Traditional payment processes, despite their familiarity for many, are out of place in the modern business landscape. Why? Frankly, they pose too many risks for organizations already juggling compliance regulations and cybersecurity threats while maintaining efficient, accurate payment procedures.
The most common pitfalls of traditional payment processes include:
To thrive in today’s environment, businesses must choose a payment solution that enhances financial growth and customer satisfaction.
Enter AP payment automation. This integrated tool streamlines the entire procure-to-pay cycle, reduces processing costs, improves cash flow management, and strengthens supplier relationships. In this blog, we'll take a deeper look at how AP payment automation can transform your business.
A payments automation solution can completely transform how your AP team operates. This includes things like:
Given the prevalence of fraud and other cybersecurity risks for modern businesses, relying on a payment solution to keep important transactions secure is key. Traditional manual payments leave noticeable gaps in payment security, from human error to inconsistencies in individual processing procedures.
On the other hand, payment automation protects against fraud with customizable access controls, easily traceable trends for enhanced audit trails, and can detect unusual payment patterns quickly. This combination results in elevated security throughout the invoice-to-pay lifecycle, making it that much harder for fraudsters or other bad actors to access your business’s vital finances.
Healthy supplier relationships have a direct impact on your business’s continued success. Payment automation not only works to keep your transactions with your suppliers secure but also can ensure that they’re on time, every time. Prompt payments also increase the opportunities for dynamic discounts, yielding significant savings over time.
Secure, steady payments in the supplier’s preferred payment method make your organization an ideal partner—and reduce stress on your AP team.
As mentioned above, AP professionals who still rely on manual processes run the risk of experiencing fraud. But manual processes can cause more headaches than just financial ones—they can bog down productivity, reducing AP responsibilities to manual data entry and management. Tracking down invoices one by one, emailing payment information across the department, manually entering supplier payment information into your solution—these tedious tasks not only take up time but also emotional bandwidth from your AP team.
A payment automation solution works to manage these important processes seamlessly, freeing up the AP department for more strategic initiatives, like understanding and leveraging AI, or supporting other departments with their financial expertise.
The right AP payments solution will improve your payment processes and position your business for future success. But how?
Rather than bringing in a system that is either incompatible or pairs ineffectively with your existing ERP, the right payments automation solution will slot into your tech stack like a missing puzzle piece. Additionally, it’s important to choose a potential payment solution that can integrate with a variety of ERPs—Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, etc.--not just one.
These capabilities for easy integration will enable your AP team to maintain data consistency and efficiency, reducing downtime and any potential for information slipping through the gaps between your ERP and the new solution. Similarly, an integrated payments solution doesn’t require hours of learning a new way of filing or managing payments—it flows smoothly with established processes and procedures.
As touched on previously, automated payment solutions have many security features that their traditional counterparts lack. Streamlined payments make it more difficult for hackers and other scammers to access the data they crave. Virtual credit cards, automated approval processes, and less unnecessary human involvement in payment processing layers in a robust level of protection against fraud in your AP department. Given the uptick in BEC fraud threats in particular, having a protected payment lifecycle is a necessary component of all businesses looking to keep their sensitive payment information secure.
Thanks to the power of automation, your AP department will have clearer, real-time insights into your entire invoice-to-pay lifecycle. This will allow them to track important metrics like straight-through-processing (STP) rates, identify areas of inefficiency, and gather accurate data for future audits.
This visibility will provide your team with more financial control and better decision-making potential, allowing them to ensure cash flow reporting is accurate.
When it comes to choosing the ideal payment automation solution for your business, there are a few qualities to consider.
Once you’ve identified the payment solution that meets your business’s unique needs and goals, it’s time to present it to the decision-makers at your organization. It’s important to highlight that payment automation can enhance your business’s existing processes and procedures—all while improving the customer experience.
The right solution will pair seamlessly with your organization, positioning your team and processes for optimized, continuous success.
If you’re looking for a modern, scalable payments solution that can transform your business and breathe new life into your invoice-to-pay processes, schedule a demo with one of DocuPhase’s automation experts today!