Control Company Costs
AP Teams Can Help Drive Efficiency, Profits, and Resilience
Even well-crafted spending plans shouldn’t be set in stone. Amid economic uncertainty, global instability, and changes in where and how we work, clay is more like it. That’s because a business must be ready to remake their spending and their plans as conditions and priorities demand – and accounts payable must be equipped to play a key role.
Automating the technology and processes of the AP team can help reduce out-of-policy spending and risk, increase visibility into spending, boost productivity, and contribute to profitability instead of being seen as a drain. They are benefits that also can increase the agility and resilience of a business and make it ready for change – and change seems one of the few certainties a company can count on.
What Automation Delivers
An automated solution handles the AP process from purchase order to invoice to approval and finally to payment. By reducing manual tasks, the solution eliminates a paper-based process that’s costly, slow, and prone to mistakes and fraud. The AP team can then focus on tasks that add value – such as finding savings – instead of chasing invoices
With the ability to see and manage invoices in one place, the AP team can follow up on invoices that the AI-infused solution flags as potential duplicates or fakes. The same AI tools can check for compliance with your spending policies and help satisfy tax and regulatory compliance. Overall, the team and the company can spot problems and stop non-compliant spending before it occurs.
Automation delivers noticeable gains in productivity, as AP teams using automation and consistent workflows process twice as many invoices per FTE.1 Employees and managers across the company benefit as well, as mobile tools allow submittals and approval of purchase requests, invoices, and payments on the go.
How Visibility and Insights Grow
Through automation, your company can capture invoices in all the ways they come – via the post office, in email, or by fax. Through credit card and purchase card feeds, it catches additional receipts and invoices. Dashboards and reporting tools informed by real-time data help the AP team identify employees with consistent out-of-policy spending and managers slow to sign off on approvals.
With a clearer and more timely view of spending and a greater ability to spot problems, AP has the power to manage cash flow better and make better decisions. And the company and its spending are more flexible because it knows where its money is at and where it could be better spent.
What Specifically Should I Look For?
The solution should use conditions you define – pound thresholds, exceptions, and more – to make sure that your process is followed, and that data goes to the ERP quickly. It should also automate the payment process and help you earn early payment discounts and avoid late fees.
The system should also automatically perform three-way matching and use a mix of technology – including AI – and human verification to review invoices down to the line item. It should have reporting tools that track invoice ageing and accrual, see spending by vendor, and find unsubmitted invoices. The solution, of course, should easily connect with ERP or accounting systems, adapt to new payment methods, and scale with your business.
Resources to Improve Your AP
- Read the whitepaper to find out more about how an AP department can reduce non-compliant spending and risk, increase efficiency and visibility, contribute to profitability, and boost productivity.
- Get our automation checklist, The Best Invoice Management Choice, to see how Concur Invoice can improve processes and efficiency and make your business more adaptable and resilient.
1. Institute of Finance and Management (IOFM), World-Class AP Performance: Effectiveness Benchmarking Performance, 2021
