AP Automation or Accounts Payable Automation, is a necessity for modern businesses. A recent study has found that the cost to organizations with poor accounts payable performance is 3 times that of those who are implementing more efficient practices. One of the essentials in having a higher performance AP department is AP Automation. Here are a few ways AP Automation can help your organization.
1. Reduce manual effort
This is typically the biggest win for AP departments. There are still many that are manually entering in data from paper based or PDF invoices. There are other areas of manual effort all through the process from assigning GL codes, to manually approving invoices.
2. Protecting against fraud
Protecting an organization is difficult as there are multiple ways that invoices can lead to fraud. AP automation can help automatically detect duplicate invoices, flag new emails, and even identify new IP addresses used to send invoices.
3. Is the supplier invoice accurate?
AP Automation can be used to review the incoming invoices and determine if a number of the components are correct. This could include the right PO, pricing, taxes are correct, and that the math adds up. By flagging potential errors, the system will in most cases, send the invoice back to the supplier to be revised before it hits the AP team. Overall, this can be a huge factor to promote savings in the long run.
4. Quarantined invoices
There will always be supplier invoices that are legitimate, even though they may be missing a PO for a unique situation. AP Automation can provide the ability to quarantine invoices in a methodical way so they can be dealt with at a later date.
5. Approval process
Many can focus on digitizing of the invoice and forget about the process for approval. Many organizations still have a manual process for the approval of an invoice. In some cases, this could include updating spreadsheets and no visibility on the process. Proper AP Automation can move the invoice around digitally and give the finance team visibility of how the invoice is being approved through the organization. There is also the opportunity to provide automatic approvals through the system if things like the PO #, price, and quantity all match.
6. Integration with ERP/Finance
One of the last hurdles in the AP process is passing the information onto the ERP or finance system. Automating this process can speed up visibility as well as reducing the time consuming manual effort.
7. Supplier support
One of the big things that often times not considered is the strain on the AP department in dealing with customer support for suppliers. A shared portal can provide an update to the suppliers so that their team can view the progress of the invoice. Furthermore, there is a messaging feature which allows for the supplier and customer to chat, as well as archive the issues and resolutions attached to the invoice in question.
If you would like to understand how OnePosting can help with AP Automation for your organizations invoices, book a meeting with our team.
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