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Today more than ever, businesses are looking for ways to automate processes that are integral to business functioning. However, statistics show that about 60% of companies still haven’t made the switch to automate their accounts payable processes. If you’ve been on the fence wondering if it’s worth it to automate your company’s accounts payable system, there are many valid benefits to consider. Below are 15 reasons to automate AP in your organization.
This article will cover the following topics:
- Why should businesses automate their AP processes?
- 15 reasons to automate AP
- Selecting an AP Automation Solution
- Exploring PayEm as an AP automation solution
Why should businesses automate their AP processes?
Automation doesn’t replace human tasks, but rather it optimizes the performance of these tasks into manageable, efficient, and error-free modules that ultimately offer substantial benefits to a company. Today’s forward-thinking business leaders want to find the best solutions that will increase profitability, protect against fraud, reduce operational costs, and eliminate bottlenecks while saving the company money. Nothing does that better than automation.
With a workflow centralized around AP automation, businesses can leverage today’s best technology to create an empowered workflow that puts the control back into their hands. Automation will ultimately empower the team to spend less effort on activities that are repetitive and time-consuming, thus freeing up time to focus on more high-value tasks while reducing operational costs and increasing productivity and efficiency.
15 Reasons to Automate AP
By leveraging the power of financial technology, companies can complete processes that were formally done manually more effortlessly and cohesively. Here are 15 reasons to automate AP now.
Reduce Costs
When you automate accounts payable, you can save money on the cost of processing invoices. Paper invoices involve printing, stamping, and paying for the actual work of processing every invoice that comes through the door. When this entire process is automated, you can avoid these extra costs and could potentially save thousands a year by switching over to AP automation.
Improve ROI
Achieving an improved ROI is one of the many benefits of converting from a manual to an automated accounts payable process. With AP automation, your company can get a greater return on investment for the cost of the automation software. This comes from saving money on employee wages, not processing checks and invoices, and avoiding late fees. Saving on these monthly costs makes for a huge end-of-year profit when implementing AP automation solutions.
More accurate data management
Tracking down paper checks and invoices can quickly become a time drain, especially without the right systems and processes in place. However, with the implementation of AP automation, your company can enjoy much more accurate data management. When everything related to the AP process is automated, it is quickly and easily accessible via one centralized platform in a cloud-based system. This optimizes the data management process and allows easy access to critical data.
Scale & grow your business
In order to empower an organization towards realizing its potential, it is necessary to leverage technology. Implementing financial technology allows a business to complete hundreds of tasks in seconds vs. hours, weeks, and days. This type of time leverage simply isn’t possible with manual processes in place. This way, automation allows businesses to quickly scale and grow towards previously unreachable heights.
Reduce human error & boost efficiency
Manual processes are prone to error. Until now, this has been an unavoidable part of doing business. However, with the advent of automation, companies can avoid paying the prices for costly mistakes that result from human error. In addition, when you automate accounts payable, you can experience a boost in efficiency as less time is spent correcting major errors that negatively impact the company’s bottom line.
Bolster visibility & compliance
An automated AP system provides greater visibility into the inner workings of the entire AP process. From seeing who requested approval on an invoice to tracking when and by whom it was approved, all the information is visible and easy to access. With data being easily tracked, it is easy to see whether or not team members are remaining compliant. In addition, with easily programmable rules around spending and approvals, it’s easier to ensure that employees remain aligned with these guidelines.
Manage internal spend
Tired of team members constantly going over budget and spending outside of company guidelines? If so, automating accounts payable is one of the solutions that will be most helpful for your company. With an automated AP system, you can take a set it and forget it approach to managing internal spend. There’s no need to worry about constantly checking the company card balance or reviewing orders to see if any orders were placed outside of company approvals. Automating AP makes managing internal spend simpler and more efficient than ever.
Manage Vendors
Vendors don’t appreciate being paid late, but should it happen, it may result in strained relationships with quality vendors, not to mention late payment fees. Even though AP team leaders are aware of this, it’s often unavoidable that the accounts payable process takes a long time, especially with so many manual steps.
With the introduction of automated solutions, suppliers enjoy a much more efficient process that includes on-time payments, discounts and savings for payments made on time, and good relationships with vendors.
Improve approval processes
Waiting for approvals on invoices and orders can slow down the accounts payable process exponentially. Not only is this frustrating for the employee requesting approval, but it’s equally challenging for the supplier waiting on payment. One of the best ways to eliminate this challenge is to automate the approval process. With automated approval, there is no longer any need for long extensive wait times. This ensures that business goes more smoothly and that the payment process is more streamlined and efficient.
More accurate AP
AP errors are inherently costly and can pose more than just a simple inconvenience for your business. In many cases, AP errors can cause several large setbacks for businesses, which take months to correct. Instead of risking the company’s financial health with manual AP processes, it’s better to automate, which increases accuracy by close to 100%.
Make payments early or on time (discounts/penalties)
Suppliers enjoy getting payments on time or even ahead of schedule; they may even offer incentives and rewards for companies that do so. One of the benefits of using an automated AP process is that companies can take advantage of discounts and benefits for early payments. In the same vein, they can also avoid penalties and late fees for paying invoices late. This is a considerable benefit since late fees can add up to hundreds of extra dollars per year.
Security & fraud protection
Security and fraud protection are important considerations for any accounts payable system. With a multitude of checks, invoices, and payments changing hands consistently, fraud is easily enabled without the right securities in place. However, the introduction of automated AP processes facilitates the reduction, and even elimination, of fraud. AP automation makes it easier to catch invoice irregularities and track AP data.
Forecasting & Analytics
Strategic decision-making is supported by an automated accounts payable process since past trends can be more readily tracked. When invoice and spending trends are thoroughly examined, patterns can be observed, which makes it easier to forecast and make decisions for the future of the business.
Easy Employee/Admin Use
Automated systems are easy to access from any location since they are hosted on a cloud-based server. With easy accessibility comes more fluid collaboration, which allows for real-time responses to any concerns that may arise in the accounts payable process.
Environmentally Friendly
Modern-day businesses are transitioning to a more progressive business model which supports more environmentally friendly solutions. One benefit of automating accounts payable is the reduction in paper used for checks and invoice processing. This reduces associated costs, helps the environment, and lowers your company’s carbon footprint.
Selecting an AP Automation Solution
Now that the benefits of automating accounts payable are clear, the next step is to select an AP automation solution. When selecting the right option, consider choosing software that:
- Integrates with existing ERP systems
- Fits within your company’s budget
- Offers easy accessibility
- Creates a smooth and seamless AP workflow that can grow with you
Automate Accounts Payable With PayEm
There are many different accounts payable automation solutions to choose from. With PayEm, your financial processes are connected into one cohesive platform. PayEm has consistently led businesses towards enhanced communication via one collaborative platform while also boosting productivity through increased process efficiency. With its capacity for AP automation, you can:
- Eliminate manual work with state-of-the-art OCR technology
- Customize approval flows on both bill and payment levels
- Schedule payments
- Assign outgoing payments in one click
- Sync invoices and payments with your ERP
- Track all past, present, and future payments
- Store recurring vendor data
- Link vendors & beneficiaries
- Manage your cashflow
- Automatically pull invoices for processing
- Send cross-border payments in 1 click
- Approve bill payments on-the-go with PayEm’s mobile app
Basically, businesses can revolutionize your AP process and empower your team to achieve success with one of the most robust and dynamic automated accounts payable solutions available today. Curious to learn more about AP Automation for your team with PayEm? Contact PayEm’s experts for a commitment-free, no-cost demo of the platform.
