Why You Should Automate Your Business’s Accounts Payable Workflow

It’s every company’s nightmare: as soon as the deadlines for payments and taxes come in, their accounting and finance department works overtime, manually checking and double-checking – and in some cases, triple – or quadruple-checking – their invoices and tax information to make sure that payments are made correctly, and that no single cent is misappropriated.

Although, understandably, certain processes are in place to prevent fraud and avoid costing the business unnecessary money, it can be pretty redundant and time-consuming as well. Implementing an automated accounts payable workflow is an efficient solution to your accounting headaches. Here are a few reasons why your business should adopt this process:

Increased production and efficiency

An automated accounts payable workflow allows your staff to do more of their tasks and responsibilities in half the time. For example, most companies require their staff to verify the tax identification numbers indicated on every invoice they receive; with AP workflow automation, the system can automatically verify the tax information.

More accurate results

Manual accounting and checking are very susceptible to human error. The automation of AP workflow allows you to avoid making mistakes caused by human error that could hurt your business big time. With accounts-payable automation, systems that have built-in error checks can help your business reduce the number of – or completely eliminate – errors in your accounts payable workflow.

Reduced environmental impact

The accounting and finance department is one of the areas in a business that can contribute to its carbon footprint. These all involve consuming paper products from invoices to receipts, even email printouts and faxes. Not only that, but the processing and the creation of these paper trails also involve ink, staples, paper clips, file folders, and a lot of other accessories that paper documents require. Switching to a digital system using automated accounts payable workflow software allows your company to decrease costs in the office and reduce its impact on the environment.

Better data storage and access

Try to think of a future for your business where all the information you need is readily available whenever and wherever it needs to be accessed.

With cloud storage, this future can be accurate for your company. Information like invoice data, payee and payer details, tax information, and the audit trail can be accessed from the cloud. Another added benefit to cloud storage? Your team will never have to worry about lost files again since you can also opt to store backups on a different cloud server. There is a lot to learn about cloud computing which includes:

• Cloud services – infrastructure, platform and services
• storage e.g. AWS
• security

However, the first step is to move away from any manual input and automate processes as much as possible, even if you prefer to use an in-house server rather than server hosting and cloud-based servers.

Seamless integration with other platforms

It’s common for most accounting and finance departments to encounter invoices, reports, and other paperwork that have missing information. With automated accounts payable workflows, systems can now communicate and complement each other. It also makes it easier for you to manage and increase visibility and accountability, especially in certain scenarios where the audit trail is significant.

All these things lead to many benefits, some of which include more accurate financial reports, better budget forecasts, and of course, an improved bottom line.

See more articles on accounting systems and the use of apps and systems to automate workflow processes including managing identity and access for safeguarding business data and preventing security threats to your network.