AP Automation is changing the business landscape
Many companies today still wonder about the advisability of automating their invoice processes. The reality is that everything in their environment seems to be pushing them in that direction. It's time to stop wondering and read the signs, starting with legal obligations.
HMRC’s ambition is to become the most digitally advanced tax administration so UK-based regulations continue to push finance teams to embrace digital processes. This includes EU Directive 2014/55/EC, Making Tax Digital (MTD), and the Duty to Report.
With many small businesses choosing to ditch the office and work remotely or from home (willingly or not), the issues surrounding manual accounts payable processes and the need for automation remain firmly under the microscope. The truth is that paper-based invoices and processes - those involving manually approving vendor invoices - are no longer viable with highly decentralized teams.
This means that many small businesses are starting to think strategically and long-term about the future of these processes: what will their business look like, how to improve their processes, how to better manage growth and associated costs. Fortunately for them, the ‘too expensive’ or ‘too time-consuming’ excuses to invest in automation in accounts payable are no longer viable.
Easily scalable and managed, especially in the cloud, artificial intelligence and machine learning have seen automated accounts payable software become a staple in a business’ finance department. It is now an accessible solution to businesses of all sizes, no matter how many vendor invoices they receive per month.
Worth mentioning is that small business accounts payable automation ends up rescuing many companies by saving money in the long-term, with an average reduction in cost-per-invoice by up to 70% compared to manual processes.
The bottom line? Although accounts payable automation for small businesses may seem like a bit of a stretch to some, in reality automation becoming more and more accessible and popular each day, helping business owners process more invoices, more accurately, and more securely.
AP Automation enables a very pragmatic approach to accounts payable digital transformation. It is a way for most finance departments to get started. Together they save time and lead to lower costs while employees are enriched by being able to perform tasks with higher added value. Combining these tools for your payables system lead to greater security for all processes, data, and compliance.
François Lacas, COO, Yooz.
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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, does an exceptional job of handling and clarifying several critical business inputs. However, although it does well as a general tool in the finance department, Accounts Payable and invoice processing is a highly complicated and very specific role which requires the right specialized solution to optimize financial performance. In fact, matching your automation solution with your ERP system has significant benefits. Not only can a business reduce their manual-based invoice processing costs and time by around 80% but they can also reduce the likelihood of late payments and strained customer relationships.
For this reason Yooz offers a complete and customizable automated accounts payable combination with Microsoft Dynamics 365. This allows accounts payable staff to receive full visibility into key financial processes to reduce the risk of fraud, lost documents, and duplicate invoices. Don’t worry… Yooz implementation experts are specifically trained to understand each process and workflow to build a customized integration and fully automated purchase-to-pay process.
With Yooz's no-touch solution seamlessly integrated with the Sage Intacct ERP, businesses can automatically capture vendor invoices, update data real-time, and process invoices directly in the Sage platform itself. AP Automation connected to Sage provides a unique, accurate, controlled, cost effective, and more secure purchase-to-pay process.
Not only with Finance and Accounting departments benefit from increased visibility into their payables at any time, but they will also be able to make more informed decisions using real-time data. Best of all, they can decrease their administrative costs by as much as 70%.
Do you realize how much paper moves through the AP department in a day? Month? Year? Many organizations don't grasp just how much a paper process is weighing them down and causing them to fall behind their competition. Fortunately, shedding the paperweight is easy when you transition to a paperless accounts payable system to streamline the entire invoice process. It's a sure way to see immediate benefits in terms of time, space, and costs as well as accuracy and security.
When it comes to Procure-to-Pay (P2P) automation in the Accounts Payable process, most companies are still taking a piecemeal approach that leaves some serious gaps between what’s technically possible and what really happens once a purchase order goes out or an invoice arrives. Needless to say, this methodology can possibly do more harm than good, leaving gaps and room for error that didn’t previously exist.
However, other companies have realized that the best approach is to completely automate your AP from procurement to payment with a seamless technology solution. Not only will this increase efficiency and reduce approval processing times (from an average of 28 to just 3 days), but it can also lower operational costs by up to 80 percent compared to manual and/or paper-based payment systems.
“In the face of extraordinary times and a challenging business climate, AP groups have the opportunity to drive tremendous value and help the greater enterprise navigate these tough times.” In this article we cover several Accounts Payable strategies to map a return to normalcy.
Accounts payable paperless software can really get the engine of a dealership roaring, regardless of size or how spread out its operations are. Leveraging AP software not only reduces costs by empowering the automotive industry's bottom line to go paperless, but it also creates a whole new level of transparency and visibility that profoundly changes the way a dealership does business from procurement-to-payment.
Having an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in place can be an important factor in gaining control over business operations, allowing you to manage and share key business information across a company using a single integrated system. For many small and medium size businesses, this means automating your invoices in Sage 200cloud.
For those finance leaders who want a powerful holistic experience that offers a long-term competitive advantage? It means going a step further and taking advantage of a dedicated Accounts Payable (AP) automation solution.
Automating your accounts payable system is about more than simply choosing and implementing the first solution that you discover. In order to have a seamless process, any solution that you adopt must also integrate with your existing ERP or operation software. This is why the Yooz partnership plays an important factor in automating your invoices with Sage 50.
From the very first step of data collection all the way to payment, the quality speed of your Accounts Payable (AP) process during each step in the workflow has a direct impact on the profitability and success of your business. Understanding why - and how - the process works can help ensure that you reap the benefits of automation and help you to improve Accounts Payable efficiency.
The partnership between Yooz and Talentia is a seamless integration that will help to maximise the benefits of your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and your accounts payable process. Learn more about how automating your invoices in Talentia will provide the real-time information to support motivating and retaining employees.
Account Payable (AP) administrators play a critical role in the finance department for all sizes of businesses. They ensure that all the payment cycles are accurate, efficient, and timely which of course influences overall operations and cash flow. Because of this it is important to truly understand the accounts payable administrator duties and responsibilities and how they in particular can benefit from implementing an automated AP process.
Accounts payable automation and business process automation tools are here to stay, bringing with them a whole host of benefits for organisations. However, what does that truly mean? How many decision-makers understand the benefits, from the capability to automate key or entire business process to increasing information security and improving vendor and supplier relations?
The power combination of Yooz and SAP AP automation offers a seamless integration of systems and capabilities to help you get the most out of your digital transformation. This supercharged system will help unlock a new level of productivity and efficiency, one characterized by on-time payments, digital audit trails, and real-time information for on-time strategic decisions.
Technology today is a driving force behind business efficiency and productivity, transforming accounting operations and the profession from a pre-computer, manual era to the current modern, tech-savvy society. To truly understand how this change – and accounts payable automation in particular – is shaping tomorrow’s finance department, you’ll need to take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of accounting in technology.
How is your job performance? Are you achieving your goals? How do you know? According to IOFM there are four key Accounts Payable performance metrics that you can use as benchmarks; straightforward Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are easy to measure and when combined with an end-to-end AP automation process, pay off as a rule (not an exception).
Restaurants face increasing challenges when it comes to invoice processing. Just one missing product or person can cause havoc, and keeping track of all the paperwork and different supplies each day can rapidly become overwhelming. Having an automated restaurant invoice management system can help reduce the chance of problems, saving time and money. Let’s explore the five steps of automation success here.
Companies using Microsoft Dynamics GP can take modernizing their AP function even further thanks to the partnership with Yooz, integrating the powerful and highly customizable AP automation solution to create a single and seamless ERP automation system. In fact, you can say that the two are a perfect match for each other; this is a combination of a top-notch ERP with the best in AP automation software.
Completing any construction project means ensuring that all the different parties involved stay informed, payments are made on time, and numerous other challenges. All of these make construction Accounts Payable operations key to project success.
Investing in automation to streamline the construction Accounts Payable process can save a significant amount of time and money, benefitting accounting to project managers and customers to individual vendors. Let’s further explore some of the key reasons.
Accounts Payable (AP) automation can help make any Accounts Payable administrator happier by streamlining the invoice processing workflow, reducing manual data entry, eliminating errors and improving accuracy, increasing efficiency, and reducing the time spent on processing invoices.
This means that the AP administrator’s duties have changed, freeing them up to focus on strategic tasks that add increasing value to the business.
While retailers are investing heavily in new technology such as point-of-sale systems, stock management tools, and other software integrations, the finance function must not be overlooked. Putting in place a fluid retail Accounts Payable process is an important step in building a successful business, and there’s nothing that can make retailers more competitive than automating manual tasks that left along only create friction and bottlenecks.
The Accounts Payable (AP) process has historically been manual, hugely reliant on paper, and full of pitfalls for organisations of all sizes. While parts have gradually adapted to advances in technology – desktop accounting software, Excel spreadsheets, etc. – most remain outdated practices that leave companies wanting more. That more can be found by creating an end-to-end Accounts Payable paperless workflow using automation.
As businesses look to increase productivity and lower costs throughout every inch of their operations, tools that help Accounts Payable (AP) staff perform to their full potential should not be ignored. Solutions such as AP automation machine learning – the production of algorithms that can learn from data to make intelligent decisions and automate tasks – are tools that help to combat challenges and flaws of manual Accounts Payable processes.
Retailers face a number of challenges when trying to maintain profit margins, with Accounts Payable being an often-overlooked component that can have a significant impact on supplier relationships, cash flow, and revenue. However, by adopting automated solutions, retailers can reduce or eliminate many of the common challenges faced in a manual retail Accounts Payable process such as cost, accuracy, and timeliness. This makes Accounts Payable automation for retailers - both large and small – crucial for ensuring smooth operations and supplier satisfaction.
An Accounts Payable approval matrix helps define who reviews and approves invoices according to several variables such as value, deadlines, vendor location, and criteria. Once these are defined, automation is the easiest and most reliable way to ensure that invoices are paid on time, every time, and without error. This in turn gives organisations the accurate information necessary to make smart business decisions.
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Yooz delivers the highest automation rates by industry standards, combined with unrivalled simplicity, to help accounting and finance leaders tackle their productivity and security challenges from purchase to payment.
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