Give Your Keyboard a Rest with Electronic Invoicing
Take a look at your computer keyboard. If the letter keys are shinier than the number keys, you’re working too hard.
At least you’re working too hard at data entry. But why? Why, when so much of that manual data entry can be eliminated with Accounts Payable automation?
The answer, as with so many other things we shouldn’t be doing, is that it’s become a habit. Every month, the invoices roll in by mail. The information is extracted and typed in to create records. The paper invoice gets rerouted for verifications, match-ups, and ultimately, approvals. The approved paper invoice makes its way back to Accounts Payable, and now more typing and processing is required to get a check in the mail.
Most of these functions could be done automatically with InvoiceWorks®, freeing up time and saving on exhausted keyboard numbers and sore fingers and wrists.
Compared to paper, electronic invoicing is designed for ease of use, but it’s so much more. Leading AP automation systems provide a platform on which you and your vendors can communicate and input data with clicks instead of keystrokes. Data is stored, processed, compiled and made available with the same mouse click. And communication and data sharing are instantaneous because everyone with a stake in the payment process has access in real time.
While manual data can lead to human error, e-invoicing ensures correct information on each invoice. Plus, since the data are available for examination by your vendor and the procuring department, any errors that do slip through can be picked up and corrected before an error becomes an embarrassment.
With the right AP automation, you have the ability to store and process information with a few clicks. Much of it is automatically routed to the correct e-file, anyway. Everything is organized and ready for tax time or an audit.
So, you see, AP automation is the next logical step. Once upon a time we used ledger books. Then typewriters and carbon paper for copies (remember what “cc” used to mean?). Computing was the next step forward, but too many AP departments are stuck in the mindset that their computers are merely for reentry of what comes in on paper (hence, the shiny letter keys) rather than point-and-click data retrieval and automatic processing. Electronic Invoicing cuts out all that inputting and does most of the busy work for you with lightning speed and far more accuracy.