10 Key Benefits of Having an Accounts Payable (AP) Automation Software

Automation is ruling all the sectors around the globe. Technologies like RPA, AI, and ML play a significant role in automation. In 2021 32% of businesses began to automate the accounts payable invoice management process. Organizations that automate the accounts payable process can save a considerable cost on FTEs and work with 1/10th of the staff required when processing the invoices manually.

The accounting team spends an average of 60 hours a month handling different manual payments and spreadsheets of more than 200 invoices. Companies are facing massive losses in their revenue section due to the manual processing of large invoices due to limited resources and time. Accounts payable automation solves this problem and turns your losses into profits.

Agile accounts payable invoice automation solutions would bring considerable revenue for the companies. 55% of businesses till 2018 used to tackle invoices manually, which is dropping yearly as the companies started to realize the importance of automation in their growth.
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In this blog :

Here are the top 10 key benefits of having an Accounts Payable (AP) invoice automation software.

1) Save a lot of time

Manual invoice processing is a time intrinsic process. There are many steps involved like reading the invoices manually, creating a spreadsheet using the data, detecting the errors in the invoice and spreadsheet, manually verifying the data with the master data, and 3-way matching. The average time required to process invoices manually is around 5 minutes. Accounts payable software can reduce the invoice processing time to 20 sec and save nearly 77 hours weekly for a company.

2) Reduce Cost

If 5000 invoices are processed manually, the cost would be around $65000. If a company set up accounts payable process automation, it can bring down this cost to about $8800. You can reduce the invoice processing cost by 85%. Companies can save on labor costs and reduces hard costs like postage and supplies.

3) Improved Accuracy

Manual invoice processing involves mundane tasks which can be highly error-prone and lead to huge losses. AP automation protects you from high error-prone tasks. The company staff does not need to enter the invoice data manually. The data gets verified automatically with the master data present in (ERP) which helps to catch duplicate invoices and prevent extra payments.

4) Enhance Insights    

A/P automation solutions offer custom dashboards with a transparent view of the payment cycle. The accounting team can view where the invoice is stuck and whom to reach out to in case of delays. The A/P automation software migrates the entire system to the secured cloud, thus helping the user to monitor the real-time data from anywhere. This automated analysis and reporting system will help you to keep track of your overall process from start to end.

5) Increased Transparency

Automated dashboards simplify staff productivity tracking. A/P software provides handy information for employee review. Managers and higher authorities can track the performance of their team and individuals, share feedback and distribute the work according to the analytics report.    

6) Fraud Protection  

Invoice frauds keep happening, and companies pay double or sometimes triple for those invoices. A/P process automation safeguards against these frauds and duplicate invoices with a 3-way matching process. The total invoice and payment processing becomes transparent and secure to the user. And the payments are processed only when the final verification is complete.  Accounts payable software prevents fraud and double-checks the missing information for errors.

7) Highly Scalable

Manual invoice processing happens only 8/5 as the FETs have restrictions regarding the capacity they can work. With RPA, companies can scale their operation 24/7 as the bots don’t get tired and are not affected by external interventions. Accounts payable automation eliminates all the backlog as all the invoices are processed the same day with a boost in productivity of 85%.

8) Low Lost Data Prevention

The average cost of maintaining a cabinet of 5 drawers is around $2,600. If the invoices are processed manually, they require a large amount of paper with a lot of physical space to store them. In this scenario, the maintenance cost of that physical storage will also incur. On the other side, storing a terabyte of data over the cloud could cost you around $6.99 per month.

9) Zero Risk  

While processing invoices manually, there are several risks of duplication, misplacement, human errors, and fraud. A/P automation removes all the human errors and minimizes the data breach. Streamlining the complete invoice processing removes the operational risks and makes the system more reliable and secure.

10) Smooth Integration

Accounts payable automation software can integrate with an organization’s ERP finance systems and databases. No need for additional IT infrastructure or integration.

Conclusion

AP automation software can take your business to new heights and eliminate all errors. It can bring down your invoice processing cost and boost the morale of your staff by providing them with facilities. Connect with Hermes if you are looking for the best accounts payable automation software for your business and stand out in the market with unique facilities you could offer your clients.

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