Discover how accounts payable automation can help you improve your financial processes and data, save time and money, reduce errors and fraud, and gain better insight into your business performance.
Accounts payable automation offers numerous benefits to organizations seeking to streamline and optimize their financial operations. By leveraging advanced technology and software solutions, automation can significantly enhance efficiency, accuracy and control in managing accounts payable processes.
What is Account Payable Automation?
Account payable automation (AP automation) is the use of technology to process supplier invoices in a digital and touchless way. Account payable automation reduces manual processes, costs, errors, time and improves vendor relations. AP automation can also handle tasks like data entry, invoice matching and governance.
Why Automate Account Payable?
Accounts payable automation can be of great benefit to your company in many ways. Here are some of the main benefits of account payable automation.
Top 3 Benefits of Account Payable Automation
1. Improved Accuracy
One of the most expensive issues with manually processing invoices is human error. Both external to your company and internal divisions are capable of making these mistakes. The initial stage of AP processing can be sped up while also lowering errors that end up costing you money by automating your process with solutions that intelligently gather the data displayed on invoices. Duplicate payments are simple to find using AP automation software since invoice data is checked against enterprise resource planning (ERP).
2. Recognizable Cost Savings
For an organization, the cost per invoice processed is a crucial KPI. Processing bills manually is a tedious and expensive process. More process automation can significantly lower the cost associated with processing invoices. Many invoices could be processed and approved with a minimum of human intervention, resulting in a reduction in processing costs per item that has measurable financial benefits for the company.
3. Improvements in Time Efficiency
In times gone by, invoices would sit on desks or wait in email inboxes for approval, but AP automation eliminates such delays, streamlining the entire approval process. Intuitive dashboards afford users a detailed, real-time view of invoice processing, while you can also apply specific parameters to the workflow so the appropriate person receives a timely invoice. Manual data entry and other time-consuming tasks can be eliminated with Accounts Payable automation, enabling accounting teams to focus on higher-value tasks.
How to Automate Account Payable?
Depending on your company’s objectives and budget, there are many methods to automate accounts payable. One of the most common ways is to use a cloud-based software solution that integrates with your existing ERP system and provides features such as invoice capture, workflow management, approval routing, payment processing and reporting.
Another way to automate accounts payable is to outsource it to a third-party service provider that can handle all aspects of invoice processing for you. This option can be suitable for businesses with limited resources or expertise in AP automation or who want to focus on their core competencies.
Final Words
Account payable automation is a smart way to improve your business performance and efficiency. Automating invoice processing can save you time and money, reduce errors and fraud risks, gain better insight into your financial data, and strengthen vendor relationships. Whether you use a software solution or outsource your AP process, you can enjoy the benefits of account payable automation and take your business to the next level.
