Processing accounts payable (AP) manually is holding your business back. All the hours you spend digging through invoices, exchanging emails and dealing with disgruntled suppliers can be spent doing the actual work of running and growing the business. That’s why you need automation – to streamline and simplify your AP process.
Why should I automate accounts payable? This is an important question that many business people ask. In this post, we will explore the answer as your first step towards tapping into the benefits of AP automation.
Faster Payments, Happier Suppliers
Automation ensures faster payments by streamlining the most important tasks of invoice processing. For example, the automated system captures and records details of invoices as soon as they arrive. There is no need to wait for manual entry before the process starts.
Secondly, it auto-routes invoices to the right approvers. That eliminates unnecessary steps like forwarding emails or waiting for someone else to review a document physically. It is also worth noting that these automated systems work after hours – invoice processing is 24/7.
With such a faster process, your business will be able to pay suppliers on time, maintaining the good relationships you have worked so hard to build. Solutions like Get yooz make it even easier for you to implement this kind of automation without overhauling your entire workflow.
Fewer Mistakes
Another thing you get when you automate your accounts payable is fewer mistakes throughout the process. An AP system captures invoice data automatically – this eliminates the need for manual entry, thus reducing the risk of typos and other errors. Additionally, the invoice details are validated against purchase orders and contracts to make sure everything matches (from item quantities to pricing and totals).
The best thing about an automated system is that it applies consistent logic every time. You would not have to worry about someone getting tired and overlooking crucial details that often lead to costly errors.
Save Hours Every Week
The biggest bottleneck of manual invoice processing is the hours spent going through the invoices trying to validate the details against contracts and purchase orders. An automated AP system can help you with this problem.
It makes invoice reading and data capture automatic. Additionally, its auto-routing capabilities reduce the back-and-forth email chats. Each invoice is sent directly to the correct approver, helping save the time it would have taken to pass it through several desks.
A Clearer Picture of Your Spending
Another challenge with manual invoice processing is that it doesn’t provide clear visibility into things like invoice status, amounts due or payment timelines. As such, it can be challenging to keep track of your current cash flow position.
An automated AP processing system centralises everything. For example, you no longer need to chase down updates or go to the finance desk to see if a payment has gone through. It brings the key pieces of information into one place, making it easier to access whenever a need arises.
Having a clear picture of your spending makes it easier to forecast your financial state and plan for upcoming payments. That is especially important when you have to schedule such payments for a later date.
Conclusion
Automating AP is an essential step towards streamlining invoice processing. It essentially reduces the stress on your finance team, minimising the risk of errors, saving time and helping you become more cost-effective. If you are ready to take the stress out of your account payable process, it is time to explore the myriad of solutions that fit your business.
