Conventional invoice processing can be time-consuming and prone to errors. The accounts payable department needs to first match the invoice against the purchase order and receipt, record it in the accounting system, and store it properly for tax and other purposes.

Businesses that are growing need an automated invoice payment processing system to reduce manual processes like frauds and errors and ensure on-time payments to gain more control over spending. These automated processes will give clear visibility with effective cash flow management, greater control over spending, and easier access from anywhere. Here are a few solutions that can help the business in many ways:

SPEED UP PROCESSING TIME WHILE MAINTAINING ACCURACY

Manually processing of invoices requires significant resources to input the data, track down the first approver, and move the invoice through the necessary checks that take an average of 17 days. With Optical character recognition (OCR) technology infused with AI/ML to scan, mail, fax, or print invoices and ensures the information pulled from the invoices is correct, the processing time is drastically reduced. This data can be stored in the digital filing cabinet for seven years or longer, with permission-controlled access for specified company employees.

GAIN GREATER VIEW INTO CASH FLOW

Slow processing makes it difficult to see business liabilities. Invoice automation offers a consistent, user-friendly experience for employees and holistic reporting of travel and expenses to financial leaders in a single, integrated spend management platform. By matching unsubmitted invoices and approvals with automatic audit trails, this technology tracks them in real-time, eliminates bottlenecks, and encourages accountability. It also allows companies to easily create purchase orders and approve spending before it happens.

STREAMLINE WORKFLOWS and FACILITATE REPORTING AND AUDITS

To ensure optimal workflow and reduce the processing time for data entry into the ERP, businesses can use invoice management solutions to set pre-defined conditions (cost object coding, dollar thresholds, exceptions, match or mismatch, non-PO). The technology automates two- or three-way matching processes for existing purchase orders and helps involved parties to focus on error analysis and decision-making.

With organization-wide reporting, including pre-built reports (accrual, ageing, vendor spend), as well as customizable reports that run automatically, can be delivered straight to designated contacts. Businesses will be able to gain close to real-time visibility into cash flow. By implementing pre-built and custom audit rules, companies can set custom flags to help prevent costly mistakes and increase internal controls within the invoice life cycle.

ENABLE SCALABILITY AND GROWTH

Companies can extend the value of their business by pairing the solutions with ERP, accounting, and partner integrations to obtain vendor data. The data can be used for headcount planning strategies that help Accounts Payable (AP) leaders with the insights to scale and reallocate resources as per the businesses. This will help the organization to mitigate turnover by offering user-friendly tools that can be used from anywhere.

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CONCLUSION:

Tools for automating invoices, such as SAP Concur, speed up processing and provide firms with a comprehensive picture of their expenditure. Businesses can make strategic decisions, better manage their cash flow, and benefit from early payment discounts by employing business intelligence solutions to evaluate their expenditure data. Thus, consider using an invoice automation application to enhance financial performance.