Finance is one of the most important areas of any business to manage. Without a strong finance team, it becomes far harder to sustainably steer and grow a business. But, with the ongoing march of technology, we now have access to tools that can make life easier for your financial department.
With the help of automation and accounts payable software, the process of handling invoices and managing payments becomes much more efficient. Not only that, but it also helps to decrease the number of manual tasks your team have to handle, allowing them to increase their productivity and focus on tasks that add greater value to the business.
In the current age of digitalization there’s no reason your business shouldn’t invest in accounts payable (AP) automation software. Which is why we’ve set out the three key reasons your finance team should be using this software solution.
1. Improved efficiency and productivity
One of the key metrics when it comes to assessing the performance of any part of your business is productivity and efficiency. If work is being done inefficiently this leads to a loss of both time and money, making it an easy area to target for improvement.
Many businesses still feature a significant degree of manual data entry and invoice handling within their accounts payable process. This introduces the potential for typos and inputting errors, as there is always a risk of someone hitting the wrong key when they’re typing in data. Not to mention the fact that many of these tasks could be done faster digitally.
With AP automation software invoices are digitally captured and inputted into the system automatically, saving your team the work of having to convert them. Utilizing the software, you can also hand over basic tasks such as processing and routing invoices for approval, improving the turnaround time for each invoice and freeing up staff’s time for other productive tasks.
2. Cost savings
If your business is still using paper invoices then you could make significant cost savings by incorporating automation software into your workflows. The costs associated with paper, ink, envelopes, and even physical storage add up over time. As does the processing costs of receiving payments via paper cheque as opposed to a more direct bank transfer.
Even putting aside the matter of physical materials, manually processing invoices and accounts payable tasks incur higher labor costs. With the amount of time it takes a member of the team to process a single invoice from receipt to approval and payment it will cost your business more than if most of that workflow was automated.
With the assistance of AP automation software, the time and labor needed to process invoices will drop sharply. This means your business will have to invest less to get the same volume of work done, opening up the opportunity to scale up or cut costs.
3. Better visibility
Data siloing is a serious issue that can slow down and potentially harm your business’s ability to get things done. Having the ability to easily find and track all your accounts payable data in one place is essential if you want to have true visibility over your financials.
As AP automation software provides a single, centralized platform for your business invoices and payment data you’ll never have to worry about losing track of key information again. Having a proper overview of the entirety of your accounts payables ensures that the team can accurately monitor payments and spot any upcoming bottlenecks before they can occur.
All in all, AP automation software offers your business a wealth of opportunities to improve and refine its accounts payable processes. If you want your finance team to enjoy greater productivity and reduce their manual workload then reach out to a dedicated software provider today.
