Intertec Systems recently hosted an event on IT Cost Optimization that featured the business benefits of Managed IT Services and Accounts Payable Automation. The event was targeted only for the C-level executives, especially CEOs and CFOs. It is during this event, that i realized that accounts payable is actually an area of concern for most of the CFOs. During our presentation on “Accounts Payable Automation” or simply “AP Automation“, the below-mentioned facts actually caught hold of CFOs eyeballs.

1. Lack of information visibility – whether an invoice received, any exceptions, invoice processed or paid
2. Slow invoice processing due to manual routing
3. High invoice processing cost due to processing errors, exceptions, and vendor queries
4. Improve reconciliation, streamline accrual processes, and produce more accurate financial statements

These aforementioned challenges are faced by almost every organization irrespective of their size, geography or industry.

Put AP Automation to Your Rescue:

AP Automation, though not a new terminology and most of us already know about it, helps you automate or streamline your entire invoice processing workflow. This brings in a lot of benefits such as:

1. Brings 100% visibility so as to make it possible to track how many invoices are received, processed and still pending, and the reason for pending invoices.
2. Productivity improvement by routing invoice for posting to ERP, Exception Queues, FPY- First Pass Yield and complete a 3-way match. The software also allows you to detect duplicate invoices automatically.
3. Reduction in paperwork all the invoices are saved in scanned pdf/jpg format. Hence, this makes the retrieval and search much easier on all the stored invoices. You can search based on different search parameters such as invoice date, invoice number, etc.
4. Easy tracking of lost invoices & late payments. The system automatically triggers notification emails and SMS alerts to the respective stakeholders once the defined time frame closes the due date in real time.

Return on Investment – You can’t afford to ignore…

With AP automation implementation across your organization, you can expect some dramatic performance improvements in your accounts payable department. A few such tangible benefits could be:

1. 50 to 70% reduced turnaround time per invoice
2. Centralized invoice processing system gives you free hands to check for all the pending invoices and avoid late fees. Also, it helps you track the paid invoices history against each vendor.
3. Streamlined and increased access to information audit leading to 100 % visibility
4. 95% reduction in paper invoices due to Vendor Portal, Indexing
5. Reduced keying or manual errors and inbound vendor inquiries