5 Best Practices in AP Automation
An automated accounts payable system can streamline your company’s accounting process. It can also prevent you from damaging important business relationships with your suppliers due to late payments. There are many benefits to using an accounts payable automated system, especially if you utilize several of the top five best practices in AP automation shared below.
1. Use Accounts Payable Automation Software to Further Your Business Goals
What are some of your company’s long term goals and objectives? Is there anything specifically that you want to achieve while using the tool? For example, maybe you’d like to increase the number of resolved outstanding payables by 30% or move invoices through the approval process in less time. Once you have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, look for ways the automated AP software can help your company reach them faster. When you use the software in a way that aligns with your company’s strategic goals, it can make your business more efficient.
2. Make a Backup of Your Company’s Financial Data on a Regular Basis
Are you confident that your computer network is secure? If you haven’t done so already, install security software to closely monitor the company’s computer systems. We also recommend you keep a backup of your financial data as insurance just in case there is a technical issue with the accounts payable software.
3. Inform Your Employees About the Benefits of Using an Accounts Payable Automation Software
Another best practice is keep your employees informed about why your company is going to use an accounts payable automation software. Encourage them to ask questions and try to explain how the business will benefit from using the tool. This can help make sure the employees understand what is going on and embrace the change.
4. Assign Someone the Responsibility of Managing the Software
It’s also important that a team member, typically a CFO or someone in the accounting department, is responsible for actively managing the E-invoicing process on a daily basis. They can help get the software is setup correctly and make sure everything is going smoothly in the beginning. They can also detect potential issues early on and oversee the company’s overall accounts payable system.
5. Use the Accounts Payable Automation Software to Monitor Key Metrics
Do you have an organized system for keeping track of various vendor terms and agreements? If your office is disorganized, you may lose or misplace important financial documents. Using this as one of you five best practices in AP automation software can help increase organization and make your business more structured. Besides streamlining your company’s accounting process, you can also use data from the software data to monitor key metrics. For example, you can track how many invoices were received, the total number of payments sent to vendors and much more.
When you closely monitor the company’s financial data you can manage cash flow more efficiently. Additionally, you can configure the accounts payable automation system to identify red flag alerts. Alerts due to unusual activity to prevent fraud and proactively address any issues with vendors. Overall, data from the accounts payable automation software can give you a better idea of what you can do to make the business run more smoothly.
Striving to follow best practices in AP automation can feel like alot. However, when you have professional to help take care of it there aren’t any issues. For example, iPayables offers a team of professionals that are dedicated to your company. The set up of their software can help your accounting system become more transparent, efficient, reliable and accurate. Schedule a demo and see how the team can help.