Increasing Quality Control in Accounts Payable
In today’s accounts payable departments, concise financial reporting is crucial. A poorly reported accounts payable department can result in omitted liabilities, understated expenses, and a shortfall in supplies to the company. Errors in manual reporting or low-level automation may result in fraudulent activity being overlooked and duplicate payments being made on invoices, which can lead to account imbalances. The more manual hand-offs that are involved in the invoicing process, the greater the risk of such inaccuracies. This lack of concise reporting calls for greater quality control in accounts payable.
Meeting Demands of Today’s AP Departments
With the high level of demands placed on accounts payable departments today, inferior processes can no longer keep up. Manual accounting and spreadsheets are archaic methods of reporting that are no longer effective. Low-level solutions are inefficient, failing to rid AP of the majority of manual efforts. With these challenging invoice processing obstacles, businesses are starting to realize the need for greater quality control in accounts payable.
Greater Visibility Through Automation
Accounts payable executives need greater visibility of the workflow in their own department, as well as any place an invoice may go, to attain better control and greater accountability. Accounts payable automation allows real-time access to each part of the invoice process as it is happening. Task progress can be monitored from start to finish, with a better understanding of the time it takes to complete each task.
Reporting and Audits
With enterprise-level accounts payable automation, reporting and auditing become a breeze. High-level solutions will include comprehensive searchability, which means it’s easy to find invoices as needed with just the push of a button. All invoices are automatically stored to the cloud, so not only are they easy to find, but they are also permanently accessible—greatly simplifying auditing. Top-tier automation solutions also offer detailed reporting abilities, so that AP can get an inside look at things like where money is being spent, individual productivity, and how fast invoices are being processed.
Dynamic Discounting
Accounts payable automation makes use of dynamic discounting to capture early discounts on a per vendor basis. Valuable data is acquired on vendors that can be used to better define the goals that the accounts payable department would like to achieve during the course of a year. Reports can be generated automatically at given intervals, and used to provide spending forecasts, leading to better-stated financial goals that are more clearly understood by everyone involved.
Combatting Fraud
Because much of the data generated in accounts payable is repetitive, discrepancies that occur throughout the invoicing process can be highlighted electronically and dealt with immediately. Fraudulent activity is therefore drastically reduced, as are common errors, such as duplicate payments or overpayment on invoices. Financial information can be stored in the cloud, leading to better security and less chance of data loss. Accounts payable software is an integrated system that flows seamlessly with other popular accounting systems already in use, making implementation easier for the average enterprise business.
Quality Control to Meet Department Needs
Greater quality control in accounts payable has been recognized as one of the greatest needs in today’s departments. By implementing accounts payable automation, departments have begun to answer that need. With enterprise-level features, AP departments can streamline their processes, leading to a faster and more efficient department overall.