Automating your workflows—whatever they may be—helps streamline your manual processes to reduce inefficiencies, lower costs to generate greater ROI, and provide transparency.
But while automation can be a reliable, short-term solution that can offer long-term benefits, it’s not a magic pill that can solve all your problems in one go. This is why many automation professionals recommend that businesses start small when introducing automation so that you can identify which solution works best for you before rolling it out to the entire organisation.
Automated invoice processing software is a great way for businesses to get started. When you automate invoice processing, you eliminate the manual processes that are riddled with inefficiencies that can slow down payments and lead to financial penalties due to lateness and errors.
It also gives employees who are typically buried under paperwork the freedom to focus on higher-value activities and initiatives that help your business grow.
Automated invoice processing can also speed up invoice processing time, reduce the risks of manual processes, and control operational costs. Here’s a closer look at some other reasons you should automate your invoice processing.
#1: Smoother workflow
Businesses that rely heavily on employees to manually process invoices can be risking themselves to a plethora of risks and inefficiencies. Human error can result in invoices being either misfiled or lost, leading to a significant portion of the day being wasted finding these documents when they’re needed. This is in addition to the inevitable mistakes that go along with manual data entry.
Automation solutions provided by experienced accounts payable (AP) service providers save time and prevent errors by eliminating unnecessary manual steps. This means that documents will flow easily through your AP process without getting delayed due to bottlenecks.
Consider your current AP process. The steps that generally take the most time to complete are the ones that cannot move forward without someone’s approval, right? With automation, invoices and other documents are digitally routed so that approval can be obtained in just a few clicks before being passed onto the next stage for processing.
#2: Automated invoice processing
By now it’s clear that machine learning outsourcing can be a great benefit to bettering businesses and achieving your goals. It can also help you as you grow your business by taking away some of the challenges that many organisations face.
Invoice processing automation software can help you deal with a growing number of invoices. As your business grows, you’re going to have to process more invoices to ensure that your suppliers and vendors are paid on time. Automation can help significantly reduce the time your team spends on invoicing and also free up your capital to invest in other aspects of your business.
Invoice processing software also gives you more control to hire with and you’ll be able to expand your team slowly and make better hiring decisions that make sense for where your business is heading in the future.
#3: Better audits
Nobody likes to be audited and for businesses, the process can be painful since the sheer volume of documents required is staggering, but with automated invoice processing, dealing with audits can be a lot less stressful.
Automation gives you the ability to run on-demand, real-time reports and allows your business to prepare for an audit by spotting discrepancies in advance. In addition, if you’ve ever been audited, you’ll know that having speedy access to invoices is crucial since auditors can request documents from time to time, and digital access to invoices means that you can get them faster.
Eliminating the last-minute rush to find missing documents means that audits will be done much faster with less stress on your employees, making the auditing process more efficient and less alarming.
#4: Increased compliance
Staying on the topic of audits, invoices are important documents that show tax conformity, and most tax audits generally happen years after the business transaction has taken place.
As is customary with paper documentation, invoices are much more likely to be lost and forgotten. To avoid this, businesses frequently post copies of papers online after processing them. While this process may eliminate the need for paper to be physically stored, it adds to the work and can even lead to mistakes and delays.
Invoice processing automation reduces expenses while tax compliance and legal security can be increased. For the period that you specify, the invoice processing system can save the relevant documents together.
Switch to automated invoice processing and streamline your manual processes
By automating invoice processing, businesses stand the chance to increase efficiency, save time, and decrease invoice processing cycles.
The good news is that you don’t have to search far for an efficient invoice-processing solution. Today, several business automation solution providers can help your business get the right invoice processing solutions to streamline your operations.