Whether you are an entrepreneur, an SMB owner, or a manager of a multi-national enterprise, maximizing productivity and efficiency within your organization’s workflow will reap countless benefits for your business.
However, if you still rely on manual procedures for accounts payable processes, achieving productivity and efficiency is impossible. Paper-based invoices cause unnecessary errors and delays that result in undue costs for business.
Such interruptions and delays stop your business from reaching its full potential and impede your growth path.
No wonder more than 50% of Accounts Payable (AP) departments acknowledge that migrating off manual invoice systems is their top priority.
An automated online invoicing processing solution is the perfect solution to optimize your billing model and ensure timely payment of all invoices. It can streamline all Accounts Payable operations by giving your business advanced AP tools coupled with premium intelligent features.
In this article, we discuss the key benefits of online invoice processing and what it can mean for your business.
Upgrade from Inefficient Legacy Solutions
An online invoice processing solution is a perfect replacement for inefficient legacy invoice processing solutions.
The online system revitalizes your legacy system with cutting features such as automated invoice capture, instant approvals, on-time payments, and seamless reconciliation delivered through a unified console.
Effortless Invoice Processing
An online invoice processing solution enables businesses to capture vendor invoices through web portals and email. This means all your business partners can share invoices easily without going through the hassle of creating paper invoices and sending them manually over to you.
In contrast to time-consuming manual procedures, an online solution centralizes invoice receipts by letting vendors submit their invoices through email.
Alternatively, these vendors can upload business invoices directly on secure portals and track their progress. At the same time, businesses can receive alerts in case the system detects duplicate invoices within its system.
In the end, online invoice processing manages everything from payment execution to reconciliation effortlessly.
Streamlined Intelligent Data Capture
Intelligent Data Capture is a core feature of all automated invoice processing solutions. This disrupting technology eliminates the need for tedious invoice data entry.
It uses variations of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and reinforces it with layers of advanced machine learning algorithms, constantly improving its data capture features.
Intelligent Data Capture can help companies ensure that documentation with existing business processes; making it easier to secure documents and automate processes.
The technology uses multiple methods to tag standard document types and other content related to business processes.
Since online invoice processing solutions use advanced classification to organize documents automatically, companies can classify incoming documents as they receive them.
In other words, companies can ensure incoming documents are marked based on all relevant compliance and security tags. This makes it easier to implement compliance of geo-location, contracts, as well, Personally-Identifying Information (PII).
At the same time, online invoice processing solutions can also attribute content to an audit trail, which can help in compliance with government regulations.
Download for free: A complete Guide to Invoice Processing Automation
Faster & Accurate Invoice Processing
Using automatic data capture online invoice processing solutions enable businesses to incorporate e-invoicing and establish dynamic workflows, minimizing the time it takes to obtain approvals, saving invaluable time and money.
At the same time, the dynamic workflow and faster approval accelerate invoice processing and reduce costs caused by payment delays.
Automated PO Matching
An online invoice processing solution enables your business to configure rules as per your organizational policies. This means you can customize whether an inbound invoice matches your company’s policies and process each invoice according to its type.
Advanced solutions offer 2-way and 3-way matching for headers and line levels, making it easier to process mismatches within tolerance ranges. Even if an invoice isn’t auto-matched according to tolerance thresholds, you can preset additional exception approvals for exception handling.
Efficient Multi-Tier Approvals
An online invoice processing solution gives businesses to set up multi-tier approvals based on their organizational hierarchy.
Such features strengthen your business’s internal controls, making it easier for you to eliminate lengthy manual processes and maximize workflow efficiency.
The online platform enables AP departments to automatically route emails for online or in-mail approval. Similarly, high-tier approvers can review unread invoice approvals, address outstanding invoices, and deal with processes awaiting AP action.
Lastly, it’s also possible to invite new suppliers to register online directly through email.
Seamless Collaboration
An online invoice processing solution offers your organization a single platform that’s accessible across multiple departments and locations worldwide.
The system doesn’t have to rely on shared locations and similar work hours to enable collaboration between remote staff.
Even if your business is spread across different locations, the solution can gather data from disparate sources and organize it in a single and secure location.
Simultaneously, online invoice processing can support several distinct users, as well as various diverse AP processes, incorporating all features into a single and easy-to-manage solution.
Aggregated Payment Processing
Most invoice processing solutions are designed to handle single bills but fail when they have to process hundreds of invoices simultaneously.
However, an online invoice processing solution enables businesses to group different invoices, regardless of who sent them or the payment method they use.
At the same time, you can separate the actual movement of cash from approvals for invoices so it’s possible to enforce duty segregation. In case you don’t have adequate funds, the solution can withhold supplier payments and notify you, as well.
Automated Supplier Communications
Handling requests for supplier payment status is a constant headache for AP departments. An online invoice processing solution automates communications between suppliers and your business, ensuring that suppliers remain notified about every update and step of the invoice and payment process.
This includes status alerts sent via emails, as well as access to secure portals where suppliers can check their payment status for themselves. As a result, it can drastically reduce the time spent by AP staff on inquiries and resolutions.
Finding the right online invoice processing solution that helps your business streamline its billing model and maximize efficiency within your workflow.
