Accounts payable technology can be easily applied to the amount your suppliers owe on credit to the products or services that you buy from your suppliers. Ensuring the method of paying your bills is streamlined and efficiant is crucial—if something goes wrong, the whole business is at risk.
Challenges
For years, the biggest challenge for Accounts Payable has been to move away from paper and find innovative and new ways to enhance AP and invoicing processes with better efficiency. Leading companies have digitized business processes and automated manual activities to develop their targets for data-driven global post-automation. At the same time, some are still managing day-to-day operations manually. With AP considered a non-priority for many corporations, their finance and operations systems are lacking. COVID-19 has shaken the foundations of invoice data, accounts payable software and cash flow; therefore, now you must look for accounts payable automation in Australia.
Maintaining manual records:
A standard payable account process requires the entry, acceptance, and payment details of the supplier. There is an increasing likelihood of errors when manual data entry is involved at any point, which could lead to incorrect estimates, wrong payments, and an adverse impact on your organization’s finances. You will need to move your tablets manually before you will notice and fix mistakes. It takes a great deal of time to do this efficiently when everything is manual.
Approximately 88 per cent of a company’s Excel sheets include major errors. It takes a lot of manual labor and time to find and correct these errors. And you can never be completely sure that you found them all if you depend only on a manual fact check.
Slow and delay in processing:
It can be time-consuming to manually process your payable accounts, and the outcome could be less than ideal if your internal process is not successful. For example, you may have two or more workers in a medium-sized business who have to accept a seller’s invoice before payments are processed. If the invoice needs to be hand-picked or emailed, these approvals take time. With automated invoice matching you could have skipped a reduction on early birds or even a late payment penalty while still paying the invoice.
In addition to the late payment, illegal transactions may also be made if the domestic process is inefficient. The paralysis in decision making regarding which products or services
to buy will seriously impact your business finances and complicate your budget, and how much should be spent and who should approve the purchases.
Matching errors:
You must look out for duplicate payments and invoice matching errors when your invoice matching is not autimated! Providers also give a second invoice if the former is not remitted promptly, and you will pay for both erroneously. If you own a company that works in several places, there can be uncertainty about where the seller is paying. Duplicate payments adversely affect the financial flow, and the money will be lost permanently if you cannot remove the loan from your accounts and reimburse your seller.
Fraud/Unauthorized purchases:
As the accounts payable is where the money usually exits within the business, it is the primary target for fraudsters and hackers. While most businesses do not ignore the fraud problem some businesses do not necessarily do anything to deter fraud. Don’t be the business that didn’t bother to tighten fraud controls until they became a victim of fraud.
Fraud prevention requires an understanding of the functioning of fraud, close controls, and continuous alertness. However, in a manual AP department, the implementation of anti-fraud checks is hard. In the war against fraud, technology offers immense support. You can set up custom controls with automation tools, which comply with company policies and automatically inform you of suspicious invoice activities.
Missing/ disappearing purchase orders:
There is an increasing possibility of losing track of invoices if you fall behind during processing. Incoming invoices can be temporarily or permanently lost. In any case, you can only go further and further back as the invoices are processed if you cannot keep track of your records.
Slow delivery is not the only problem with invoices that are permanently lost. It will take the AP department time to contact suppliers so that replacement invoices can be released. Besides, when it’s time for audits, you will have all the issues with an incoherent paper trail.
Solutions
· Automate your accounts payable process
First of all, manual data entering and mistakes can be refused. If your providers offer the alternative, always pick digital invoices so that you can import them directly into your accounting software rather than enter the information manually. You can snap an image of the seller’s invoice and upload it into a purchase deal if you use the accounting software, which contains a scanning/pay function.
Many accounting software also offers automatic payment notifications to avoid late or forgotten payments. That means you can still keep track of your unpaid and paid vendor invoices while preventing duplication of payments. The reduced entry of manual data is equivalent to reduced errors.
· What will the AP automation software system help with most?
Accounts payable automation software will help you solve all 10 of the problems we mentioned before. First of all, you can delete all documents which are stacked up inside your registration office through an online invoice treatment system. You will also be given the tools you need to monitor the latest invoices and ensure you’re on a budget in your AP department.
This will help you get the balance correct for fast and effective AP production. In the end, the account payable process saves you time and overall expenses.
· How much time before I see improvement?
Typically the software takes about 60 to 90 days to work at full capacity. While you will start to see progress very soon after implementation and reep all of the advantages, it normally takes approximately 3 to 4 months to set up AP in full.
How can DHRP help?
Companies now want to be more automated as technology develops as it allows us to reach new levels of productivity than ever before.
DHRP is always here to help get you started, set up and running. We are continuing to develop and incorporate Microsoft Dynamics 365 accounts payable automation solutions along with full-time consulting services. Request the Microsoft dynamics 365 accounts payable demo now, and we will help you find suitable solutions for your organisation.
