What Is RPA?
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a form of business process automation that lets you define a set of instructions for a software robot to execute. The bot mimics human-computer interactions — logging in, clicking through interfaces, downloading files, sending emails — and does it with greater speed and accuracy than a human performing the same steps manually.
The business case for RPA is well-documented:
- 60% of executives say RPA allows their teams to focus on more strategic initiatives
- 57% report that RPA reduces manual errors
- 57% say RPA boosts employee engagement by removing tedious work
The Problem at REEF
REEF operates over 300 kitchens across multiple cities. Every one of those kitchens requires utility services — including water and sewer from the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department.
Late bill payments don't just incur late fees. They risk losing access to water and sewer service at active kitchen locations. A single kitchen losing water service means it can't operate. At approximately $6,000 in daily revenue per location, even a one-day disruption is a significant financial hit. If it happened across multiple locations, it would be a serious problem.
The issue was simple: the Finance team needed utility bills delivered on time, every time, without relying on someone to remember to log in and download them.
The Solution
I built a UiPath bot that handles the entire process automatically:
- Logs into the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department billing portal
- Retrieves the latest utility bills for REEF's accounts
- Downloads the PDF documents
- Emails them to the Finance team for processing
No manual steps. No one has to remember to check the portal. The bills land in Finance's inbox on schedule, every time.
The Impact
The expected impact is 100% bill delivery without delays. That means the Finance team processes payments on time, the kitchens stay operational, and the $6,000/day/location risk is effectively eliminated.
Beyond the direct financial protection, this also freed up whoever was previously responsible for manually pulling bills — time that gets redirected to work that actually requires human judgment.
The Bigger Pattern
The same principle from my Power Automate work applies here: find the repetitive task that has real consequences if someone forgets to do it, and remove the human dependency. Humans forget. Systems don't — as long as they're built correctly.
RPA is particularly well-suited to tasks that involve logging into web portals, downloading documents, and routing them somewhere. Those tasks are everywhere in operations-heavy businesses, and they're almost always being done by a person who would rather be doing something else.