At Yooz, we can speak about the benefits of accounts payable automation in depth, however, a key question is not why you should be automating your Accounts Payable process with our best-of-breed software, but more specifically who benefits from AP automation? This is what prompted our team to connect a group of individuals to discuss the benefits of Accounts Payable automation and specifically who benefits from AP automation these from their own unique perspectives.
Who better to speak of the life-changing financial benefits of the Yooz Accounts Payable automation solution but our current business customers? Rounding out the discussion, we also invited industry experts to speak about the future of automation, particularly, Accounts Payable automation, and what it means for you and your business.
Yooz Champions and Industry Experts: A Series of Perspectives
The roundtable of experts and clients was made up of industry experts, Mark Brousseau, President of Brousseau and Associates and Bob Cohen, Vice President of Research at consulting firm, Ardent Partners. Yooz Champion and current client, Megan Walker, Vice President of Accounting and Finance for Oxford Collection represented the hospitality industry. Yooz partner and current client, Cantatus Systems Group was represented by its President, Jodi Soheili and Strategy Specialist and Managing Director, Arian Soheili. Together, they engaged in a very dynamic and in-depth discussion about the benefits of Accounts Payable automation and in the case of our clients, specifically on how Yooz made their Accounts Payable process a breeze. You can check out the entire round table discussion in our on demand webinar.
Why Should You Automate Your Accounts Payable Process?
According to industry expert, Bob Cohen: “One thing that we’ve seen recently is that there’s a huge upswing in interest in automating Accounts Payable and that’s something that we’re very excited about here at Ardent Partners because the question isn’t why should you automate your Accounts Payable? The better question is why haven’t you automated your Accounts Payable yet?”
He later added, “the technology exists for every company out there to do this and what we’ve seen recently is that the COVID impact is broad-based and just about every AP department has been affected – some more than others – and what we saw was one of the trends is that those that have automated Accounts Payable previously were impacted much less significantly than those that were still in a manual paper-based environment”.
More and more businesses are switching from a manual invoice and payment process based on paper documents to a process based on automated system. Automation in Accounts Payable not only leads to a more streamlined approval workflow with clear visibility, but it eliminates the risk of human error from manual data entry and approvals. It can also lead to big cost savings with the elimination of late payment fees or through a vendor that offers early payment discounts.
Jodi Soheili from Cantatus Systems Group contributed to the conversation as well and touched on the pain points that Accounts Payable and invoice process automation can help solve such as eliminating paper and being able to reduce the need for specialized staff, “We had manual routing processes that were involved with lots of paper going to different managers, which resulted in delays that would result in finance charges. Also, we found that there was a lot of mistakes being made and so when you have people who maybe didn’t have an accounting background or coding their invoices and then the accounting team was ending up having to fix those things, that also tended to be an issue for some of the projects that I worked on recently”.
The Ease of Implementing the #1 Accounts Payable Automation Solution, Yooz.
One of the best reasons our easy-to-use Accounts Payable automation solution is so popular with our clients is the effortless implementation process. Yooz can help streamline your invoice and payment process via our smart, dynamic workflows and approval processes. Additionally, our specialized implementation team is with you every step of the way to create, train and support you and your entire team to the seamless integration of Yooz to your purchase-to-pay process. When asked about the ease of implementing Yooz for her company, client and Yooz Champion, Megan Walker, from Oxford Collection said with a smile, “It was super easy”.
She added, “David was our implementation specialist, and he spent a lot of weeks with us mapping everything out and we ran so many scenarios by him. What if we do this? And what if we do this? And he helped us really customize our environment to what is going to work for us”.
She finished with this very valuable piece of advice for anyone considering Yooz, “I would say just pull that trigger. Just do it. But continue to train throughout your rollout and even into your first year I guess would be my – one of my suggestions as well. Utilize the tools and the training that Yooz offers”.
Accounts Payable Automation Benefits from Personal Experience
We asked our panelists to share with us their personal experiences from using our invoice and payment processing automation solution. Arian Soheili from Cantatus Systems Group had this to say, “I think Yooz is an example of a tool that can be leveraged to actually empower and not only – because of COVID-19, but in the future, to make life easier for everyone. And that’s the point. Because now they’re going to be able to do things – they don’t have to be in front of their desk to approve those AP invoices. They can be at home, or they can do it when the kids have gone to sleep because they have to do schooling during the day. So, it provides a lot more efficiency”.
He went on to add, “And I think that’s the same thing with our clients. What we are seeing with the clients is – the first thing they do is the accounting department goes, “No.” Right? And then they go and we literally had a kickoff party with one of our clients and we – Jodi and I fell off our chair when the AP clerk said how happy she was because she was crying the whole way when we pushed through the software. And I think change is not easy for people, but the product is so easy to use and the partnership with Yooz is such that when we have issues – and again, I hear from my consultants – you guys are very quick to respond and deal with it. And I don’t know if Megan can say that – agree with that or not. She’s nodding, so I think she’s saying yes”.
The overall consensus from all of our speakers was that the benefits of automating their invoice and payment process with Yooz include the dual benefit of an increase in visibility and efficiency throughout their Accounting and Finance departments and a notable decrease in errors and costs for their Accounts Payable processes.
The Future of Accounts Payable Automation with Yooz: The Leading AP Automation Software on the Market
When asked about the future of Accounts Payable automation, industry expert, Mark Brousseau from Brousseau and Associates, summarized it perfectly, “I think the future is clear and it’s going to be three traits of the future of Accounts Payable. And it starts right now. The first is it’s going to be digital. So we’ve exposed the short-comings of paper-based processes. It’s clear now that organizations are accelerating their push toward digital processes. And that’s long overdue”.
He added, “Number two, Accounts Payable is going to be data-driven, so we’re going to move away from this tactical back office responsive function to becoming proactive and you’re seeing that and the analytical tools that are in solutions like Yooz – the ability to capture as much rich data as possible so that AP can then become this information hub, if you will, for the organization”.
Brousseau ended with, “We’re going to be digital. We’re going to be data-driven. And third, we’re going to be strategic. So Arian said it well – the time and the money that we spend on the drudgery of invoice processing is time and money that we can’t spend on strategic activities like data analysis and supplier management”.
Bob Cohen, wrapped up the topic by adding, “AP is kind of moving from the back office to the front office and we see that as a great trend and something that hopefully will continue – that AP will continue to put its foot on the pedal and drive forward”.
The conversation is barely getting started and it does not end here, automation is part of our everyday work lives transforming how we do business and more and more Accounting and Finance professionals are making the move to automate their complete invoice to payment process with our Accounts Payable automation software. We understand it can be an overwhelming undertaking, but the benefits the company, department and you personally will experience by automating your invoice and payment process will make you question why you waited so long to make the change. You can rest assured that Yooz is ready to guide you every step of the way through your Accounts Payable automation journey.
Are you ready to learn more about how Yooz can transform the way your company does business by eliminating paper invoices and manual tasks, giving you visibility throughout your Accounts Payable process and shortening your cycle time to hours while saving you money?
