12 Benefits of AP Automation

If you have been considering automating any of your Accounts Payable processes, here are 12 benefits of doing so:

1. No more opening and sorting mail
Use our mailroom services to eliminate the tedious process of opening and sorting mail. Electronic invoices are uploaded right into the system without having to print and scan.

2. Eliminate manual data entry
Artificial Intelligence technology is used to classify and extract data from each invoice into the appropriate field, eliminating the need for manual data entry.

3. Reduce indexing errors
According to the IOFM, the average number of invoices with errors is 3.6%. Now consider how many invoices you process a year, let’s use 100,000 as an example, that means 3600 invoices are being paid to the wrong vendor, wrong invoice number, or in the wrong amount. This leads to cancelling and reissuing cheques which further increases processing costs. Our automated indexing solution is 99% accurate!

4. Automatically route invoice to the appropriate staff
Routing rules can be established to send each invoice to the appropriate staff. For example, invoices A-L can be sent to one person while M-Z are sent to another. You can even route invoices over a certain dollar amount to the appropriate approver.

5. Eradicate missing invoices
Since all of your invoices will be processed electronically, there’s no chance of an invoice getting lost on someone’s desk.

6. Cut down manual matching
Two and three way matching is done automatically and variances can be established to reduce the need for human intervention.

7. Shorten processing times
By reducing the manual labour, processing times are significantly decreased ensuring your suppliers are paid timely.

8. Reduce processing costs
The average cost to process one invoice manually is just over $15.00 and 62% of this cost is employee labour (APQC). Automating these processes reduces the average cost per invoice to around $4.00.

9. Audit trails
Audit trails allow for 100 percent visibility of each invoice throughout the process allowing you to access real time liabilities for accurate budgeting and forecasting.

10. Capture more vendor discounts
More than 50% of eligible vendor discounts are missed(Aberdeen) due to long processing times. With automation, invoices from discount vendors can be expedited through the process to ensure all discounts are captured.

11. Process more invoices without hiring more staff
As your company grows you can process more invoices without having to hire more staff.

12. Improve cashflow! 
Once you have eliminated the tedious manual processes and captured all available vendor discounts you will watch your cashflow grow!

 

According to the Gartner Group, a 5% reduction in operating costs equals a 30% increase in sales, in terms of effect of bottom line. Accounts Payable automation is a great way to reduce costs!

If you’d like to learn more about our AP automation solutions give us a call or contact us here. We’ll discuss your current process and any areas you would like to improve to determine which solution works best with your current environment.

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