Were Going to Make Accounts Payable Exciting Again

There's no shortage of accounts payable piece of work at about companies, specially larger ones, and that work is disquisitional for maintaining both positive cash catamenia and robust vendor relationships. The latter is easy to undervalue—until you need a rush order or some consideration on price, and then your concern's reputation and account in proficient standing go essential.

Unfortunately, AP teams oftentimes confront multiple challenges in the course of their daily work. For example, what happens when an invoice appears but there is no matching purchase order in the organisation? What about when a late invoice discover arrives but no 1 remembers seeing the original request for payment? These problems tin can quickly affect your business and even damage supplier relationships if they persist.

Addressing these issues can be a daunting task. However, new technologies arrive easier than ever to develop a full-wheel accounts payable process with every bit little friction every bit possible. Let's examine some of the most ofttimes encountered accounts payable problems and solutions that you tin employ to address them. In this commodity, nosotros'll examine the post-obit topics:

• The vii Virtually Common Accounts Payable Issues
• Solutions to Improve Accounts Payable Weaknesses
• Staying Ahead of the Bend
• Conclusion

The 7 Well-nigh Mutual Accounts Payable Bug

Take a wait into any AP department, especially those working at larger scales and college volumes, and you're likely to encounter at least i of the following issues. Some of these problems are the event of human being error or poorly divers processes, while others are technical failures. All of them have one thing in common: They negatively impact the piece of work that your section does. When multiple issues stack up, your business suffers.

Here are seven areas for improvement.

Tiresome Processing

If your office still relies wholly or in part on paper-based processes, think about how many desks an average invoice crosses before it is finally canonical for payment. Every pair of hands that handles the paperwork both increases the hazard of an error or lost document and slows down your processing times. Slow processing often leads to late invoices and unhappy vendors persistently asking about their payment's status.

Matching Errors

Discrepancies between buy orders, invoices and receiving reports lead to matching errors that oft require a manual investigation. Does your staff really have the fourth dimension to launch a time-consuming, multi-pace investigation every time there'due south a mismatch? As with other manual processes, these errors create delays with cascading slowdown effects on the department.

Exception Invoices and Manual Follow-Ups

In an ideal globe, suppliers would transmit 100% authentic invoices every time that you do business with them. In reality, their company is like to any other: susceptible to mistakes, human being error and inefficiencies. When invoices generate exceptions in your system due to incomplete or wrong data, it can take days for your staff to conduct the necessary follow-ups and become an answer on what to exercise next.

Unauthorized Purchases

Not every employee follows correct purchasing procedures, especially when accounts payable is the furthest thing from their heed. Someone might circumvent the usual procedure to avert the hassle of a tiresome AP department with strict requirements, or an urgent business need might pb team members to utilise a non-authorized supplier. Processing these unexpected invoices can accept an immense amount of time while more important invoices decay.

Sending Payment Earlier Commitment

An AP team that's trying to stay ahead of the rush might be too eager to make payments when invoices arrive. In that location are benefits to paying as soon as possible, only what happens when the department pays a supplier before they've received their goods or services?

If a shipment arrives damaged or with missing items, achieving a resolution is much more than difficult when yous've already paid. When AP is highly siloed from other departments, there is no free flow of information between teams, and such problems are common occurrences.

The Example of the Disappearing Invoice

Ane of the most serious invoice processing errors occurs when no 1 processes an invoice in the first identify. In fast-paced workplaces with teams treatment hundreds of invoices or more, transmission processes can pb to misplacement—or, worse, the adventitious destruction of an invoice. By the time someone discovers the problem, you might owe hefty late fees to a vendor. Non only that, but lost invoices too complicate bookkeeping practices.

Double Payment

There are many errors that could lead to your squad issuing two invoices. For instance, a typo in a purchase club number might erroneously generate two invoices for the same society. Human error, such as failing to properly mark an invoice as paid, can also atomic number 82 to duplicate payments. These invoice processing bug can result in meaning lesser-line impacts for the business—not to mention supplier annoyance when you need to asking a refund.

Fifty-fifty i of these issues can represent a serious result. Although yous may believe these bug to be inherent disadvantages of the accounts payable process, you lot can eliminate nigh all of them. Using software purpose-built to enhance AP workflows, such every bit Kofax ReadSoft^® and its automated invoice processing, you can open the door to critical solutions. Acquire how to implement these fixes now.

Solutions to Ameliorate Accounts Payable Weaknesses

What are the advantages of using automation software at every step of the AP procedure? With the right procedures and tools, yous can virtually eliminate many common problems. Learn seven means to reduce accounts payable discrepancies, shorten cycle times and boost satisfaction at every step of the procedure.

Going Paperless

It'south time to ditch the manual processes altogether and transition to the cutting border of 21st century business software. With advanced invoice processing, electronic payment systems and a top-down view of the full AP cycle, eliminating common bug is within your attain. Although AP automation has challenges of its own, they are far fewer and far less serious than the problems that come from standing to depend on paper processes. Paperless offices tin scale with ease.

Excel Needs to Go

Many AP departments withal rely on manually tracking invoices and other payment information in Excel spreadsheets. With so many superior options bachelor to your squad today, why keep to rely on clunky and beefy Excel workbooks? Ditching Excel leads to software solutions that tin unify all your AP data nether one roof and reduce data entry errors.

Streamline Your Workflows

Standardize the way that your AP squad handles each step of the process. Past establishing best practices, you can eliminate unnecessary steps and reduce the number of touches that an invoice requires.

Utilize Three-Manner Matching

Another advantage to improved software is simplified iii-way matching. With a solid iii-way match, fugitive exceptions is straightforward. Almost importantly, you lot can avoid double payments through matching while paying early enough to receive supplier discounts. Considering you tin can match the invoice to a receiving study more speedily, you never accept to worry about paying besides presently.

Invest in AP Automation

The more automatic your AP processes, the fewer errors that you'll encounter. With automation systems using machine learning-powered cognitive capture, you can automate everything from invoice intake processing to payment potency.

Meliorate System Integration

Think, data silos don't aid anyone. Integrating AP into the broader framework of your business and its ERM platform will give you robust insights into the department's KPIs. Make sure that every team member beyond the company can work from the same pool of information without worrying about stale data.

Leverage Early Payment Discounts and Incentives

Earning payment discounts from your vendors is an splendid manner to assistance the business, but not if you pay too shortly. Balancing discounts with cash catamenia considerations is cardinal. With automation software, you can ensure that invoices receive authorization before the disbelieve deadline. By making the most of this window, you tin build more than flexible cash-on-hand capabilities.

Get Alee of the Bend

Using AP automation for challenges in handling invoices and payments can do more for your teams than solve common issues. Rather than focusing on correcting shortcomings, go ahead of the bend— expand your boundaries and enable your teams to do more. How can you give your business organization the all-time run a risk to both eliminate invoice processing errors and lay the background for time to come efficiency?

Become Digital Today

The sooner your teams transition away from paper and toward digital workflows, the ameliorate. Many vendors today are fully capable of working with buyers who operate primarily in the digital space. Start the process of overhauling these procedures and acquiring the right tools today.

Automate Your Troublesome Processes

Leave manual data entry on purchase order reviews and invoices behind and let your computers do the work. With programs such every bit Kofax ReadSoft, your business tin process hundreds or even thousands of invoices per day while keeping each invoice accessible and transparent.

Invest in AI for the Time to come

The touch on of AI on business has only only begun, especially in accounts payable. However, it already has the potential to revolutionize this space. That's true not but for processing and matching invoices but likewise for resolving exceptions and choosing when to authorize payments. Deploy these systems early on to keep your business on the cutting edge.

Conclusion

Errors and inefficiencies in accounts payable processes can take lasting effects on a company. Missed payments mean more than unhappy vendors: They could mean loss of service at a critical juncture or lack of supply for a business organisation-critical process. A clear-eyed view of AP and its contributions is primal to your success.

Identifying the specific challenges in invoice processing that your business concern faces today will open up the door to smart improvements and sound investments. By transitioning away from manual processes involving paper invoices and toward AI-enabled digital workflows, businesses unlock meaning benefits. Bookkeeping becomes more reliable, vendors ever get paid on time and discounts make your operations more efficient.

Addressing these challenges begins with recognizing that in that location is a disconnect between the way that things should work in accounts payable in practice and the mode that things practice work, including the issues that your team encounters daily. Finding the correct tools to assist is your next step.

With avant-garde AP automation software from Kofax, including ReadSoft invoice processing, eliminating bottlenecks and working smarter every twenty-four hour period is within your reach. Learn exactly how these products can do good your concern and explore your next steps today.

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Source: https://www.kofax.com/learn/blog/accounts-payable-problems-solutions

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