According to the Payables Insight Report from PayStream Advisors, roughly 55% of firms manage their customer accounts manually.
Although in 2020, well over 40% of SMEs expressed that they intend to eventually take advantage of AP automation software’s capabilities and advantages. Human errors that are made during the process of manual data entry for small businesses might lead to significant financial losses. While lost receipts or delayed approval processes may result in invoices being occasionally paid very late or never at all.
With these numbers and facts in mind, now is the ideal moment to learn about the benefits that accounts payable automation software offers you.
You’ll Never Be Short-Staffed
It might take your staff hours upon hours to do data entry for account payables by hand, and even that is never free from errors. It could appear that an accounting department with a handful of employees could not afford AP automation. Although, if a small business needs to process large numbers of invoices with a small workforce on board, accounts payable automation can be incredibly helpful.
With the ideal accounts payable automation software, any business can operate more quickly and gain crucial time back. You will fully grasp what we mean if you’ve got unresolved and unchecked invoices sitting on the workstation or in your company email account.
Lower Risk Of Fraud
The responsibility for uploading invoices, reviewing them, and transferring the money can be delegated to AP employees by business owners. Through this procedure, businesses may readily determine which AP team member is in charge of the initiatives taken towards the accounts payable.
Accounts payable automation for small businesses also has the added benefit of assisting organizations in preventing fraud by integrating AI and intelligent software to identify any dubious invoices.
Improved Invoice Approval Workflow
The AP automation system greatly reduces delays and errors. In addition, the correction of inaccuracies, clearances, and payment disbursements are easily managed. Automation simplifies functionalities and expedites invoice review and approval processing.
The operations can also be completed swiftly from one stage to the next, thanks to the system’s accessibility and visibility, with prompt alerts sent to each assigned approver.
Inexpensive Data Storage
Maintaining your recorded paper versions of corporate data and documents will cost a lot of money. Sorting through manual records in search of paperwork will be tedious.
AP automation software may be beneficial in this situation because it produces an entire computerized digital copy of your company’s documents rather than the traditional ones. This makes it easier for your company to move all the documents to a cloud storage system that can be precisely explored.
As a result, you won’t need to use bulky storage units and will benefit from more room in The IRS does advise you to keep the original documents for at least seven years, though
Integrating Systems Seamlessly
You can view the data you require without logging in or out of one program to use another. Typically, an AP automation program seamlessly establishes a seamless connection with your ERP, finance, and other company platforms. This makes it possible for data to move between platforms with little to no intervention from staff.
The perfect payment automation system will operate with existing ERP and integrate with it, guaranteeing that you retain access to the ERP tools you’re accustomed to using and that you receive the visibility and transactional safeguards that come with a reliable payments platform.
Conclusion
It is seldom, if ever, quick and orderly for small businesses to survive and prosper. The necessary resources and assistance, as well as a lot of persuasive communication and preparation, go into creating and managing a firm. For your small business, investing in AP automation may be the best course of action.
Read more:
The Benefits of Accounts Payable Automation for Small Businesses