The Benefits of AP Automation.

The paper-based accounts payable process presented many challenges, including a lack of efficiency, risk of fraud, and a propensity for humans to make errors. AP automation is positioned to streamline the AP process, making it far easier for firms to make payments–without sacrificing accuracy or security.

If your firm is considering AP automation software, here are the benefits you can look forward to.

Faster Invoice Processing

AP staff often spent hours on invoice processing from gathering and filing paperwork, verifying invoice accuracy, gaining approval from the correct person, writing checks, ensuring invoices are not duplicates, and payments are made on time.

It was, and for many firms still is, an arduous manual process.

AP automation centralizes all paperwork and communications into one thread. Invoices are automatically captured, approvals are streamlined (and automated), and paperwork is reduced to nearly nothing.

For example, was able to reduce their AP processing time by 75% by using the Ezcloud AP automation platform to streamline invoice management.

Reduce AP Errors

Humans are prone to making mistakes. Numbers get transposed, invoices get lost, duplicate invoices are processed for payment and then are paid. AP managers work very hard to reduce these errors, but invoices can be complex documents in the manual process and require hours of labor to accurately review, verify, and route for approval.

AP automation makes the job easier by suggesting approvers (which are customizable with defined thresholds), sending reminders for late payments, and even flagging inconsistencies that otherwise would have slipped through.

This allows the AP team to focus on more strategic efforts, such as working with vendors to find more agreeable terms.

Save Money Every Month

Transitioning from a physical AP process to an automated one can save money on several fronts. For starters, companies using AP automation often pay less in late fees because the software sends out reminders before invoices are marked late.

Accounts payable automation also reduces the manual labor required from AP. Which frees up AP teams who process invoices for approval and management which oversees the entire P2P process — to now have time to focus on mission-critical tasks. For example, AP teams in the automated model now have more time to identify opportunities for early payment discounts, or even negotiate with vendors on terms.

More importantly, AP automation can reduce fraud by providing more control into the process via communications and action records on top of each invoice, which are all auditable. The added controls include tracking of field inputs or updates, attached files, approvals or rejections, and comments or questions.

Consider the average fraud victim loses $150,000 and that fraud is more prevalent in the manual AP model. Then on the other hand, examine the automated AP model which offers a piece of mind for businesses with auditable invoice actions and more control over the invoice lifecycle.

Access to More Data

AP automation allows full access to data at every step of the invoice approval process through to the invoice being marked as paid.

Want to know how many invoices are outstanding? How much a specific vendor has been paid in the last year? Or even, which AP manager approved the most invoices in the last month?

AP automation software allows users with the correct level of access to check on the status of an invoice, view payments, and check a wide range of data provided through management dashboards.

For example, data can be viewed at the invoice level, so each invoice will have a communication and history trail for any changes or questions. This means when an approver jumps into the invoice assigned to them, they can view changes made by AP or previous approver questions. They can also see the previous vendor invoice history and amounts — which makes the approval process easier.

In addition, it is much easier to follow an electronic trail than a paper one. You can see precisely who approved a specific invoice, where it was captured, and who paid it. Advanced search features make it simple to look at invoices by status, amount, date, vendor, or any invoice fields — including custom fields, and even based on text.

These features make it easier to balance the books, create custom reports, spot small issues before they become bigger problems, and even recover faster after a natural disaster, such as flood or fire.

Improved Vendor & Customer Experience

Streamlining the AP process through automation makes it far easier to ensure payments are made on time. Timely approval and on time, or even early payments reduce supplier risk and helps your company build a stronger relationships with your suppliers.

In addition, by centralizing conversations into one middle feed location on top of the digital invoice, you can reduce dozens of back and forth emails. This makes it easier, for example, to request more information from a vendor by asking them a question in the AP automation platform which results in issues being resolved faster and decreases the chances of a late payment.

To ensure full-control over your sensitive data, external vendors can only view the invoice image and a section to respond to the specific question asked.

Happy vendors mean happier customers, too. Your company is less likely to run out of a favorite product or deliver an order late due to a late vendor order.

Adopting Innovative Technology for Your Accounts Payable

For too long, companies have made do with a manual AP process that is inefficient, ineffective, and prone to errors. Despite the hard work and dedication of AP teams, accounts payable workflows have remained behind the times.

An AP workflow solution like Ezcloud helps companies speed up the AP process, reduce costly errors, and lower overhead costs. Using intelligent technologies, our platform learns how you do business and uses that information to, for example, contact the right people for invoice approval automatically.