There are a million reasons why you should automate your accounts payable (AP) process. However, the reason you will automate is when you decide the pain of manually managing your payables process is greater than the temporary pain of change. The triggers and pain are different for all businesses but the central theme is the same—you recognize challenges in your job and know there is a better way to manage it. In this blog, we are going to discuss what motivates companies and individuals to automate their invoice and payment processes.
Your AP Process is Costly
Many companies think they have a cost-efficient payables process, but the reality is, automated processes are much cheaper. Think about it…every time you, or someone else in your business, touches an invoice or payment, the processing costs associated with the invoice increases. From the moment you open the mail, all the way through to when your CFO or Controller signs the check, you’ve increased the cost to process an invoice and payment.
According to PayStream Advisors, the average cost to process an invoice is $9.00, while the average cost to process a paper check is $7.15. With automation, you can reduce your processing costs by 60% or more. Cost reductions come from shortened approval cycles from an average of 28 days to 2-3 days. Not to mention, eliminating paper, stamps, envelopes, check stock, etc. cuts down on the hard costs as well.
You Are Growing
Growth is a common catalyst for automation because automation is more scalable than continuing to hire additional staff. If you had to process 3x more invoices and payments per month, would you be putting in overtime? Hopefully not! You have more important things to do like spend time with your family and friends. But sometimes it’s not always an option, especially when your job keeps you physically in the office to key in invoice data into your accounting system. This is where automation comes in. You can triple your processing capacity with the same amount of resources. Not to mention – all fully coded and approved invoice data can be imported into your accounting system with just 1-click. Just think about the possibilities…
We know that as an AP professional, you are often too busy to join a lengthy webinar. The reason you are looking to automate probably has something to do with how busy you are. That’s why we’re hosting a 15-minute webinar, tomorrow (May 25, 2017) at 2pm EST, so you can quickly learn the benefits of automating your AP process, without taking too much time away from your day. In this webinar, we’re going to discuss the definition of AP automation, the top signs it’s time to automate, and show you a brief demo of the solution. Register today and secure your spot before it’s too late.