intending to automate and improve the process of reporting financial analysis. The final product will be a platform designed to serve professionals in the financial sector across all industries. It’s designed to benefit the companies in the VAT system bound to maintaining books, with a primary focus on accountants managing client books, as well as individuals analyzing the client’s financial reports.

 

After launching the first version of the platform and receiving initial feedback from professionals who have implemented its features in their practices, the plan is to expand into the European market and adapt the platform’s capabilities to the varying VAT system protocols of different countries. 

Our team was dedicated to the entire software development cycle of the platform starting from gathering the necessary project documentation and selecting appropriate technologies and development platforms, to selecting team size and professional skills, executing the project, and its later maintenance.

1. Turning the Idea Into Project Specification: Triaging possible solutions to find the most optimal one that suits the client’s requirements and creating such specifications that can easily be broken down into development tasks.
2. Handling Dynamic Data: Reports may contain an arbitrary number of data tables, text boxes, and graphs. All of those can reference any row and column within the imported financial documents. The main challenge within this phase is constructing the skeleton of the report allowing it to display all the data in the correct format without knowing all the details upfront.
3. Tightening Up the Security Measures: The Fintech industry demands high security standards due to sensitive data which if exploited could potentially damage a company’s reputation and risk identity theft. By “tightening up” their security measures, Fintech or any other company handling sensitive data aims to minimize the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access, hence maintaining the trust of their customers. This proactive approach is essential in any industry where trust and security are of vital concern.

As with any other industry-specific project, fintech solutions demand domain expertise as well.

 

Domain-driven design (DDD) plays an essential role when a team wants to establish a stable and scalable foundation for their future software development. It involves setting up an environment where a shared language is used between domain experts and client representatives, structuring code around clear domain models, and ensuring that software solutions are tailored precisely to client needs.

 

After analyzing project requirements and gathering a development team, we opted for the most suitable technologies based on our expertise and the specific needs of the project.

The need for storing dynamic report data helped us realize that MongoDB was the right database for the project. With its scalability and schemaless design the app will be able to easily handle predicted (extensive) volumes of data. 

One of the main reasons why our team chose Nest.js is its built-in security which represents a good foundation for additional security measures. Additionally, its modularity and extensive ecosystem make it a great choice for fintech-related projects.

When it comes to handling heavy data interactions on the UI side, React and its efficient rendering represent the most suitable choice. Along with the code reusability, the development time can be significantly reduced.

Digital reports are a new criterion for current and future businesses wanting to deliver the best user experience, wherever they are, with the Fintech industry taking the lead. This platform creates the most suitable multi-handling documentation zone, providing its users with:

 

1. Efficient handling of large financial documents through an intuitive UI
2. Financial data analysis in the form of a report that can be easily exported as an Excel, Word, or XML file
3. Industry-level security standards

Managing a business with technology influencing decision-making can be pretty challenging and stressful. If you are reluctant to change or still doubting the potential of digitization, our team is ready to help you define your goals, scope your business strategy, and support it on every possible technical level. By choosing the right partnering company, you can stay ahead of the technological advances and save your spot on the promising global market.