EY transforms its global finance operations by integrating SAP with Power Platform

EY is a global organization that employs roughly 400,000 professionals and serves more than 200,000 clients in 150 countries through a complex operational ecosystem. As part of its digital transformation initiative to help enhance operational efficiency, the EY Global Finance team revamped multiple processes using Power Platform. 

A key part of this development process involved integration of the Power Platform with the SAP ERP system at EY. This was done using the pre-built SAP connectors available with Power Platform. “Complementing SAP with the Microsoft Power Platform offers us the ability to be flexible, develop and build applications within a short time frame yet still meeting our overall stringent security requirements,” says Ajith Haripaul, Global Controlling Transformation Leader, EY. 

Here are just three of those Power Platform solutions that have helped transform global finance processes at EY. 

PowerPost – General ledger posting process application 

The General Ledger (GL) posting process involves moving balances into different ledgers into the GL in SAP. 

The previous semi-manual process was not only labor intensive, but also varied across regions, resulting in inconsistencies and inefficiencies. Additionally, the legacy third-party tool used for posting incurred substantial licensing, maintenance and processing fees. These factors, coupled with a suboptimal user experience and lengthy processing times, demanded a significant digital overhaul.

The PowerPost app, built using Power Apps, helped address these challenges. A pre-built SAP connector was combined with the Microsoft data gateway to provide a seamless connection between PowerPost and the EY on-premises SAP ERP system. Once users log into the app, they can prepare journals directly inside the tool or upload Excel templates. A Power Automate cloud flow uploads the data to Dataverse and allows users to directly submit the documents for approval or posting. 

A single Power Automate flow supports multiple types of postings, including ledger-specific and foreign exchange postings. The customizable, built-in approval workflow allows for tailored approval processes to meet the unique needs of different countries. Enhanced controls help ensure that only authorized personnel can make postings, bolstering the integrity of the process.

By enabling real-time data entry, PowerPost has dramatically reduced lead times by 95% compared to the old process where data creation and entry were separate. PowerPost has also cut operational costs by over 37% through savings in processing time and third-party license fees. Today, PowerPost is used by over 2,000 EY employees and has quickly become the standard across the organization for posting GL documents to SAP. 

The team streamlined the user experience even further by adding an agent built with Microsoft Copilot Studio. The agent automatically guides employees through each stage of the posting process and also makes bulk uploads easier. The time savings can be significant. For instance, submitting 20 journals for approval in the app might take 15 minutes. Using the agent, this same process could be completed in less than 60 seconds. 

Anri Brits, EY Global Process Owner, says, “PowerPost has fundamentally reshaped how we manage journals across EY. By leveraging the Power Platform, we’ve streamlined our workflows, eliminated manual bottlenecks and accelerated month-end close cycles. The operational gains—from reduced costs to improved accuracy—have empowered our finance teams to focus on higher-value activities.”

PowerMatch - Payment clearing system application 

The global EY organization receives approximately 1.5 million client payments globally each year. Previously, only 30% of these payments were automatically matched with the respective invoices. Driven by the success of the PowerPost application, the team developed a solution called PowerMatch to improve this clearing process. 

A canvas app with Power Automate flows is now used to match and clear incoming customer payments. AI models implemented with AI Builder in Power Automate extract key information from payments and remittance advices (payment notifications).

With PowerMatch, EY has been able to increase the percentage of payments automatically matched and cleared from 30% to 80%, achieving the planned goal. Additionally, 15% of payments are able to be automatically matched with respective invoices and then manually cleared. As a result, only 5% of payments need to be manually processed.  

Currently, PowerMatch has been rolled out to approximately 50% of the EY organization globally, resulting in savings of 120,000 hours per annum. As a result of the automation and the more efficient process, PowerMatch is expected to save approximately 230,000 hours per annum for EY once rolled out globally. Additionally, with less manual processing, EY has increased accuracy in payment processing, resulting in an 85% reduction in rebookings, significantly surpassing the initial goal of 50%.

“PowerMatch has dramatically improved how EY handles the cash application process, resulting in faster and more accurate information,” says Marie Sanders, Global Process Owner—Accounts Receivable. “The fact that we were able to build the PowerMatch app in less than four months is amazing and really due to the low-code development platform we used.“

PowerSync - Account reconciliation and confirmation application 

Yet another SAP-connected app called PowerSync was designed to improve the account reconciliation and confirmation process. Previously, this reconciliation process was entirely manual—including pulling data from SAP, sharing spreadsheets, and negotiating over emails and phone calls. 

With PowerSync, open account receivables (AR) and payables (AP) from SAP are automatically imported and reconciled. Along with a built-in chat function, the app enables real-time collaboration. Once all transactions are reviewed, PowerSync automates the confirmation process, generating and sending confirmations directly to the respective auditors. “By leveraging Microsoft’s platform, we’ve automated what was once a manual, fragmented workflow, empowering our teams to close with confidence and accuracy,” says Mathias Matthies, Group CFO Controlling at EY. 

The solution has eliminated the need for email and spreadsheets, resulting in improved accuracy and efficiency, and greater transparency. “Our PowerSync app on Power Platform has transformed the way in which we collaborate across the EY network to confirm AR and AP balances with our member firms," adds Marc Davies, Global Accounting Lead at EY. “The tool is allowing us to complete the activity around two months earlier than we have ever managed before.”

PowerSync was deployed globally in just 2.5 months to 500 users globally. The timing was especially important as leadership needed the new process to land in time for fiscal year end. As Stef Pieterse, Product Incubation Lead, explains, “With Power Platform, we’ve been able to reuse multiple components across our financial solutions. That has helped us meet extremely aggressive timelines.” 

Building on success with Power Platform 

Based on the success of its app deployment, the global finance team continues to build new apps with Power Platform. A new app called PowerRates, for example, was recently deployed to automate loading of over 40 million different cost rates into SAP—reducing the entire process from weeks to days. 

“To efficiently run a complex finance process requires a huge number of customization and integration options, which we were able to accomplish using Power Platform,” says Pieterse. “The application’s deep integration into SAP is a testimony to how effective Power Platform can be in complementing SAP and delivering business value.”

As for the future, the AI tools in Power Platform promise to play a growing role. For example, multiple countries in the EY network have already asked to add the new agent to their own versions of the PowerPost application. With PowerSync, Pieterse sees an interesting opportunity to leverage AI for dispute resolution. As he adds, “Power Platform is already delivering enormous value to the business—and with the GenAI capabilities in Copilot Studio, we expect to extend that value even further.” 

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The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms.