Is your business still processing accounts payable (AP) manually? If so, it shouldn’t be.
Manual AP processes open up room for human error, as well as being more costly and time-consuming. And these days, there are plenty of AP automation tools to choose from.
You can save time, save money, streamline invoice processing, get more insight into your purchasing, prevent fraud, improve auditing processes, and more. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why you should automate AP.
Save Time and Money
Gone are the days when paper invoices had to sit around on someone’s desk, or electronic invoices in someone’s email inbox, waiting for hours or days to get approved.
Now you can automate AP so that invoice approval is completely streamlined, and gets done quickly, saving you time and money and keeping your vendors happy.
You’ll save an average of 18 percent fewer days payable outstanding, or about 5.55 days, and enjoy real-time updates on invoice processing.
Reduce the Risk of Human Error
Human beings will always make mistakes, so until the entire workforce consists of robots and computers, you’re going to have to live with human error.
But people make more mistakes when they’re bored, and many of the repetitive tasks that come with manual AP processing are just the kind of tedious chores that will make your employees’ eyes glaze over.
AP automation is one of the most impactful things you can do to reduce human error since computer programs can perform the same tasks over and over again with no dip in quality.
Audit More Efficiently
AP automation makes document management so much easier because the software will easily tie together all the documents, messages, receipts, invoices, and purchase orders associated with each transaction.
That means no more missing paperwork when it’s time to audit for regulatory compliance. It also means navigating your regulatory and compliance obligations more smoothly.
See Your Data More Clearly
Most AP automation software features user-friendly dashboards where you can get a detailed overview of your invoice processing in real-time.
You’ll get much greater insight into your data with automation tools that outline the process with real clarity, so you’ll always know where an invoice is, who has it, and who to contact if it’s delayed.
It’ll also be so much easier to generate reports and perform data analysis when you can easily pull your invoicing data into a CSV file or other spreadsheet using an automated system dashboard.
Personalize and Streamline Processes
What if you could have an incoming invoice easily forwarded directly to the person who needs to approve it?
With automated AP processing, you can. Customize your AP workflow to automatically send invoices exactly where they need to go.
That means no more waiting around for invoices above a certain threshold to get shuffled along to the right person so they can get authorized and paid.
You can create timers for the approval of invoices, and maintain those timers so that bills always get paid in a timely manner.
Move Data Storage Into the Cloud
Storing data and documents in hard copy form is expensive. Did you know it costs more than $520 to store a five-drawer filing cabinet for one year?
There’s the cost of the cabinet itself, the cost to print documents onto paper, the cost to rent space to store it all, and the cost of hiring employees to manage it.
Meanwhile, cloud storage can be significantly less, with monthly costs averaging about $.02 per gigabyte.
Cloud storage isn’t just cheaper. It’s easier to access your data in the cloud — just type keywords into a search bar and up they come.
There’s no searching through filing cabinets or trying to decipher a former employee’s opaque approach to document management.
There’s no worrying about lost copies. Your entire building could burn down and you’d at least still have access to all of your documents and data.
It’s really the best option for storing AP data and documentation related to purchasing and invoices.
Cut Invoicing Costs
Manual invoicing processes simply cost more than automated ones. Some invoice processing costs are easier to reduce than others — for example, you can’t easily reduce overhead like space rental without moving your operations.
But you can transition to a cheaper invoice processing platform, and with the time you’ll save on monitoring the invoice payment timeline and streamlining workflows, you can drastically reduce your invoicing labor costs.
Eliminate Duplicate Payments
It’s all too easy to accidentally pay the same invoice twice when you’re still shackled to a manual AP workflow.
AP automation software checks your invoice payments against previous payments and enterprise resources, so you won’t have to worry about duplicate payments taking extra money out of your accounts when you can’t afford it — or the hassle of clawing back a second extraneous vendor payment.
You won’t even need to manually input any invoice information in order to double-check your payments, so again, you’ll mitigate the risk of a human being making a verification mistake.
Protect Your Company From Fraud
Enterprise payment fraud is on the rise, with losses to banks alone totaling $31 billion in 2018.
With the help of AP automation, you can protect your organization from payment fraud with tools that prevent any single employee from being the only one with access to invoices or payment authorization.
Checks and balances in AP automation can help you plan for employees to keep each other accountable in making payments, and it can help with double-checking payments against your enterprise resources, too.
If your company hasn’t yet begun to automate AP processes, you need to get with the times.
It’s not at all easy to manage AP with manual processes — it involves a lot of time-consuming, tedious work that invites boredom and fosters an environment in which employees are more likely to make mistakes.
Conclusion
Start keeping better track of your invoicing, purchases, and payments — automate AP processing now and use the time and money savings to grow your business.
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