It has been nothing less than a roller-coaster ride for all of us ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With sudden and extreme changes, businesses around the world have experienced ups and downs, the kind no one had experienced before.
People all over the world have experienced the remarkable benefits of digitization, machine learning and the online world. Similarly, many businesses from different industries around the world realized how easy it can be to achieve transparency and manage data and accounting work by automating accounts payable.
It’s true, the right AP Automation Software could mean a one-step solution for your business when it comes to money that you owe to all the vendors and the suppliers. While it is true that many businesses around the world still take care of accounting work manually, in 2021 many businesses started adopting Accounts Payable automation. It is expected that many more will follow.Taking into account this growth in adoption, we believe that it is about time that businesses around the world become familiar with the benefits of Accounts Payable automation. If you’re trying to decide whether moving towards automating Accounts Payable would be the right thing to do, continue reading to look at some important benefits of automating AP.
Save Time
With manual processes, invoices would waste time on office tables or email boxes or sit on desks for approval. However, automating your Accounts Payable processes can ensure smooth-running and put an end to such delays. Old-school, paper-based, manual processes can present a number of different challenges including needless delays.
With automated Accounts Payable, intuitive dashboards will provide users with a comprehensive and live view of the processes of receiving, recording, and dispatching supplier invoices and making payments. It is worth noting that users can also set a criterion to be applied to the workflow in order to make sure that the right party receives the invoice at the right time.
Inexpensive Invoicing
Invoicing manually can be very costly and the total expenses can vary greatly. The total cost depends on a number of different factors, such as the size of accounts payable staff and the number of invoices processed.
Many businesses are now looking to make use of modern technology and automated Accounts Payable software, which can greatly help bring down the costs of all the processes involved.
Enhanced Accuracy
With the new automation technology, you can steer clear of duplicate payments and other human errors as all the details will be verified against enterprise resource planning (ERP).
On the flip side, manual paper invoices and other documents could be lost, incorrectly filed, or sometimes they might never even make it into the system.
Better Insight
With automated AP workflow, comprehensive dashboards facilitate finding the appropriate data. Users can also make out where the invoice might be sitting and who you should get in touch within the case of a hold-up.
Moreover, with live and detailed data, any piece of information can be used with more accuracy in order to smoothen surveying, researching, and reporting, which is critical for any business out there.
Fraud Prevention
Just two years ago it was disclosed by a survey that more than 80% of enterprises had been attacked for payment fraud. Thankfully, automating Accounts Payable processes can help your businesses stay safe from such attacks by entrusting particular staff members with the responsibilities of approving invoices and making payments.
This will ensure that no one party is in control of such important tasks. This can not only minimize the threat and likelihood of fraud but also provide ample chance to double-check data. Furthermore, data science is also stepping forward to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions.
Increased Transparency
The usefulness of enhanced dashboards cannot be exaggerated. Automating AP processes will capture all transaction data, as well as all related data, and everything is stored on a centralized server in the cloud.
The data can be accessed, analyzed, modified, and reviewed by stakeholders when they need to create reports, monitor transactions in real-time, track cash flow, make strategic decisions and so much more.
Auditing Made Effortlessly
Automating Accounts Payable can make document management easy, which will enhance and improve audits for your business. Automating software should help combine invoices with receipts and purchase orders, while also gathering all the relevant data for every transaction.
Automating the auditing process will ensure that the record is completely accurate and no paperwork or documentation ever goes missing. At the end of the day, this will help your business achieve a high level of accuracy when it comes to documents and reports.
Customer Satisfaction
Manual accounts payable processes are more likely to be subject to errors, delays, or other issues that keep both internal and external parties from being fully satisfied at the end of the day. The biggest reason why suppliers might not be satisfied is because of late payments that can be caused by misfiled or lost invoices.
An automated AP system could magically get rid of such problems and help achieve timely operations and better relationships with vendors because of an increase in control and speed. That could also help make sure that the accounts payable department is playing its role in achieving the company goals with regards to finances and maintaining a positive image.
Conclusion
The advantages of an AP automated system that we have highlighted can play an important role in any enterprise with regards to streamlining the invoicing and payment processing functions.
Embracing digital transformation by choosing an automated accounts payable system will offer a variety of improvements through smoother payable processes, time savings, and better data management. Now is the time to leave behind the traditional, paper-based AP workflows, especially if you want to achieve excellence, profitability, and gain a competitive advantage.