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Unfortunately for the everyday accounts payable professional, and somehow in this modern day and age, invoice approval remains a common, day-to-day problem.
Too many are still using spreadsheets or paper documents. Recent research commissioned by Yooz found that one in five businesses across mainland Europe still use manual processes for invoice approval - equating to millions of organisations across the world.
What’s more surprising is that just 18% of EU businesses currently use some form of automated digital invoice processing software.
So why are organisations still stuck in their old ways and not adopting paperless accounting processes? Especially when the issues surrounding manual invoice approval - such as approval errors, delayed/lost invoices, and late payments to name a few - have long been documented.
Automating invoice approval workflows can help. Here’s how.
What is invoice approval workflow software? And why do I need an invoice approval process?
Manual processes, such as emailing vendors for chasing invoices or purchase orders, inserting data into Excel spreadsheets, or sending and archiving paper documents, are boring, old-fashioned, and costly.
Not just in monetary terms either, as mistakes and late payments caused by human error can cause fractured relationships with customers, suppliers and even employees.
It’s clear businesses need a better solution for their invoice approval needs.
The use of digital invoice approval software has taken away the pre-existing reliance and trust on individuals within the organisation, such as the accounts payable professional, the financial director or the CFO.
Invoice approval workflow software essentially automates key steps within the traditional process to produce faster, better and more accurate results.
The technology behind the solution, a combination of machine learning and artificial intelligence, may sound complicated, but it doesn’t take a genius to do this or implement within finance departments.
How can I get an Invoice approved in simple steps by the team?
It all starts with a simple scan of a document, such as a digital invoice in need of approval and payment. Once scanned, the system automatically matches the information with supporting documents such as purchase orders and receipts and then logs the data into the system records.
Line items such as purchase order number, supplier name, address, invoice number and even VAT are automatically registered, meaning there’s no need to spend hours inserting data into a spreadsheet.
From here, the digital invoice approval software works with your chosen ERP system to provide accounts payable staff with a complete view of the status of work, receive real-time notifications, and approve any outstanding invoices - all at the click of a button.
The use of automated invoice approval workflows is transforming the way accounts payable staff operate. It’s no longer about just crunching the numbers, but becoming a key focal point in improving communication, collaboration, and relationships with suppliers and customers.
Remote work employees or those on the go can also approve, reject or question invoices anywhere, any time using a mobile device, making the solution entirely flexible.
How does Invoice approval workflow software benefit my company?
From a company point of view, you want to make sure that any new piece of software is reliable and secure.
Invoice approval software provides full visibility and traceability of documents, giving accounts payable staff the capability to easily identify, question and resolve any bottlenecks with a complete trail of approval history.
It’s also completely secure, as only nominated members of the team have access to the platform, with everything password protected with two-factor authentication, even on mobile.
But the benefits to the wider company can be seen in a sharp increase in productivity. Accounts payable staff also feel liberated by becoming more strategic in their traditional working day instead of spending time working on menial, labour-intensive tasks.
Why pick Yooz for invoice approval workflow software?
For more than two decades now, our team of experts have been working, learning and fine-tuning our technology to make it one of the most powerful on the market today.
Over that time, the Yooz platform has scanned, captured and recorded more than 100 million invoices from more than a million different vendors.
Yooz has learnt from every single document it has processed to continually improve and provide the fastest, simplest and most secure digital invoice approval platform in the world.
For example, even with the number of different formats, document types and templates used for invoices - from Word docs to PDFs - Yooz still understands and learns from every single invoice.
Using a combination of automation, AI and machine learning, we take away all of the hours spent on menial, repetitive tasks - meaning most invoices don’t ever have to be touched or processed by a human, unless in the most unusual of circumstances.
Most of our customers can expect to see around an 80% reduction in processing cost per invoice, as well as invoice approval times from weeks to hours.
Accounts payable staff can perform a quick search across different office locations, accounting departments and geographies, and have results in front of them quicker than a Google search.
Plus, as it’s a cloud solution benefitting from automation, it can be used on smartphones and wherever employees are based - useful in a world of remote and hybrid working.
Yooz automation in accounts payable makes invoice approval easy, enabling teams to witness productivity benefits never seen before. It’s about time others got on board and experienced the transformative power of Automated Invoice Processing, streamlining operations and unlocking new levels of efficiency across the finance department.
