It’s no wonder why AP is such a headache for most!!!!
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I woke up this morning with a curiosity as to why so many companies still burn their cash every day by NOT&automating the most important parts of their infrastructure – the payment system? &Why businesses are losing customers, time and money due to slow and inaccurate payment procedures? What hinders companies to move away from paper-based manual processes to a fully automated solution that enables streamlined payment processes? What’s the hold up? Are companies so much habitual and prone to their &paper processes that&makes them resistant to change? This change if not brought in time could engulf the history of the company altogether.&
Before answering these question, I posed myself yet with another question in soliloquy, "Are companies even aware (fully) of what could be achieved by deploying such a process automated solution?" I’ and those who have understood the benefits of AP automation have long reaped the earnings of the investment and are now enjoying the benefits of improved cash management and governance. Taking these benefits into account, 50 percent of organizations that have moved to an automated AP solution reported a software cost payback period of nine months or less, and 22 percent reported payback in as little as 6 months. Moreover, invoice processing cost reductions averaged close to 30 percent, or $300K for $10 per invoice, and nearly a third reported savings of 50 percent or more. Most of the CFOs would not deny that it takes them seven days to process a single invoice, with each payment costing $8 to process. So, if an organization processes 10,000 or more invoices per month, imagine the time, resources and costs that would take with manual procedures and paper-based documents. That would certainly add up fast, especially as 83 percent of invoices still rely on paper. And, with so many steps and documents involved, it’s all too common for documents to go missing and manual errors to occur, causing further delays in processing time. One in five businesses lose 3 percent or more of total receivables due to short payments, late payments, out-of-time discount claims, tax disputes, contract disputes, unrecoverable debts and other exceptions. Yet, it’s surprising that many still suffer through manual processes and poor access to related case-documents. Every year, millions of dollars are written off, thousands of hours are misused and countless customer reputations are put at risk from businesses’ AR departments performing time-consuming manual tasks such as phoning, e-mailing, faxing, mailing and filing to collect the documentation necessary to resolve payment disputes and exceptions. With these high procedure costs, long AP cycle times and increased risk for human error, it’s amazing that 50 percent of organizations have yet to adopt an automated AP system – not to mention that one third of those receiving more than 25,000 invoices per month, still use paper-based processes. Without automated AP processes, businesses of all sizes lose money and possibly hurt their reputation.
Accounts payable processes handle a large variety of documentation in a variety of formats. While most think of AP documentation as strictly invoices, it also includes other associated documentation such as contracts, purchase orders a all of which may be received in different locations and format types (paper and/or electronic). What’s more, invoices that are not associated with a purchase order may have a whole new set of documents that need to be identified and associated with the invoice.& All of these documents need to be found, captured, archived and linked to the transaction, and then managed for access and workflow processes. Moving to paperless AP processes not only achieves rapid and substantial cost savings, but also significant cash management benefits, increased process visibility and faster AP approval loops. When best practices are put in place for automating these processes, the benefits are real and tangible. In fact, a third of businesses report cost savings of 50 percent or more from adopting automated AP and AR solutions as opposed to previous manual procedures.
At Connectis, we understand the process flow and business functions of most of accounting systems and ERP solution such as&SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, SAGE,&Infor/Lawson, Epicor, QAD, IFS, Syspro, QuickBooks, and&provide direct integration to these solutions to &eliminate data entry, increase data accuracy and reduce manual handling of invoices.
&Connectis offers Artsyl’s InvoiceAction solution that uses Smart Process Technology to help you control Accounts Payable invoice processing costs. InvoiceAction captures invoices automatically, classfi-es them, splits them apart, extracts and validates the needed data then routes them to the appropriate staff. Exceptions are handled quickly, approvals and GL coding are managed electronically through a workow process. This dramatically reduces the time, costs and errors in the process. InvoiceAction ensures your invoices are captured automatically from Scanners, Emails, Network Folders and Fax Servers, and then submitted directly for processing. InvoiceAction allows you to scan paper invoices locally or remotely and ensure your invoices are in order. Once captured invoices can be automatically classi-ed and sorted. This unique process replaces costly manual handling and sorting systems. As the process continues advanced Optional Character Recognition will extract the invoice data eliminating the need to manually key in invoices. Rules based validation ensures the data is accurate. This process allows data validation rules such as Vendor Lookups with 2-way or 3-way matching. Other options include duplicate invoice detection and early payment discount alerts.
As a CFO if you wake up with the similar thoughts as mine trying to find the answer to what is the hold up to automate error-prone manual processes for accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR), Take&a strategic approachto accounts payable&management by picking up your phone now and dial Connectis at
and schedule a date/time for a demo on InvoiceAction for Accounts Payable Automation. Visit us at&Looking for more of the latest headlines on LinkedIn?