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.
In any paper-based scenario there is a direct correlation between an increased number of invoices and a higher cost to processing them. An automated process changes this relationship by eliminating the correlation. That means for both accounting professionals and companies, a main attraction to automation is the notably reduced cost of processing an invoice. For example, the cost of manually processing an invoice is estimated at 9£ to 20£, plus the additional costs of storage, archives, and the occasional required information look-up (representing an average of 3.25£ including associated indirect costs such as time spent, storage space and loss and delays). No matter how you look at it, costs quickly add up and can continue to climb.
In contrast digitalizing invoices can lower these costs by as much as 70%. Even better, with digitalization, companies can also automate many additional tasks, make data more accessible, and further increase their return on investment. In the end, it is possible to improve the processing cycle by a factor of 20!
Companies that spend sufficient time and resources to figure out the best Accounts Payable (AP) solution for their business can discover and unlock the multitude of benefits resulting from automation, all the way from purchase to payment. They score by gaining the ability to approve and pay invoices with unmatched speed, savings, and security.
But how to go about this discovery? The best way to do this is to identify and collect the company’s specific needs, then use this information to create an AP automation business case. Once they finish matching specific needs to benefits, without question everyone should see there is a pretty compelling case to move forward.
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.
Did you know?
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.
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.
Accounts Payable Automation
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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