Switching to Automation: Perception vs. Reality
Sometimes AP managers and their departments don’t believe that automation will improve their department that much. Nothing could be further from reality. There are so many benefits of switching to AP automation, but here’s a list of our top four.
Increased Speed
When your company switches to full automation, you can cut your invoice turnaround time from weeks to days. No longer will your AP department have to deal with long phone calls with your suppliers who are looking for an invoice status update or worry about finding the invoice someone misplaced.
Better organization
Accounts payable automation ensure that invoices will never get lost. You will never misfile an invoice – AP automation software will do it for you correctly the first time. If something needs to be corrected, the authorized staff can flag it and suppliers can make the correction in real time. When the invoices are completed, they’ll automatically be routed for proper approvals and payment until they are archived in the correct place, ready to be viewed in the event of an audit. At the same time, suppliers can search, view, and check e-invoice status online. Suppliers will never have to worry about losing their invoice in their email or the mail and will love being consistently paid on time or even early.
Reduced costs
Many people worry that by using an accounts payable automation software they will be paying more than they’re paying for their invoicing process now. The typical average performing AP department pays around $7.75 per invoice, with more efficient companies coming close to $3 per invoice and poorly performing AP departments paying upwards of $25 per invoice! With iPayables, most customers have reduced their processing costs to less than $1 per invoice. Additionally, iPayables charges no fees for supplier adoptions. Our supplier portal is 100% free for your suppliers.
Increased Visibility and Control
Automation increases visibility and control throughout your entire AP department. Enterprise-level solution have controls in place that allow for easy viewability, including who’s seen an invoice, made changes, uploaded files or comments, and when. Plus, when your system is automated, you won’t double pay or neglect to pay your suppliers. As an extra bonus, automation makes audits a breeze because the entire invoicing process is tracked and organized.
While there are many benefits in switching to automation, it’s important to know right off the bat that your process will increase control and visibility, as well as be faster and better organized. Plus, it will cost only a fraction of what you currently pay. With so many up front benefits, it’s hard to see why it’s already taken you so long to switch.