Did you know that 39% of invoices are paid late in the US? (Atradius) The problem is so widespread that score.org reports that if small businesses were paid for all of their unpaid invoices, owners could pay themselves an extra $31,000 and could hire a combined 2.1 million employees.
Fortunately, there’s a solution. It goes by different names – Invoice Process Automation, Automatic Invoice Processing, Invoice Automation – but it all boils down to the same thing: you can avoid late payments and prevent unpaid invoices from falling through the cracks.
In this post, we’re going to use the term Invoice Automation to refer to an Accounting-specific function of Automation that allows you to automate the receipt, capture, and processing of invoices, from end to end.
When you automate your invoice processing, you no longer have to worry about manual data entry and filing, tedious 3-way matching, or sending repetitive emails and reminders. Your invoice automation solution does all of this for you. And these are just examples of the types of tasks that can be automated. A configurable Invoice Automation Platform can be assigned to complete any number of tasks for you. Here are some other examples of what an automation platform like DocuPhase can do:
All of these tools combine to help you make your payments faster, avoiding late fees and providing you with more cash on hand.
Tired of checking for outstanding invoices and sending reminder emails one by one? Stop! No, seriously, you don’t have to do that anymore. With Automated Invoice Processing, you can have your system automatically check for unresolved invoices and send automated email reminders with whatever message you’d like to communicate. Want to attach the invoice itself or include other information pertinent to the account? No problem!
When your invoice automation software is integrated with your current accounting system – whether that’s GP, NAV, or another program – your entries can automatically be created within the accounting system. In fact, you can also perform 1-click searches from within your accounting system. Just imagine how tools like these can be applied to all of your line-of-business systems – in HR, Customer Service, IT, Sales, etc.
When your whole process is digital, it’s easy to create a virtual audit trail of each step within the invoicing process. You may be wondering: How easy? What if we told you it’s so easy, you don’t have to do anything at all to create the audit trail? All of the information is automatically captured as your team moves through each step of the process. The system records who performed each action, and when. And you can also see, from a high-level view, which steps in the process are causing bottlenecks, and which may need more resources assigned to them. And suddenly we’re talking about making data-driven, strategic decisions in order to refine your process! Go you!
When you’re using a paper-based system, things can (literally and figuratively) fall through the cracks. Whether it’s in that dusty space behind the printer or in a long-forgotten email, important documents get lost and forgotten. But when they’re all part of an electronic workflow, you can use the software to track all of those important documents for you. It’s a much more efficient way to work. And, let’s face it – machines are far less prone to human error.
The same software that enables you to have an invoice processing system can be applied to your whole organization. If you thought automated invoice processing was cool, wait till you learn what an Automation Platform can do for your HR department, sales order process, procurement process, or your administrative workload. Before you select a system to use for Invoice Process Automation, consider the difference between a point solution and a full-scale Enterprise Automation Platform.
For more details, check out our free whitepaper, Streamlining Your Accounting Processes.