Enterprise organizations that handle hundreds of invoices each month face several challenges when they manually process these invoices.
- Verifying, approving, and scheduling payment for each invoice may take many hours or even days.
- Additionally, the process frequently involves several employees from the accounts, billing, finance, and other departments.
- It’s not always easy to get invoices from suitable processors and then move them up the chain for approval.
- It exposes businesses to risks such as duplicate payments being issued, invoices getting lost (or delayed) in the mail, determining incorrect General Ledger codes for non-purchase order invoices, delayed approvals, and more.
These problems of manual invoice processing significantly affect a company’s revenues, reputation, and profitability. To counter the roadblocks, next-generation organizations have already started implementing automated invoice processing.
The goal of this article is to highlight how an automated invoice processing system is beneficial for your organization.
How does automated invoice processing software improve your accounts payable (AP) department’s efficiency?
The invoice processing automation improves the AP department’s productivity with:
- Higher information accuracy
- Comprehensive visibility into the department’s performance
- Compliance with business and industry standards
Invoice processing automation speeds up execution and preserves payment accuracy by automating labor-intensive manual procedures like invoice data entry, data verification, gap analysis, and approval workflow. What’s more, the approved payments can be planned and will be automatically changed when the time comes.
An invoice processing automation program for processing invoices can:
- Capture data from each supplier invoice as it arrives
- Verify the accuracy of every line item
- Convert currencies and units of measurement
- Inform your accounts payable processors of any errors
- If approvals or reconciliations are taking longer than usual, it sends out reminders
- Re-route invoices to other employees if one process is taking too long
- Put an end to manual data input by directly entering each invoice into your ERP
- Check for early payment discounts and plan payments accordingly
- Automatically generate payment vouchers and receipts
- Give you complete visibility into the spending trends of your business
A complete checklist: What to look for in an automated invoice processing system?
- Identify data based on categories
The first thing you should be looking for in an automated invoice processing system is its ability to identify the data based on categories. For example, data from the CRM cannot be on the same page as data from the ERP or HRIS. The system should be able to learn from data by recognizing patterns and exceptions, allowing it to make judgments without the need for human intervention.
- Provide flexibility in formats
Different businesses have varied file format needs when it comes to processing invoices, like PDF, CSV, or XML formats. Select an invoice processing automation software that can scan data across the most commonly used standard file formats.
- Speedy data extraction and accuracy
Every organization needs a system that can extract the data from the invoices accurately and on time. Select an invoice automation software that imports an invoice, processes it, and extracts all the data within a few clicks.
- Adaptive intelligence
Advanced invoice OCR automatically extracts data using neural networks and reverse image search thanks to technological breakthroughs. Choose an AI-based invoice processing automation software that is self-learning for minimal error potential.
- Allow third-party integrations
The simplicity of invoice processing automation can be improved by sending invoice data to any other software with a single click via the API. Certain APIs may only accept XML or JSON, depending on the situation. It is crucial to note that data extraction in all formats must be straightforward yet effective so that the client may use it or include it for various objectives.
- Advanced security
The invoice processing automation system should have enterprise-grade security with features such as end-to-end data encryption, access rights control, and audit trails to guarantee that sensitive information is only accessible to authorized users.
By eliminating paper-based processes, invoice automation software decreases the risk of fraudsters stealing sensitive organizational data. It should also provide you with specific internal controls that improve the security of your AP data and transactions. Reconciliation and authority documentation are some examples of internal controls. They exist to help organizations give the accessibility of sensitive information to only those who need it. Using these controls, auditors can be relied upon to correct poor record-keeping or privacy breaches that put your business in danger.
- Storage and backup opportunity
The cloud supports the ideal backup option because of its scalability, accessibility, and security. To fully benefit from automated invoice processing, organizations require a cloud-based platform that allows access to data from any device and at any time. They can easily monitor their financial processes and guarantee that the data is up-to-date and secure.
In conclusion, invoice processing automation aims to remove the complexity and high expenses associated with conventional AP procedures. All-in-one invoice processing automation software can reduce dependency on outdated techniques and expedite the invoicing process from procure to pay within a single central platform. Even better, data can be gathered from various input devices within the software.
The invoice processing automation should perform an intelligent extraction process after the document has been scanned and be well-equipped to verify the data in the files. The following stage entails labeling and classifying documents to facilitate quick retrieval. It helps save your staff’s time and boost overall productivity.Making sure your business pays its debts on time will help you better manage cash flow while lowering liability concerns. Additionally, there is more time for management and staff to focus on initiatives that advance the organization. That helps everyone, not just the finance teams.