AP Automation Archives : Planergy Software

Invoice Cycle Time: What Is It and How To Improve It

Mary Girsch-Bock — Fri, 26 May 2023 09:46:31 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

Invoice Cycle Time: What Is It and How To Improve It

Category

Accounts Payable

Written by Mary Girsch-Bock
16 min read

Tags

AP Automation Benchmarking KPIs

Last edited

July 2, 2024

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What Is the Invoice Cycle Time?

Invoice cycle time is the number of days it currently takes your accounts payable department to process an invoice once it’s been received.

The processing tasks measured in invoice cycle time include:

Invoice Receipt

Once the invoice is received, how long does it take to get the invoice to the right place?

If you’re using an automated AP application, invoice receipt is quick and painless, automatically moving from one step to the next without much human intervention needed unless there’s an exception found.

However, if you’re manually processing your invoices, how quickly the invoice moves to the next step depends greatly on how it’s delivered.

Mailed invoices need to be routed to the correct individual, and if they’re emailed, they’ll need to be printed for processing.
Invoice Validation

Once an invoice has been received, it needs to be verified.

The best way to verify an invoice is by using the three-way match, which matches an invoice to a purchase order and delivery receipt.

If a purchase order was not used, you’ll have to verify its authenticity in another way.
Invoice Approval Preparation

Once an invoice has been authenticated and there are no exceptions found, the invoice will need to be approved.

If you’re using an automated purchase order system, approval may not be necessary, since the purchase order was approved.

However, invoices without a corresponding purchase order will need to be approved.

The approval process is what typically pushes the invoice cycle time up.

The manual approval process is ripe for bottlenecks, including invoices getting lost or misplaced during the routing process.

In theory, while an invoice should be quickly approved, the reality is that an invoice, routed manually, can often remain on an approver’s desk for days or even weeks.

And for invoices that need a second approval, such as those over a certain dollar amount, approval time can quickly rise.
Invoice Payment

Once an invoice is routed back to AP after approval, it will need to be entered into your accounting software application, where it is scheduled for payment.

If you’re using a manual AP system, the invoice will need to be entered into your accounting application.

Data entry is not necessary with an automated AP system, which will integrate with your accounting software or ERP and process the invoice ready for payment immediately upon approval.

How Do You Calculate Invoice Cycle Time?

It’s a fairly simple process to calculate your invoice cycle time by determining the number of days required to complete the steps listed above.

Manual Invoice Cycle Time

Invoice Cycle Task	Days to Complete Cycle
Invoice Receipt	1-2 days
Invoice Validation	1-2 days
Invoice Approval	4-7 days
Invoice Payment Preparation and Data Entry	1-2 days
Total Invoice Cycle Time	7-13 days

In the example above, a company using manual AP processes may spend between 1-2 days getting the invoice to where it’s supposed to go.

This can include copying an invoice that is emailed or routing the invoice to the correct staff member.

Invoice validation may also be fast, at one day, or expand to two days if an exception is found, or matching documents need to be located.

However, if a purchase order to shipping receipt has not been received, processing times can rise.

Invoice approval time can vary widely depending on internal processes in place for approving invoices.

Finally, invoice payment preparation should only take one day, but if there are numerous invoices that need to be entered, additional time may be needed.

That puts your average manual invoice cycle time at 7-13 days.

Automated Invoice Cycle Time

Invoice Cycle Task	Days to Complete Cycle
Invoice Receipt	1 day
Invoice Validation	1 day
Invoice Approval	1 day
Invoice Payment Preparation and Data Entry	½ day
Total Invoice Cycle Time	3½ days

For our second example, a company using invoice automation, invoice cycle times are reduced dramatically.

Since an automated AP system receives an invoice and automatically performs a three-way match, the invoice can be routed for approval almost immediately, using a custom workflow approval process.

Once approved, the invoice is ready to be paid.

While these are just examples, both examples fall within the range cited by Ardent Partners State of ePayables for 2022, which estimates manual cycle times of 10.9 days versus automated processing times of 3.7 days.

What Is the Average Invoice Cycle Time for a Typical Company?

According to the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) metrics, best-in-class companies have an average invoice cycle time of 2.8 days, with a median time of 4 days, with those on the bottom of the list taking 7 days or longer from invoice receipt to payment setup.

How Does a Poor Invoice Cycle Time Impact a Company?

Higher processing cost is the number one way that poor invoice cycle times can impact a business. It may be a well-worn cliché, but time is money.

And the more time you spend processing invoices, the more it’s going to cost you; in additional labor hours, the loss of early payment discounts, and fees and penalties due to late payments.

If your invoice cycle time is high, it’s likely due to the use of manual processes.

Every hour spent copying an invoice for distribution, performing a manual three-way match, or entering invoice data manually is costing your company money.

Add to that the days or possibly weeks that an invoice sits on someone’s desk waiting to be approved, and your costs can quickly become unsustainable.

What Are the Challenges With Invoice Processing?

The biggest challenge businesses face with invoice processing is delays, since delays cost your business money.

The delays can start at the beginning when the invoice is received.

If you’re not currently using e-invoicing, chances are that you’re still receiving paper invoices in the mail.

But even if your invoices are being emailed to you, if you’re not using an automated system, you still have to download and print those invoices and make sure that they get to the correct AP team member.

Next, when an invoice is received, it has to be validated for authenticity.

Following that, AP staff will need to complete three-way matching, which ensures that the invoice data matches the same data found on a purchase order and shipping receipt.

If there’s a discrepancy, you’ll have to pull the invoice and complete some follow-up work to determine which documents are accurate.

Finally, the biggest challenge with invoice processing is timely invoice approvals. With a manual system, even if the invoice is routed for approval immediately, there are often significant delays in the approval process.

And once the invoice has been approved and is routed back to AP, clerks will still have to enter the invoice manually.

How Can you Improve Invoice Cycle Times?

If your invoice cycle time is greater than seven days, it may be time to work on creating internal processes that can improve that time.

Remember, the higher your invoice cycle time, the more inefficient your AP processes are.

While there are ways you can improve manual processes, the best way to improve your invoice cycle time is to make the switch to an automated AP application like Planergy, which uses a combination of artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate time-consuming manual tasks like the following:

Manual Data Entry

Entering invoice data can take up a significant amount of time. Automation eliminates the need to enter invoice data manually.
Approvals

Manually routing invoices for approval causes more processing delays than just about any other process.

Invoices routed for manual approval often sit on the approver’s desk for days, or even longer.

Manually routing an invoice also raises the possibility of it getting lost in transit, buried under stacks of paper, or being routed to the wrong person.

Using automated approval workflows gets the invoices where they need to go promptly, where they can be electronically approved and routed back to AP for quicker processing.
Three-Way Matching

An integral part of processing invoices is completing three-way matching. Three-way matching requires invoice data to match the corresponding purchase order and shipping receipt.

If an exception is found, additional follow-up is required. Using AP automation, three-way matching is completed automatically.

No more hunting down purchase orders and shipping receipts. And if there is an anomaly found during the automated matching process, the invoice is flagged for additional follow-up.
Storing Documents Digitally

When processing invoices an AP automation solution will automatically store and backup the documents.

With Planergy, this will include any relevant documents from the procurement process too – the PO, GRN, supplier quotes, etc.

Having documents available with powerful search functionality saves time manually storing the documents but also makes it easier to search for documents later.
Reduces Human Error

Accounts payable automation reduces the amount of human error occurrence. Reducing manual entry and repetitive tasks reduces the opportunity for errors.

Reducing errors helps to eliminate late fees and other penalties.
Identify Incorrect Payments and Fraud

Automation also reduces the possibility of accounts payable fraud, eliminates duplicate payments, and offers electronic document management, allowing you to go paperless (or close to it), while keeping files organized and easily accessible.

Finally, automation allows you to speed up your invoice cycle time, allowing you to take advantage of early payment discounts.

An investment in an automated procure-to-pay application allows you to streamline the entire AP invoice cycle from invoice receipt to payment preparation, giving your AP team more time to concentrate on more important tasks.

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What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

We’ve helped save billions of dollars for our clients through better spend management, process automation in purchasing and finance, and reducing financial risks. To discover how we can help grow your business:

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our Accounts Payable Automation Software page to see how Planergy can automate your AP process reducing you the hours of manual processing, stoping erroneous payments, and driving value across your organization.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post Invoice Cycle Time: What Is It and How To Improve It appeared first on Planergy Software.

Spend Management for QuickBooks Online

Mary Girsch-Bock — Thu, 25 May 2023 10:22:45 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

Spend Management for QuickBooks Online

Category

Spend Management

Written by Mary Girsch-Bock
22 min read

Tags

AP Automation Procurement QuickBooks

Last edited

July 2, 2024

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Purchase Order Creation in QuickBooks

Purchase order creation in QuickBooks Online is simple. Just go into the Vendor profile and click on the New Transaction tab which is on the right side of the screen.

Click on the Purchase Order option from the drop-down menu, and you’ll be able to add both category and item details to the purchase order.

The purchase order feature in QuickBooks Online is easily navigated.

Once the purchase order has been entered, you can send the purchase order electronically to your vendor or supplier for processing.

In QuickBooks Online, you can also update the purchase order status once an invoice has been received by copying the information to a bill for AP processing.

There is also an option to view all open purchase orders by running the Open Purchase Order List report, which can be run by product/service or by vendor.

One thing to note is that the purchase order feature in QuickBooks Online will need to be turned on.

This can be done in the Settings area of the application.

For a small business this can work well. But as a company grows this will create a bottleneck with your accounting team because you won’t want all your staff to have access to QuickBooks and see your accounting data.

QuickBooks does not have granular access controls.

Also, there are no purchase order approval workflows and other important functions for properly managing purchasing within a company.

Budgeting

Both QuickBooks Online Plus and QuickBooks Online Advanced offer basic budgeting options that can be useful for your finance team.

You have the option to use previous year totals or current year totals to prepare your budget.

Because QuickBooks Online uses accounts that are in your current chart of accounts, if you wish to add a particular account to your budget, you’ll first have to add the account to your chart of accounts.

The Budget feature lets you create a new budget for multiple fiscal years.

A Pre-fill data option lets you prefill a newly created budget using previous year or current year totals, and you have the option to subdivide the budget by customer if you desire.

You can create a budget for up to seven fiscal years, and have the choice to create a monthly, quarterly, or yearly budget.

If you subscribe to the Advanced plan, you can also import budgets as a .CSV file.

There’s also an option to copy an existing budget, which allows you to use last year’s financial data in your new budget.

Once a budget has been created, you can run either the Budget Overview report or a Budget vs. Actuals report so you can see how close your current totals are to your budgeted amounts.

The budgeting in QuickBooks Online can be beneficial from a reporting perspective but it will not restrict and control expenditure during the purchasing process and give you real-time budget vs expenditure data at the point of approving a purchase like Planergy, a dedicated spend management software that integrates with QuickBooks Online.

Invoice Processing

Invoice processing is simple in QuickBooks Online, but there is no real automation involved in the process.

For example, once you receive an invoice for a purchase, if the invoice matches the purchase order, you can change the status of the purchase order by converting it to a bill.

However, there is currently no option for an invoice to automatically connect with a purchase order.

Create a bill from scratch or upload an electronic invoice directly in QuickBooks Online.

If you have already created a purchase order for an expense, you can create a bill for that purchase order by choosing the Copy to Bill function, which will automatically close the purchase order.

A dedicated AP automation software that integrates with QuickBooks Online, like Planergy, can greatly improve invoice processing in QuickBooks.

This is achieved by automatically importing invoices, digitally archive them, scanning them using OCR and AI, automatically two- or three-way match the invoice against PO and GRN, flagging duplicate invoices, highlighting any differences between PO and invoice, and automatically routing invoices for approval.

Reducing manual steps and managing by exception greatly improves invoice processing time and reduces the cost of processing invoices.

Supplier and Vendor Management

Vendor management capability is decent in QuickBooks Online.

You can add the usual contact information, including a billing address, by clicking on the Vendor Details tab.

To view all current supplier and vendor activity, click on the Transaction List option, which lists all current transactions related to a particular vendor including bills, purchase orders, and payments.

The Expenses option lets you manage all vendor activity from one screen.

One of the most useful features in QuickBooks Online is the ability to complete all related vendor activity from within the Vendors screen.

For example, if a vendor has an open bill, you can schedule it for payment directly from the Vendors screen.

You can also update the status of a purchase order from the Vendors screen, copying information over to a bill.

While this is extremely useful, unfortunately, it doesn’t lend itself to automating the AP/procurement process, since all of these updates will need to be entered manually.

A dedicated spend management platform, like Planergy, will add additional vendor management features. These include supplier approval, vendor performance management, vendor management KPI tracking, PunchOut catalog integrations, and reporting easily on vendor spend.

User Access Controls

QuickBooks Online allows you to add a new user to the system at any time. Unfortunately, there are only two levels of users available:

Standard Users

Standard users can be given full or limited system access.

Standard users with full access can view, add, and change information in both Customers and Sales and Vendors and Purchases.

This includes writing checks, making bank transfers, making deposits, and changing system preferences.

Those with limited access can perform most job functions, but cannot print checks, view bank registers, adjust inventory totals, view income and expense totals, or set up multicurrency options.

There is no option to customize which features and functions the system users can have access to.
Company Admin

Company Admins have complete access to all system features including sending money, changing passwords, and adding users.

New users can be given All, Limited, or No access in QuickBooks Online.

Two other types of access can be used that don’t count toward the number of current system users:

Reports Only

This designation allows employees to access standard financial reports while restricting payroll reports and those that contact personal information.
Time Tracking Only

If you use time-tracking, this designation allows employees to add their time sheets to the system.

While these options may be suitable for smaller businesses, larger businesses will likely need a more sophisticated way to assign access controls for their employees.

A separate spend management platform allows you to leave access to QuickBooks to the finance team while giving more granular controls around purchasing. For example, restricting access to view POs from just one department.

Reporting

For general financial reporting, QuickBooks Online offers solid reporting options.

For expense management purposes, those reports are limited to the following:

Open purchase order list
Open purchase order detail
Purchases by product or service detail
Purchases by vendor detail

Expense management reporting in QuickBooks Online is limited.

While there are several accounts payable and vendor reports available, the reports provide minimal information that can be useful for proper spend management.

A dedicated spend management software, like Planergy, can include deep reporting functionality for accounts payable and procurement with automated spend analysis.

Spend Management Best Practices

Spend management best practices are important for small and mid-size businesses.

These best practices include:

Automating workflows and removing manual tasks
Vetting and selecting vendors carefully
Procurement of goods and supplies at the best price for the best terms
Maintaining a good business relationship with vendors which should include regular communication
Taking advantage of early payment discounts when offered
Setting departmental and individual spending limits to stay within budget
Making sure that vendors and suppliers are always paid on time and accurately
Using analytics to make the best possible business decisions

Automation plays a key role in spend management best practices. For example, it’s difficult to pay vendors on time when invoices aren’t approved regularly.

It’s also difficult to have a complete picture of your finances when invoices are sitting on someone’s desk waiting to be approved.

When using manual AP systems, it can also be difficult to take advantage of early payment discounts.

That’s why it can be beneficial to your business to use a procure-to-pay application that integrates with accounting software applications like QuickBooks Online.

Use a Dedicated Spend Application with QuickBooks Online for Improved Spend Management

Using a dedicated spend application like Planergy can increase the effectiveness of your accounting software application while also automating much of the purchase order and accounts payable process.

For example, Planergy offers the following features that can significantly reduce or even eliminate data entry, provide real-time budget vs. actual reports, and true AP automation.

Two- and Three-Way Matching

While you can match a purchase order to an invoice in QuickBooks Online, the process has to be completed manually.

Using an application like Planergy, incoming invoices are automatically matched to shipping receipts and purchase orders using artificial intelligence and OCR technology.
Automated PO Processes

Instead of using a manual purchase order system, mapping Planergy to QuickBooks Online allows you to automate the entire purchase order process from the initial purchase request to automating the entire purchase order workflow process.

Using a procure-to-pay software application also allows you to better monitor spending while reducing time-consuming manual processes.

In addition, you can manage your purchases from initial request to approval, to payment, from any device or mobile app.
Purchase and Invoice Approval Workflows

One of the biggest issues that impact accounts payable is delayed approvals. Using a manual approval process, paper invoices are routed to approvers, where they can remain on a desk for days or weeks at a time.

Even if you receive invoices electronically through QuickBooks, those invoices will still need to be routed to approvers before they can be paid.

Using procure-to-pay software streamlines the approval process by using an automated approval workflow that eliminates the manual approval process.
Budgeting Controls

Planergy gives you real-time visibility of spend versus budget.

It can also restrict purchasing when you reach your budget requiring approval on a budget increase before further spend can be committed against the budget.

This gives you better information when approving POs while also having the ability to ensure you are staying within budget.
Supplier Relationship Management and Approvals

QuickBooks Online allows you to enter basic vendor details, but it’s impossible to adequately manage large numbers of purchases using QuickBooks applications alone.

But adding a procure-to-pay application like Planergy offers easy vendor onboarding with centralized data management capability that can support vendor systems and supply catalogs.

In turn, a better supplier relationship can also lead to better pricing and more flexible payment terms.
Spend Analytics

If you’ve ever wondered exactly what your business is spending its money on, having access to true spending analytics is vital.

While QuickBooks Online offers good standard reporting options, there’s little available that can help with true spend management.

On the other hand, procure-to-pay applications like Planergy offer real-time business intelligence reports and user dashboards that can be fully customized to suit the needs of your business and help turn data into actionable insights.

Unlike QuickBooks reports, procure-to-pay applications offer insight into spending levels and where you’re spending. You’ll also be able to track every purchase you make.
Accounts Payable Automation

While you can manage invoices in QuickBooks online everything is quite manual.

Planergy introduces AP automation to automatically scan and match invoices, automatically forward invoices for approval to the correct person, all while ensuring invoices are backed up digitally.
Accurate AP Reporting

Instead of waiting until a bill has been received or paid, using a procure-to-pay application allows you to view budget vs. actuals in real-time.

You’ll also have access to business intelligence reports while ensuring a quicker, more accurate month-end closing process which includes committed spend totals.
Granular User Access Controls

User access is an important part of any application. QuickBooks Online offers multi-level user access but fails to provide granular access control that keeps access to accounting data strictly to accountants.

A better solution is to use an application that offers granular user access controls, allowing authorized users to access procure-to-pay features without having complete access to accounting software applications.

As a result, AP and purchasing staff have easy access to the functions they need without access to confidential data such as payroll and bank account information.

For added security, things like two-factor authentication and the ability to set multi-level permissions based on roles help keep confidential information secure.

Have the Best of Both Worlds

QuickBooks Online is a great application for general accounting, but it offers little in the way of spend management capability.

But when coupled with an easily integrated, procure-to-pay application, like Planergy, you can continue to use the accounting software you’re comfortable with while bringing AP automation to your business.

With a procure-to-pay application, you can manage all of your purchase orders, from initial request to approval directly in the application, without the need to access QuickBooks Online.

In addition, procure-to-pay applications like Planergy offer AP automation such as three-way matching automation, with the ability to automatically import and generate bills in QuickBooks Online for all approved expenses.

Using an automated procure-to-pay application will allow you to reduce or even eliminate paper invoices, create an automated workflow approval system that ensures that invoices are promptly approved for timely payment, and eliminate the need for duplicate or repetitive data entry.

Using QuickBooks Online combined with a procure-to-pay application like Planergy can eliminate Excel spreadsheets, save time, and still provide the accounting capability your small business needs.

Download PDF

What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our Accounts Payable Automation Software page to see how Planergy can automate your AP process reducing you the hours of manual processing, stoping erroneous payments, and driving value across your organization.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post Spend Management for QuickBooks Online appeared first on Planergy Software.

Accounts Payable: What Is It, Definition, Job Description, Process, and Software

Keith Murphy — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 11:16:29 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

Accounts Payable: What Is It, Definition, Job Description, Process, and Software

Category

Accounts Payable

Written by Keith Murphy
31 min read

Tags

AP Automation Invoice Processing Process & Procedures

Last edited

July 2, 2024

Download PDF

What Is Accounts Payable?
Understanding Accounts Payable
Accounts Payable Example
Accounts Payable Job Description
The Accounts Payable Process
Other Important Accounts Payable Tasks
Challenges in the Accounts Payable Process
Benefits of Using AP Automation Software
Popular Accounting Software Options
Future Trends in Accounts Payable

What Is Accounts Payable?

Accounts payable is the money a company owes to its suppliers for goods and services received on credit.

Accounts payable is also the department within the finance team who are responsible for paying the invoices received from suppliers related to the company’s purchases.

From an accounting perspective, accounts payable is an account within the general ledger that tracks a company’s liabilities to pay short-term debt to it’s creditors.

Understanding Accounts Payable

When a company purchases goods and services on credit, it records them as accounts payable because they are liable to pay the vendor later.

Accounts payable is also sometimes referred to as trade debt or trade payables, but trade payables are actually a sub-set of accounts payable.

Trade payables is related only to inventory related goods.

Is Accounts Payabale a Liability or an Asset?

Accounts payable is a current liability on the balance sheet that needs to be settled within one year, representing money owed to other entities in exchange for goods and services.

It should not be confused with accounts receivable, which refers to the money customers owe a business. This is an asset.

The accounts receivable ledger tracks these amounts owed and helps businesses keep track of payments due, monitor customer balances, and generate reports for accounting purposes.

AR is an important part of managing the finances of any business, but it can be considered as the opposite of AP.

What’s the Difference Between Accounts Payable and Notes Payable?

Accounts payable should also not be confused with notes payable.

Notes payable are long-term liabilities payable beyond 12 months while accounts payable should be payable within a 12-month period.

What’s the Difference Between an Accrued Expense and Accounts Payable?

Accrued expenses and accounts payable have some similarities, they are both monies owed for example, but there are also key differences between accrued expenses and accounts payable.

Accrued expenses are liabilities that have built up over time and the company is obligated to pay in the future. Invoices may not have been received yet and the amount owed may be estimated.

Accounts payable are liabilities related to ongoing expenses where invoices have been received and payment must be made in a defined period, usually within 12 months of the expense being incurred.

Is Accounts Payable a Credit or a Debit?

There is often confusion about if accounts payable is a credit or a debit. Accounts payable is a liability account and should have a credit balance.

But individual accounts payable records can be credit (at the point of purchase) or debit (when the payment is processed).

Accounts Payable Example

You make a purchase of $1,000 worth of stationary on behalf of the company from your supplier, AB Stationary.

Based on your agreed credit terms the purchase is on credit and will be due to be paid in 14 days.

This $1,000 will be added to your accounts payable ledger as a credit until against AB Stationary until the payment is processed.

When the payment is processed the accounts payable ledger will have a debit of $1,000 recorded.

This follows accrual accounting practices where expenses are recognized when they are incurred.

Accounts Payable Job Description

Working in accounts payable involves managing the company’s financial obligations to its suppliers.

The main tasks of an accounts payable clerk include:

Processing invoices
Verifying the accuracy and completeness of the information
Coding payments
Determining payment terms
Creating payment schedules

Accounts payable clerks may also be responsible for the following:

Preparing reports
Reconciling differences between invoices
Making payments to vendors
Managing vendor relations
Responding to inquiries
Resolving outstanding issues with suppliers

To be successful in an accounts payable role, individuals need relevant accounts payable skills.

They should possess strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to work in a fast-paced environment.

They should also have a good understanding of accounting principles and experience working with accounting software.

As part of the job responsibilities of accounts payable professionals must monitor supplier invoices to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of payments.

They also provide timely updates on payment status to relevant stakeholders such as internal departments and external suppliers.

Accounts payable professionals may also be responsible for reconciling accounts with vendors or calculating any discounts available on payments made within specified deadlines.

They may also provide analysis of unpaid invoices to help identify potential issues with late payments or discrepancies in vendor charges.

If you are hiring in accounts payable you should consider appropriate accounts payable interview questions to help identify the right candidates.

The Accounts Payable Process

The accounts payable process is commonly considered to start when you receive an invoice.

Ideally, the accounts payable process will incorporate a PO process including tracking of receiving of goods and services covering the full procure-to-pay process.

This is also known as Full cycle accounts payable and ensures faster and more accurate invoice processing with fewer exceptions. If the invoice data matches.

Receive and Review Vendor Invoice
The AP process begins when an invoice is received from a vendor or supplier for goods or services the business purchased on credit terms.
Assign Invoice for Processing
After the invoice is received, it needs to be forwarded to an appropriate person for invoice processing.
This might be a department manager, the company accountant, or an accounts payable specialist.
If a company is clear on its purchase order about who should receive the invoice, this step can be avoided.
AP automation software can automatically receive, process, and assign invoices to the right people.
Enter Invoice Data Into the Accounting Software
AP staff must then enter all the invoice data into the accounting software, including vendor details, items, quantities, cost, etc.
All transactions must be recorded in the general ledger. AP staff must be able to keep track of all business expenses, payments, and reimbursements on all liability accounts.
This step is easier with electronic invoicing and when AP automation software is in use.
Invoice data can be scanned and extracted from the invoice using OCR technology and artificial intelligence and entered directly into the accounting system resulting in faster invoice processing times.
Verify Invoice and Payment Information
Once the information is in the system, accounts payable clerks analyze the payment terms, check for discounts that may be applicable per the contract, and other information that could affect payment accuracy before sending the invoice for approval.
Match Invoice To PO and Receipt
If you are following a 2-way matching process this will involve comparing the invoice to a PO.
If you are following a 3-way matching process you will match against the PO and also the goods received note or other relevant receiving documents.
Approve Invoice
The invoice approval process will likely look different depending on how the invoice has been matched. Successfully 3-way matched invoices may not need any additional approval.
Invoices that were not successfully matched or those with exceptions will likely need additional approval.
Make Payment
The AP department must ensure that all payments are authorized accurately and promptly.
This will ensure invoices can be processed for payment at the optimal time for value and cash flow management.
While some vendors may offer an early payment discount, it may not be feasible for you to leverage it.
The payable department should know when it’s safe to take advantage of those discounts and when it is better to wait until the due date to make payment.
Once the information is verified and payment is approved, the AP department will prepare vendor payments. Vendor payment details may use EFT payments, ACH transfers or wire transfers.
They are typically outlined in the contract but generally include payment by check, bank transfer, wire, credit card, or debit card.

Other Important Accounts Payable Tasks

Reconcile Vendor Accounts

After issuing payment to the vendor, AP staff must periodically reconcile vendor accounts.

This process involves checking to ensure all invoices have been paid correctly and on time.

If there is a discrepancy, it involves reaching out to the vendor to solve the issue – whether it means receiving a refund, more product, or issuing another payment.

It is best to reconcile vendor accounts regularly.

Address Supplier Inquiries Promptly

Occasionally, suppliers may ask questions about when to expect an invoice payment. They may also have questions about orders, delivery, etc.

The accounts payable department must be able to address inquiries, manage invoice disputes, and forward concerns to the relevant department quickly to maintain quality vendor relationships.

Accounts Payable Reporting

Accounts payable reporting is an important part of accrual accounting. Tracking and reporting on AP transactions is key for the day-to-day activities of the department.

The reports generated can vary in different businesses.

This can include accounts payable KPI reports, accounts payable aging reports, accounts payable trial balance, and GRNI reports to help with GRNI Reconciliation.

Challenges in the Accounts Payable Process

There are many challenges in the accounts payable process that need to be managed carefully to ensure optimal performance.

Here is a list of some of the key challenges:

Manual Processes and Data Entry
When your business manually manages bills and invoices, it can take time and resources.
This becomes especially challenging when dealing with large amounts of data or foreign currencies/exchange rates.
Manual processes also leave more room for human error which could result in incorrect payments or missed deadlines.
Improving AP performance against accounts payable Benchmarks can be difficult, for example, if you’re trying to measure and improve your AP turnover ratio.
Lack of Visibility of Committed Spend
Without proper visibility into cash flow, businesses could miss out on opportunities to optimize their costs or save money by taking advantage of discounting options from vendors.
Better forecasting of payments in accounts payable can help improve cash flow management and liquidity management.
Furthermore, without visibility into the accounts payable process, it may be difficult to track down duplicate payments or identify fraud attempts quickly enough to prevent them from occurring.
Without upstream visibility of spend accounts payable forecasting will prove difficult and invoice approval times will be slow.
Inefficient Payment Processes
This could include sending multiple payments for single invoices or waiting too long to pay vendors, resulting in late fees or other penalties.
Inefficient payment processes also make it difficult to manage accounts payable cash flow because there’s no way to know how much money will be available at any given time.
Additionally, inefficient payment processes increase the risk of making duplicate payments. It is hard to keep track of all invoices being processed at any given moment.
Accounts payable automation helps address these challenges by handling invoice reconciliation (with automatic three-way matching to match invoices to receipts and invoices), approval workflows, and more.
Delays with Approving Invoices
Each delay in a step of invoice processing has a knock-on effect with the result of delaying payment processing.
The biggest delay of all is often caused by delays approving invoices. Who needs to approve this invoice?
When you find out they don’t have enough information to approve so they need to check the details and get back to you.
When all the required information is not available it becomes harder to approve invoices. An invoice arrives sometimes a month after the purchase.
Without a system in place will people recall the agreed prices? Not always. That’s where full cycle accounts payable helps.
Managing Documents and Audit Trails
Working with paper causes many problems, not least is that it goes missing. Paper invoices are no different. Lost in a pile, dropped when moving to another office.
Centralizing and digitizing invoice processing automates the management of relevant documents. Invoices are captured and digitized automatically and backed up to the cloud.
Additional documents can be linked similarly so you don’t need to maintain folders and folders of documents.
Recording actions carried out in the accounts payable process can also be labor intensive.
How do your auditors know correct approval processes were followed if you received that on a phone call and there is no audit trail?

Accounts payable is the lifeblood of a business. Without proper management of payables and receivables, a business will falter.

Benefits of Using AP Automation Software

Managing accounts payable can be complex and time-consuming, but it can become easier with the right software.

Accounts Payable software is designed to streamline and automate many tasks required to pay suppliers on time while minimizing human errors that could lead to inaccuracies or delays.

Planergy’s procure-to-pay software, incorporating AP automation software, makes AP automation easy. We connect with your accounting software or ERP to make managing procurement and accounting easier.

AP software allows companies to eliminate mundane tasks and focus their resources on more important projects.

AP automation software provides numerous benefits, including:

Cost Savings
Automation eliminates the need for additional staff and the amount of time staff need to spend processing invoices.
Accounts payable process costs can be greatly reduced resulting in significant savings.
Faster Cycle Time
By automating approval workflows and invoice processing you will greatly reduce the time it takes to process invoices right through to payment.
A lower invoice cycle time is a desirable outcome from improving AP processes.
Tracking the change in accounts payable KPIs, like accounts payable days, accounts payable turnover, and days payable outstanding will show this improvement.
Where there are no exceptions you could even embrace straight-through invoice processing.
Greater Efficiency
Automation reduces invoice processing time and frees up time that would otherwise be spent on tedious tasks, allowing employees to work on more productive pursuits.
Better Accuracy and Reduced Errors
Invoice process automation is far more accurate than manual processes, ensuring accuracy in data entry and other operations.
Plus, it helps ensure you are moving towards a paperless accounts payable workflow, so you don’t have to worry about losing documents and reduces the risks of AP fraud.
Data Security
Cloud software digitizes your records, digitally archives your documents, and ensures your financial data is securely backed up.
It also allows your team to work remotely, giving you the benefits of remote working while reducing the risks of fraud.
Data Collection & Analysis
As automation tracks each step within a process, it creates records that can be used to analyze performance and identify weaknesses or improvements that need to be made.
The reports can help you see things like accounts payable write-offs and accounts payable recovery audits.
Scalable
Manual processes limit how many invoices you can process per employee. When you exceed those levels you need to hire more staff and this can be challenging and time-consuming.
Removing the manual processes and automating ensures your accounts payable team are ready to scale with the company much more easily.
Improves Forecasting
The earlier you know your committed spend the easier it is to forecast for budgets and cash-flow.
Spend visibility helps when preparing accounts payable accruals which in turn helps with month-end closing and when preparing year-end accounts.

Popular Accounting Software Options

Popular accounting software used for managing accounts payable lack the functionality of a dedicated AP solution like Planergy.

But luckily there are integration options for all leading accounting software and ERP.

Popular solutions often used to manage AP include:

Microsoft Dynamics GP
Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains is an installed business accounting or enterprise resource planning (ERP) software offering powerful yet easy-to-use tools that help manage customer relations and finances.
It is still in common use in businesses and continues to be supported but Microsoft have announced there will be no further new features added after version 18.5, released in October 2022.
The updated cloud offering from Microsoft is Microsoft Dynamics 365.
QuickBooks
QuickBooks is a powerful financial management software hosting a wide range of features to help businesses stay on top of their accounts. Available in Online and Desktop versions.
Planergy integrates with QuickBooks Online directly and has an integration with QuickBooks Desktop too.
Xero
Xero is accounting software offering cloud-based access, making it easier for business owners to stay organized and in control of their finances.
Xero has extensive options for integrating with additional software to extend it’s functionality. Planergy integrates with Xero to offer spend management and AP automation functionality.
Sage Intacct
Sage Intacct is an award-winning cloud based accounting and financial management software with features designed to help businesses process payments, reconcile accounts and create accurate reports.
Planergy integrates directly with Sage Intacct as well as other Sage software’s like Sage 200 and Sage 50.
NetSuite
NetSuite is a leading cloud ERP that covers CRM, business accounting, and ecommerce but does not effectively cover AP Automation.
Planergy has integration options for NetSuite customized to your specific NetSuite implementation.

Best Practices for Managing Accounts Payable

When managing accounts payable there are some key things you should do. Here is a list of accounts payable best practices to ensure you are processing invoices accurately and efficiently.

Standardize Invoice Processing
No one is perfect, and there will be occasional mistakes, especially if you still use manual processes and your vendor is the same.
You may be accidentally billed for more office supplies than you received or for a longer period of time than your contract indicates. Duplicate invoices are common. It is often not fraud but just a manual error by the staff at your supplier.
Creating a standard process for how invoices are handled following best practices ensures that information stays consistent across the board. This consistency makes it easier to spot errors during invoice processing, and allows for faster validation.
Enforce Internal Controls
A clear accounts payable policy should be defined with relevant internal controls for accounts payable and invoice processing. Compliance can be enforced more easily with dedicated software.
This should include a set of procedures for invoice approval, incorporating segregation of duties, and a workflow that sends the invoices to the appropriate department, person, or team, such as the CFO, help to streamline the process.
Automation can route invoices to the appropriate team member, and Planergy allows “Out of Office” settings that allow another user to temporarily step in with the same user permissions to keep things running smoothly while someone is on vacation or out on leave.
Negotiate Payment Terms with Suppliers
To maximize your cash flow, your procurement team should negotiate more favorable pricing and payment terms with suppliers whenever possible.
If you can take advantage of an early payment discount, that’s great, but the goal is to keep cash flow positive while having all of your bills paid on time to avoid late fees or penalties.
Use AP Automation
Automated processes can reduce the time, effort, and cost associated with manual data entry by streamlining invoice management.
This increases accuracy and reduces errors. Automation also eliminates manual tasks such as matching invoices to orders and purchase orders, which can save significant time and resources.
Automation also improves the efficiency of accounts payable departments by updating payment terms with suppliers quickly and accurately.
This can result in early payment discounts or other incentives that benefit the company’s bottom line.
By reducing the risk of human error, automated accounting processes help ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations. It can also help ensure you can track and improve on established KPIs.
Digitally Archive Documents
Creating digital copies of your invoices and credit notes is important for accurate accounting. By automatically creating digital copies, you can effortlessly store them in a central repository for easy access.
This reduces the chances of misplacing important documents, so you always have an up-to-date record of your transactions.
Keeping supplier contracts in a central repository also keeps them readily available for review if any issues arise during the relationship.
Having all contracts stored in one place makes it easier to stay on top of legal requirements and ensure compliance.
Monitor and Audit AP Regularly
Keeping an eye on things ensures both you and your vendors comply with all the clauses in the contract. It also helps ensure you comply with reporting requirements, tax regulations, and other relevant industry standards.
Implementing an accounts payable audit program to regularly review your internal processes will ensure compliance and performance does not slip.
Accounts payable audit procedures are often overlooked but are important to maintain any improvements are built on.
Use Risk Management Techniques
To further reduce the issues between you and your vendors, conduct a risk assessment and integrate risk management techniques, like proactive risk management.
This can be done by establishing a threshold of acceptable levels of risk per contract and proactively monitoring those contracts on an ongoing basis.
This can help identify issues early on, with the ability to take action before any major compliance problems arise.
Additionally, integrating digital and automated processes for supplier management will help streamline the process and increase visibility.

Future Trends in Accounts Payable

The future of accounts payable is focused on automation and digitalization.

Accounting departments are increasingly adopting automated processes to streamline operations, reduce costs, improve accuracy, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

Integrating cloud-based platforms with accounts payable systems enables companies to manage their payments securely and efficiently.

Linking together procurement and accounts payable more effectively with procure-to-pay software that incorporates advanced AP automation will enable better collaboration between finance and procurement.

In the future, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will be used to automate the accounts payable process further and improve accuracy.

New technologies such as blockchain will also provide secure ways for companies to make payments quickly and easily.

This is why now is the perfect time to implement AP automation and digitize accounts payable in your business.

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1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

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Visit our Accounts Payable Automation Software page to see how Planergy can automate your AP process reducing you the hours of manual processing, stoping erroneous payments, and driving value across your organization.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

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Finance Digital Transformation: Preparing For The Digital Future

Mary Girsch-Bock — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 15:08:41 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

Finance Digital Transformation: Preparing For The Digital Future

Category

Finance

Written by Mary Girsch-Bock
19 min read

Tags

AP Automation Digital Transformation Management & Leadership

Last edited

July 2, 2024

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As more businesses look to make the transition to digital transformation, CFOs know that the biggest impact will be seen in accounting and finance departments, with even small startups experiencing the benefits of going digital.

Though this transition began long before Covid-19 impacted businesses, the pandemic only served to accelerate the digital transformation process considerably.

But before we talk about the impact that digital transformation can have on financial services, let’s take a look at what digital transformation is.

What Does Digital Transformation Mean?

True digital transformation will look different for each company, with smaller business needs much different from those of a global enterprise organization.

But in all cases, digital transformation simply means the introduction and integration of digital technology into a business.

This transformation uses digital technology to create new business processes or modify existing processes.

For example, many customer-service-driven businesses such as banks have implemented digital transformation to improve customer experience, while reducing or eliminating repetitive tasks in the workplace.

If you’ve ever used a banking app or called your bank with a question or concern, you’ve been exposed to the benefits of digital transformation such as voice recognition and online check deposit.

Digital transformation in finance can be particularly fruitful, as many tasks associated with accounting and finance departments are highly repetitive.

Using digital transformation, many of those repetitive tasks can be automated, reducing the amount of paperwork that needs to be processed as well as the amount of time necessary to complete a task.

What Are the Four Main Areas of Digital Transformation?

There are four main areas involved in the digital transformation process.

To completely embrace digital transformation, it’s important that businesses address all four of these types rather than focusing on one or two areas.

Process Transformation

The first area that most businesses employ is process transformation. Technology like robotic process automation help to streamline traditional back-office processes in finance and accounting, while helping organizations begin to integrate technology company-wide.

Manufacturing companies are also implementing process transformation in the manufacturing process, implementing machine learning for a more streamlined manufacturing process.
Business Model Transformation

Business model transformation looks at the business as a whole and makes changes accordingly. Every business operates on a business model, and transforming that model requires a long look at the existing model and how value is determined in the industry.

Changing the fundamental ways in which a business operates is never easy, but sometimes it’s necessary. Ignoring industry change can put businesses in the red and quickly put them out of business altogether.

For example, while Blockbuster was unable to change its business model to stay in business, organizations like Netflix, which began as a video rental business quickly adapted to industry trends that customers preferred to access videos on other devices and ultimately created a business model that better suited their customer base.
Domain Transformation

Unlike business model transformation, domain transformation focuses on current business offerings, seeking to extend their current offerings to better suit their customer base.

For example, a retailer selling women’s clothing may use domain transformation to launch a rental service, so customers have the option to purchase an item or simply rent it.

Another example is a company that sells heavy equipment that now offers an online option for its customers to manage their equipment, allowing them to track information such as purchase date, pricing, required maintenance scheduling, usage hours, and repair details.
Cultural and Organizational Transformation

It’s impossible to complete this new framework without transforming your business as well. As we all know, introducing new technology can cause a tremendous amount of pushback from employees and other stakeholders.

When making the change to digital transformation, your employees must be included in the process, from the initial plan to the transformation itself. Many people fear the unknown and are reluctant to leave their comfort zone.

Don’t expect the culture to change overnight since cultural and organizational transformation remains a long-term work in progress. Instead, open up the lines of communication with employees throughout the process while providing a clear vision of expectations across the company.

For business owners just beginning the digital transformation journey, the process can feel overwhelming. But the first step should be to move your computing platform to the cloud.

What Are the Benefits of Digital Transformation in Finance?

Digital transformation brings with it a host of benefits, particularly for finance, which has traditionally struggled with inefficiencies and errors.

These are just a few of the benefits your finance department may see:

Improved Efficiencies

Touchless transactions and the use of blockchain will automate much of the manual processes that create logjams in a business. As a bonus, moving to a fully automated system will allow staff to concentrate on what’s important, and not on the piles of paper on their desk.

For example, banks and call centers have been utilizing increasingly sophisticated digital technology in recent years. This technology includes voice recognition, mobile check deposit, and the use of bots to help navigate customers to the correct location.
A Reduction in Errors

As we all know, there’s more than one way to make a mistake. There are four types of errors; rule-based errors, skill-based errors, knowledge-based errors, and simple mistakes.

A rule-based error is made when a wrong rule is applied to a process; a skill-based error is when skilled personnel makes the wrong decision during a process; a knowledge-based error is frequently committed by new employees who don’t have sufficient knowledge to complete a task, while simple mistakes are just that – a number keyed wrong, a document saved in the wrong area, or the wrong gauge used in machinery.

Whatever the cause of the mistake, digital transformation can significantly reduce or eliminate the most common errors.
More Accurate Data

Using data from standard reports has always been a necessity for businesses, with financial data used to make key management decisions. But standard reporting has its limitations, reporting historical data, not real-time data.

Using digital transformation, Finance professionals and CFOs can now merge standard reporting data with more unstructured data to create a better financial forecast in real-time.

For example, when you run your monthly financial statements, they provide a window into past company performance but offer no real insight into the future.

Another area where more accurate data can impact a company is customer data. Today, most retail businesses use some form of data collection when interacting with their customers.

But the real challenge is what to do with the data collected. Without the proper analysis, customer data is just taking up space on your computer.

Using digital transformation, your business can evolve beyond simple tracking of customer buying habits and let you drill down to the details, providing an unprecedented opportunity to customize communication with each customer individually, rather than placing them in groups, as is currently the common practice.

Another thing that digital transformation does is allow you to better protect your customer’s data by implementing better privacy and security measures when collecting data from your customers.
A Better Customer Experience

Speaking of customers, using digital transformation not only streamlines the entire customer interaction process but also provides your customers with a more intuitive experience.

Digital transformation also allows businesses to offer customer conveniences such as user portals, easy online payment options, and a more personalized sales experience.

This, along with standard industry expectations such as easy ordering, fast shipping, and increased product choices can help businesses find and retain customers for the long haul while increasing revenue.
Increased Profits

It’s no secret that businesses that introduce digital transformation have seen revenue growth. According to the SAP Center for Business Insights and Oxford Economics, businesses that have adopted digital transformation have experienced the following:
- 80% of the organizations that have completed digital transformation have seen an increase in profits.
- 85% of businesses report an increase in market share.
- Business leaders currently estimate a higher revenue growth than their closest competitors.
Increased profits are largely due to some of the additional benefits of adopting digital transformation including the ability to reduce product costs, more easily introduce new products, and development of additional revenue streams.

Where Should You Focus?

For business owners just beginning the digital transformation journey, the process can feel overwhelming. But the first step should be to move your computing platform to the cloud.

Using multiple desktop solutions in your business will slow any progress you may make on the digital transformation front, so before you begin the process, be sure to move your platforms to the cloud.

If you’re already operating on the cloud, it might be time to do a company assessment to identify an area that needs addressing immediately.

This could be streamlining workflow, greater job efficiency, or even creating a better customer experience.

Whatever area you identify, work on getting that up and running before turning your attention to other issues.

How is Digital Transformation Changing the Finance Function?

Digital transformation in finance offers a long list of benefits which were listed earlier.

But perhaps the biggest change with the greatest impact is the introduction of Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

It’s no secret that accounting and finance typically deal with multiple manual tasks that eat up valuable employee time.

The deployment of RPA along with the use of artificial intelligence eliminates time-consuming manual tasks, allowing your employees to shift their attention to more essential work with increased productivity.

Digital transformation also increases the amount of predictive data available to businesses, eliminating the need to rely on historical financial reporting.

This new digital strategy also uses predictive analysis to detect patterns, and predict outcomes, while offering better risk management capability.

Digital Transformation in Procurement

Digital transformation impacts all areas of procurement, including the following:

Suppliers and the supply chain
Employees
Reporting
Customers
Costs
Revenue

Like other areas, digital transformation can eliminate repetitive tasks, improve business agility, and reduce costs.

While you may run into some roadblocks such as dealing with non-digital suppliers and customers, adopting these initiatives can help you streamline operations across your entire business.

What Are Some of the Top Trends of Digital Transformation?

With an acceleration towards digital transformation, several trends are happening across businesses globally.

The best way to address these trends is to determine the areas that your organization needs right now and focus on those.

For 2022, here are some of the top digital transformation trends.

Creating a Hybrid Work Environment

Accelerated by the pandemic, this trend began in 2020 by necessity and continues today. While making an immediate shift to remote work was needed, businesses today are looking to find a hybrid solution that meets the needs of the business and its employees.

While some businesses have fully embraced an entirely remote workforce, others are opting for a more flexible arrangement.

Regardless of your choice, introducing communication tools, time tracking, and workflow options are just some of the new tools that businesses have introduced to cope with this new way of working.
Utilizing a Digital Business Model

Depending on where you’re starting from, creating and utilizing a digital business model can be anything from creating an online store for your brick and mortar shop to creating an entirely new way for your customers and clients to interact with your business.

Remember, a digital business model is a continuous work in progress. Just as your software becomes obsolete if you don’t update it regularly, creating and maintaining a digital business model is fluid, so be sure to adapt and scale your model as needed.
Predictive Data Analytics

Digital transformation doesn’t necessarily create more data, but it does create better data. And because of the accuracy of that data, businesses are now able to better understand customer behavior patterns and model their business accordingly.

Predictive analytics also provide opportunities for businesses to better predict financial trends and create more accurate budgets

Other trends that bear looking at include ramped-up cybersecurity efforts. These efforts will work with a more concentrated plan for aggressively collecting customer data to keep data private and safe while also pledging to keep that data safe from breaches.

The Future of Digital Transformation is Here

Digital transformation is key to the future of finance.

If your business is still utilizing older technology, now is the time for your finance team to begin using these digital tools that will improve business operations while embracing these new technologies.

Download PDF

What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our “Solutions” page to see the areas of your business we can help improve to see if we’re a good fit for each other.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post Finance Digital Transformation: Preparing For The Digital Future appeared first on Planergy Software.

Automating The Finance Function: The Future of Finance

Mary Girsch-Bock — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 15:30:03 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

Automating The Finance Function: The Future of Finance

Category

Finance

Written by Mary Girsch-Bock
18 min read

Tags

AP Automation Technology & Software

Last edited

June 18, 2024

Download PDF

Of all the areas that businesses automate, finance continues to lag far behind.

The widespread use of spreadsheets or other outdated systems to perform accounting duties has put millions of businesses behind when it comes to automation.

Though common in smaller businesses, even larger businesses that utilize technology in other parts of their business often struggle when it comes to making the switch to automated solutions in finance.

Intelligent Automation in Finance

Intelligent automation, or IA, is not new.

Every time you upload a receipt to your expense management app, deposit a check on your bank’s online platform, chat with a virtual assistant, or type a search term into Google, you’re using a form of intelligent automation.

Financial services companies have also been using intelligent automation for years.

What is Intelligent Automation?

Intelligent Automation (IA), also know as cognitive automation, is the combination of technologies to automate and streamline business processes and decision-making.

This can involve a combination of robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), and business process management (BPM).

IA is designed to streamline business functions to make businesses operate more efficiently, free up resources, while also reducing errors.

While business owners can use a mix of automation solutions, using all three is recommended to create a more integrated environment.

Business Process Management (BPM)

Though technically not automation intelligence, and not even necessarily requiring the use of technology, business process management is a key consideration before implementing change.

Before introducing the automation into your business, you must pinpoint areas of your business that can benefit from it and proceed with a broad overview of the business requirements.

If not, you’ll likely end up with numerous technologies operating independently of each other. The result is that you’ll solve a few pressing problems while creating much larger issues down the road.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence utilizes machine learning rather than human intelligence.

Using complex algorithms, machines can analyze data and create predictions based on that data.

Artificial intelligence has two categories;

Narrow AI: Narrow AI uses limited context, focusing on performing a single task well rather than multiple tasks. Narrow AI is widely used today in everything from the search you complete on Google to the personal assistants offered by Apple and Amazon.
Artificial General Intelligence: Artificial General Intelligence or AGI is the most similar to a human, and can apply solutions to a variety of more complex problems.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Robotic process automation, or RPA, when used in finance uses a series of tools that allow businesses to configure software robots or bots that both captures and later interpret financial data from transactions, allowing companies to make more informed business decisions in real-time.

Mostly used to handle routine tasks such as automating the data extraction process from forms, RPA can be used in simple cases such as automated email responses to working with artificial intelligence to handle even more complex financial processes.

Digital transformation is happening in finance departments around the globe but progress remains slow. Less than 20% of companies have instituted accounts payable (AP) and Purchase-to-Pay automation in their business.

Current Challenges to Automated Finance Processes

Change is hard.

Because of that, many business owners and CFOs alike continue to rely on manual processes for their finance departments rather than making the switch to intelligent automation.

While the “we’ve always done it that way” mindset can play a role in this inability to move to automation, there are a variety of reasons why businesses aren’t moving in this direction, including the following:

Resistance to change: If business owners and finance teams are content with the status quo, they are often reluctant to change to a more automated process.

Lack of technology expertise: Many business owners are not particularly skilled in technology. That fear may be keeping them from exploring the latest technology and how it can benefit their business.
Cost: Small businesses in particular that operate on a tight budget may feel they’re not financially capable of making the move to a more automated finance department.

Many businesses remain stuck in this repetitive cycle, unsure where to start. Many business owners, reliant on spreadsheets for so many years, continue to utilize them, even when better, more automated solutions are available.

But automating even one area of a business can often help owners feel more comfortable when making the switch across the board.

The Downside of Manual Processes

But continuing to rely on manual systems can prove to be costly for businesses, creating multiple issues across the board including the following:

A lack of flexibility: Manual financial systems often require employees to work onsite, offering little in the way of flexibility. Making the move to a more automated environment allows workers to do their job from anywhere with an internet connection.

Time-consuming processes: Even small businesses can get bogged down with the time it takes to complete tasks manually, with more than 35% of accounting and finance leaders stating that time-consuming processes were one of their biggest problems.
Errors and inaccuracies: The biggest downside to using manual finance systems is the propensity of errors that can occur. Spreadsheets are great, but they are also ripe for errors and inaccuracies. One missing number or two numbers transposed can create inaccurate reporting, under or over-payments, or late payments, costing a company much more than they would have spent had they automated.
Administrative errors – Administrative errors can be just as costly as accounting errors. Inaccurate addresses, missing or incorrect tax I.D. numbers, missing purchase order numbers, and incorrect totals can all lead to an avalanche of costly mistakes.
Volume: Though the case can be made for very small companies using manual processes, businesses with a high volume of accounts payable can experience significant delays in processing when using manual methods.

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic created a new list of challenges. Businesses that were already using automated finance technology such as cloud computing were able to make the switch to remote work seamlessly, while those using manual processes to create purchase orders, invoices, and manage accounts receivable have had a much more difficult time.

And while many of these businesses have continued to struggle with the aftermath of the pandemic, those that have embraced the benefits of automated finance technology have been able to return to operations with some measure of normalcy.

What are the Benefits of Using Automation Technology?

Making the switch to automation technology offers numerous benefits. Even automating a single repetitive process can reduce mistakes, increase production, and allow business owners to deploy personnel to other areas where they are needed.

Here are a few of the areas where one or more of the automation technology processes can be helpful to finance professionals:

Better Risk Assessment:

Intelligence automation and artificial intelligence in particular can help companies make more informed risk analyses while improving the decision-making process.

This technology can benefit everyone from credit card companies looking to assess the risk of a potential cardholder, to auto insurance companies analyzing past driving records to determine the appropriate premium for a new policyholder.

AI also looks at the history of both the credit card applicant and the historical driving record of the applicant, examining everything from payment history to the number of speeding tickets received.

Having this information available makes it easy to assess the potential risk of each candidate and make any adjustments such as higher interest rates or a higher monthly premium based on the forecasting provided.

Better fraud detection

Financial institutions, particularly those that lend or invest money, are always looking to increase their fraud detection capabilities.

Banks and credit unions alike already employ artificial intelligence to better analyze customer spending habits based on prior purchasing. If AI detects an anomaly in their spending habits, the customer is alerted.

For example, if you’ve never been out of the U.S. and suddenly your credit card is displaying purchases from every European capital, the expenditures will be flagged as possible fraud.

This enables banks and their customers to get a handle on any possible fraud issues before they become a major issue for all parties involved.

Managing personal finance

Managing personal finances can be challenging for many of us.

That’s why personal finance applications are turning to artificial intelligence in their offerings. in their products.

For example, the use of AI in spending applications uses algorithms to analyze spending habits and then make recommendations on how to better manage your spending.

For example, most expense management applications use AI in their applications. This allows users to upload receipts to the application, where they are analyzed and placed in the proper categories based on the previous usage.

AI is also used in document management applications, with the ability to scan and decipher documentation to place the documentation in the correct folder.

Streamlines operations

Using artificial intelligence appropriately can help to streamline workflows throughout your business.

While it can lead to staff reductions in some areas, it also allows businesses to utilize their employees more engagingly, increasing employee satisfaction and longevity, while reducing the amount of time that is spent doing routine tasks.

For example, automating banking activities has allowed bank employees to spend less time on repetitive tasks can now focus their attention on offering customers a better customer service experience.

Accounting processes and other automation tools also reduce the need for human intervention.

Decreased Costs

One of the biggest advantages that companies will experience when choosing to implement artificial intelligence is a reduction in costs.

Of course, part of that reduction may be due to eliminating positions previously staffed by an employee. The reduced cost associated with using RPA technology is significant since the technology itself is considerably less than that of a human employee.

And of course, RPA technology can work around the clock with fewer errors, reducing costs while also improving production speed.

But cost reduction goes much further than simply replacing an employee. One of the largest reductions in cost is a result of a decrease in errors.

Errors can be something as simple as a typo entered by a data entry clerk, to a multi-million dollar mistake made by a stressed-out employee.

Using intelligent automation which includes both artificial intelligence and robotic process automation can significantly reduce or even eliminate those costly mistakes.

Increased Revenue

Along with decreased costs, using intelligent automation can also help to increase revenues by decreasing production costs while increasing output.

According to Forbes, 63% of business executives that have adopted AI processes report an increase in revenue, with marketing and sales reporting the biggest increases.

In most cases, the increase in revenue is due to targeted sales efforts, better marketing strategies, streamlined production, quicker time-to-market, and better customer service capability, all of which create more accurate data sets and directly contribute to an increase in revenue.

Areas ripe for a technology upgrade

Though transformation is happening in finance departments across the globe, progress in automating accounts payable and purchase-to-pay systems, in particular, remains slow.

Recent surveys have shown that less than 20% of companies have instituted accounts payable (AP) and purchase-to-pay automation in their business.

The reasons vary, from reluctance to use multiple systems to the need to possibly retrain all current employees on the latest technology.

Today, even with electronic invoicing capability available through most accounting software applications, only 20% of small and mid-sized businesses can implement electronic invoicing.

The pandemic has also added a few more issues that business owners must consider when looking to move to more advanced technology; security.

With the majority of businesses now allowing remote working, it’s more important than ever that the information shared between the office and worker’s homes is protected.

Because of that, companies are in the market for a secure solution that can integrate with existing systems, all hosted in a cloud environment.

The finance industry is the perfect candidate to expand the usage of artificial intelligence. Automating repetitive tasks such as manual data gathering and data entry, document authentication, and reporting can help businesses reduce errors while also freeing up employees for more strategic activities that focus more on growing the business.

Embracing automation technology can also increase revenue by eliminating unnecessary staff while helping to streamline production.

Though adopting this new technology has been slower than expected, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated that process across multiple industries, as more business owners realize that using finance automation is essential for normal business operations.

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What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our “Solutions” page to see the areas of your business we can help improve to see if we’re a good fit for each other.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post Automating The Finance Function: The Future of Finance appeared first on Planergy Software.

Vendor Invoice Management Best Practices

Keith Murphy — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 11:56:01 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

Vendor Invoice Management Best Practices

Category

Accounts Payable

Written by Keith Murphy
13 min read

Tags

AP Automation Best Practices & Tips Invoice Processing

Last edited

June 5, 2024

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Whether you call it vendor invoice management, supplier invoice processing, or simply paying the bills, meeting your obligations to your suppliers with timely and accurate payments is essential to maintaining both strong vendor relationships and your company’s financial health.

Unfortunately, the vendor invoice management process isn’t always as smooth or speedy as it could be.

That said, optimizing your invoice management doesn’t have to be difficult or frustrating.

With the right tools and techniques, you can trim the waste from your workflows, eliminate delays and errors, and make sure your accounts payable team is making timely, accurate, and complete payments to your suppliers.

Why Effective Vendor Invoice Management Matters

It doesn’t seem very complex at all: A vendor sends an invoice, accounts payable receives it and makes sure it’s legitimate, then pays the supplier and adds the transaction to the company’s financial records.

What could be simpler?

Sadly, things can get complicated quite quickly when you’re dealing with manual workflows (including the approval process and invoice matching) and paper invoices.

And in a world where an estimated 90% of all businesses still process paper invoices and perform data entry manually, every duplication of effort, every invoice that can’t be matched to a purchase order, and every error or exception all translate to additional costs and reduced productivity.

According to 2020 research conducted by Ardent Partners, the average cost of processing a single invoice (including all tech, overhead, and labor costs) was $10.89. But costs can vary wildly, and some businesses may pay as much as $40 to process a single invoice.

The average cost of processing an invoice (often abbreviated to CPI) is one of several metrics used to evaluate the overall efficiency and efficacy of a company’s vendor invoice management.

Along with average invoice processing time (i.e., the invoice lifecycle), number of exceptions, and number of invoices received electronically, tracking CPI helps you identify areas in need of improvement.

Maximizing the efficiency of your invoice management (and payable processes in general) is about more than metrics, of course.

You also need effective ways to meet regulatory requirements, manage the intricacies of different currencies and tax rates, and integrate your AP processes with your existing software environment (e.g., enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, office and productivity suites, etc.).

Finding ways to streamline these workflows and improve your vendor invoice management metrics is more important than ever to competing effectively in today’s complex global economy.

Digital transformation has introduced automation, artificial intelligence, and analytics into business processes, and companies who can optimize their invoice processing will secure the gains to productivity and profitability they need to stay ahead of the game.

A strategic upgrade to your tech capabilities can help you optimize and streamline your payable processes for speed, accuracy, and value.

Best Practices to Optimize Your Vendor Invoice Management

Improving your payment processes to take control of your invoice management doesn’t have to be disruptive or frustrating.

By following a few simple best practices, you can reduce processing times, speed invoice approvals, and ensure every supplier invoice is paid more quickly with fewer errors and more value for your dollar.

1. Tap into Technology

Whether you’re still using paper invoices and entering invoice data manually, starting your digital transformation journey with basic OCR, or shopping for a comprehensive vendor invoice management solution, a strategic upgrade to your tech capabilities can help you optimize and streamline your payable processes for speed, accuracy, and value.

Investing in a purpose-built enterprise content management (ECM) solution like Planergy, for example, can radically transform your invoice management for the better by:

Using robotic process automation (powered by machine learning) to help you automate accounts payable processes that are normally tedious, repetitive, and high-volume. Accuracy, speed, and efficiency rise while human error is eliminated and staff are freed to focus on more strategic tasks that generate value, such as supplier relationship management.
Eliminating double-handling and needless “merry-go-round” discussions to verify information.
Automatically populating invoice data without the need for manual data entry, whether invoice receipt occurs physically or digitally.
Providing fully integrated automatic three-way matching to minimize exceptions, optimize functionality, and maximize strategic timely payments for better cash flow management.
Creating better invoice approval and routing workflows with contingencies to avoid delays and miscommunications that can cost you time and money.
Creating seamless integration with contract management and supplier management modules, with support for electronic invoicing and improved straight-through invoice processing.
Supporting guided buying through the use of punch-out catalogs and vendor integration to minimize the risk of maverick spend and invoice fraud while ensuring every purchase is made with the right supplier at the right terms and pricing.
Providing best-in-class optical character recognition (OCR) to automatically import electronic invoices from digital sources and optimize quality and accuracy when scanning paper invoices.
Centralizing data management to maximize transparency, eliminate rogue spend, and ensure the highest quality spend data for analysis, forecasting, supplier relationship development, and process optimization via tracked metrics.

2. Standardize and Formalize to Optimize

Armed with digital tools like process automation and additional functionality from advanced analytics, you can craft a set of standardized workflows within a paradigm that prioritizes efficiency.

Establish criteria outlining the conditions required to trigger an invoice review.

If, for example, an invoice matches its purchase order and packing slip and has the necessary approvals, it can be routed through your procure-to-pay solution for automatic payment, without the need for human oversight.

This allows your accounts payable team to focus on exceptions (if any) and spend the rest of their time on more strategic tasks.

Your specific rule set will be unique to your organization, but you can also save time, money, and labor by:

Strategizing to eliminate needless taxes and surplus charges by processing invoices automatically in their country of origin. With countries constantly negotiating and renegotiating business tax rates, value-added tax rates for border crossings, etc., it pays to work with your legal team to develop and implement processes that minimize your tax burden while still meeting all your legal and financial obligations.
Implementing guided buying integrated with a robust vendor risk management program.
This allows you to:
- Set specific and detailed conditions for all purchases.
- Ensure every purchase captures maximum return on investment (ROI).
- Ensure every purchase complies with negotiated contract terms.
- Monitor and enforce vendor compliance.
- Ensure every invoice is charged to the appropriate project, department, business unit, etc., providing a clearer image of spend activity and improving strategic sourcing, forecasting, and decision-making.
Leveraging the power of on-demand, real-time reporting. Monitor your current liabilities outstanding, take advantage of opportunities to renegotiate with key suppliers based on changes to your needs or spend activities, manually pay a few invoices closer to the due date to free up cash flow…the greater the visibility you have into your spend, the more effectively you’ll be able to use the insights it contains.

3. Don’t Forget the Fundamentals

Centralizing all your data supports standardization and invoice automation, provides clean and complete data to all stakeholders, and reduces the risk of miscommunication, misinformation, and wasted time.
Develop, implement, and enforce a “No PO, No Pay” policy, with detailed descriptions of any exceptions to the rule, answers to frequently asked questions, and protocol for dealing with invoices that violate the rules. Keep everyone in your organization, as well as your suppliers, updated with the latest version of this policy at all times.
Practice strategic payments. Early payment discounts can be tempting, but they may not be as useful if you’re pressed for cash. Pay on time whenever possible to protect your cash flow without damaging your supplier relationships—but don’t be afraid to take advantage of early payment discounts when your spend strategy and free working capital allow.
Regularly review your workflows and processes. If you’re using an automated P2P solution like Planergy, robotic process automation makes iterative and continuous improvement part of your workflows. However, tracking metrics for vendor performance and compliance, as well as your internal invoice processing procedures, can still reveal opportunities to capture more savings and value.

Better Vendor Invoice Management is Possible

Paying the bills might be a necessary evil, but it doesn’t have to create additional costs through lost time, value, and productivity.

Invest in a high-quality invoice management solution, refine your internal processes, and prioritize proactive communication.

You’ll be able to pay your suppliers more strategically, reduce needless waste and expense, and make sure every dollar you spend is generating the best possible return for your business.

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What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our “Solutions” page to see the areas of your business we can help improve to see if we’re a good fit for each other.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post Vendor Invoice Management Best Practices appeared first on Planergy Software.

OCR Accuracy In Accounts Payable Invoice Processing

Keith Murphy — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 15:19:47 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

OCR Accuracy In Accounts Payable Invoice Processing

Category

Accounts Payable

Written by Keith Murphy
14 min read

Tags

AP Automation Invoice Processing Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

Last edited

December 15, 2023

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Optical character recognition (OCR) has been part of the digital transformation toolkit since its inception. And over the years, OCR accuracy rates have continued to climb—but what does a claim like “99% OCR accuracy” mean, in practical terms, for companies who rely on it for business-critical tasks such as invoice processing?

The answer is more complex, and less reassuring, than you might imagine. Despite its relative maturity in the field of artificial intelligence, OCR is a technology that remains better suited to a support role than as a primary driver of digital transformation or even as a comprehensive automation solution. Fortunately, by investing in the proper tools and preparing the information being processed as thoroughly as possible, you can improve the accuracy rate of your OCR software and minimize errors while maximizing performance.

OCR Accuracy: More Than Just a Number

When discussing optical character recognition, it’s important to have a grasp of the basic concepts involved, and the actual meaning of the terminology used.

OCR is text recognition and data extraction technology; it converts printed text to digital images, then parses those images using a combination of data analysis technologies to render digitally editable text. Theoretically, OCR eliminates the need for manual data entry and mitigates the need for human intervention in common business processes such as purchase order creation and invoice processing.

In practice, OCR can be, well, a bit fiddly. Which is why a term like “99% accuracy” must be carefully examined, since the context is so crucial for business purposes. Generally speaking, these claims refer to:

Character-level accuracy, meaning the percentage of errors as compared to the total characters scanned;
Word-level accuracy, meaning the percentage of errors as compared to the total words scanned;
Page-level accuracy, meaning the percentage of the content for any given page that will be accurately read and transferred.

Some OCR systems claim accuracy rates as high as 99.9%. Yet, even if only one character in 1000 is misread or skipped (a .1% error rate), the overall accuracy of the OCR takes a serious hit if those errors fall in the wrong place, as that damages the field-level confidence score, or the threshold for errors for any given field in a document being processed using OCR.

For example, if an invoice has 10,000 characters, and the OCR application misreads or misses .1% of them, it might not seem like a major issue—unless all ten of those errors are in data fields containing transaction-specific information, like the purchase order number, price, item name, quantities, etc.

Suddenly, the practical OCR accuracy rate has dropped precipitously.

In light of these considerations, it’s critical to understand what technologies empower and improve OCR, as well as the techniques required to ensure the best possible input for the best possible OCR results.

All OCR solutions rely on a similar set of algorithms to do their work. But as with other technologies, it pays to find the OCR solution that fits your specific needs, rather than look for some kind of jack-of-all-trades that might seem like a bargain until you’re putting it’s through its paces.

OCR Accuracy Depends on Artificial Intelligence Technologies

It’s certainly a core component of modern automation solutions, but OCR is not a standalone solution. OCR converts unstructured data into digital text, but its output requires further analysis (and often correction) to achieve maximum accessibility and utility.

Consequently, OCR requires more advanced technologies to be truly useful in modern business processes. Three such technologies work together to support modern OCR functionality:

Computer vision, or the automated extraction of useful data from images. The goal of computer vision is to help the computer “see” in the same way a human does, recognizing text as separate from the background and other visual content within an image. It is related to, but distinct from, image processing, which is the analysis of what the computer sees to extract meaning.
Natural Language Processing (NLP), or a series of image processing algorithms used to parse the text extracted by computer vision for linguistic content (i.e., words and sentences). NLP is powered by artificial intelligence, and combines recognition of established characters and word forms with probability analysis to fill in any “holes” it finds in a scanned text with the most likely word(s) that fit the surrounding context.
Supervised deep learning, another algorithm-based technology powered by a type of iterative artificial intelligence called machine learning. With time and human supervision, OCR software using deep learning can be taught to recognize the same characters, words, and sentences written in a wide variety of fonts, as well as correct common errors that generic OCR tools would simply skip. Deep learning is also used in training OCR software to recognize more advanced character sets, such as cursive script (handwritten and otherwise).

Common Roadblocks to Acceptable OCR Accuracy

Even with help from state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technologies, OCR simply can’t operate consistently at the human level. Accuracy levels vary for a number of reasons (not the least of which is the ongoing quest to achieve true artificial intelligence that thinks, reasons, and interacts with the world as we do—including text recognition), but some of the most common challenges are:

The Chosen OCR Engine

Like many other technologies, OCR comes in a wide variety of “flavors,” from open source to “freemium” to proprietary, purpose-built applications. All OCR solutions rely on a similar set of algorithms to do their work. But also as with other technologies, it pays to find the OCR solution that fits your specific needs, rather than look for some kind of jack-of-all-trades that might seem like a bargain until you’re putting it’s through its paces.

Open-source solutions such as Tesseract boast high accuracy from the jump, but require additional training and adjustments (e.g., image pre-processing) to reach enterprise-acceptable levels of performance.

For the best possible results, investing in a purpose-built, cloud-based procure-to-pay (P2P) and data management solution like Planergy can help. Pairing best-in-class OCR with advanced robotic process automation (RPA), deep data analytics, and powerful data centralization and organization capabilities eliminates the need for manual data entry, supports electronic invoicing, and makes it much easier to collect, analyze, and use data from a wide variety of sources (including OCR scans of electronic as well as physical documents).

Text Formatting

Quality OCR output depends heavily on high-quality input, and issues with the text itself can make the algorithms work harder than they have to when performing data extraction.

Font overload. Documents with more than two fonts or a wide range of different sized text can be difficult for algorithms to process effectively.
Whether it’s perfect Palmer script or a doctor’s chicken scratch, hand-written text can tax recognition at the character level.
Poorly distinguished character sets. Some fonts don’t offer much visual distinction between easily confused characters such as “0” and “O” or “6” and “G”.
Different alphabets. If the OCR system encounters a document written in an alphabet it hasn’t been trained to recognize (e.g., Cyrillic, Arabic, etc.), it will likely fail to recognize much of the content until such training has been performed.

Quality Issues with Original Images and Scanned Documents

Sometimes it’s not the text itself, but how the document’s been formatted that can compromise OCR results.

Colored paper and background images. Colorful or graphically “busy” backgrounds can confuse the OCR system as it tries to separate text from the rest of the scanned image.
Poor image quality. Even humans struggle with blurriness and glare. A printed document with a low dots per inch (DPI) resolution will be harder to analyze than one with a high DPI and clear, crisp characters. Text recognition will falter if the OCR engine can’t make out clear shapes to analyze and identify.
Poor image alignment. If documents are scanned at a skewed angle or scanned in a non-standard way (e.g., scanning a standard invoice printed on letter or A4 paper in the “landscape” orientation), text alignment and OCR performance will both suffer.

Improving OCR Accuracy

Beyond investing in a purpose-built P2P solution like Planergy, you can obtain optimal OCR results and minimize the attendant headaches by prioritizing image quality.

Standardize form sizes, fonts, and formatting for all documents (including invoices) for clarity. Communicate these requirements to any vendor who is still using paper invoices.
Use a single approved file format, such as .tiff.
Make sure all documents being scanned by your OCR engine have:
- Clear, high-contrast text (ideally, black text on a white background).
- Minimal noise.
- The highest possible DPI during scanning for both documents scanned into your system and documents scanned elsewhere and submitted electronically (300 DPI is considered the minimum).
- Well-aligned, properly oriented text. Skewed documents should be de-skewed during scan or resubmitted as appropriate.

Optimize Your OCR Processes for Peak Performance

It may be getting a little long in the tooth, but OCR technology can still play a vital part in optimizing your business processes. Ensure you have the best possible source material. Develop and implement the controls and processes that eliminate recognition roadblocks, and make sure to invest in best-in-class P2P software to ensure you’ve got top-notch OCR support. Your reward will be more efficient processes, better data management, and OCR output you can rely on when you need it most.

Download PDF

What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our “Solutions” page to see the areas of your business we can help improve to see if we’re a good fit for each other.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post OCR Accuracy In Accounts Payable Invoice Processing appeared first on Planergy Software.

Invoice Processing Best Practices In Accounts Payable

Mary Girsch-Bock — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 15:40:31 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

Download Free Copy

Invoice Processing Best Practices In Accounts Payable

Category

Accounts Payable

Written by Mary Girsch-Bock
19 min read

Tags

AP Automation Best Practices & Tips Invoice Processing

Last edited

December 15, 2023

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What Is Invoice Processing?

An invoice is a document received from a vendor or supplier for goods and services. Depending on the type of business you have, you may use a procurement system in your business using purchase orders, or you may simply purchase a service or item directly.

Invoices are received in a variety of ways. Some are mailed, with the paper invoice delivered to the appropriate department. Others may be sent electronically, where they will have to be printed for processing.

Once an invoice is received in your business, it should immediately be matched with a purchase order and shipping receipt, if both are available. Once the three-way match is completed, and the invoice verified for accuracy, it will be sent to a manager for approval. In some cases, an invoice may be sent to multiple approvers.

Once approved, the invoice is returned to the AP team, where they will assign a GL code and enter it into an accounting software application for payment.

When completed manually, this process takes an inordinate amount of time. If you only have a few invoices to pay monthly, this may not be an issue, but for growing and mid-size businesses that may have hundreds of invoices to process monthly, manual processing can result in errors, late payments, and even theft.

Why Is Invoice Processing Important?

Processing invoices is an important part of owning a business. There’s a lot of reasons why processing invoices promptly and accurately is important, which is why more businesses are making the transition to AP automation.

But even if you’re still using manual systems, these are the reasons why establishing a solid strategy for processing invoices is essential.

Managing Cash Flow

Establishing and maintaining an efficient invoice processing system is an important component for managing your cash flow. Properly processing invoices in a timely fashion allows you to stick to a budget and always know exactly how much you owe your vendors and suppliers at all times.
Maintaining a Aood Vendor/Supplier Relationship

Processing invoices promptly helps you maintain a good relationship with your vendors and suppliers. For example, Joe’s Boat Shop routinely orders paint and varnish from one supplier, who gives them a very good price on both products.

If Joe’s Boat Shop started paying the supplier late or sent them a check in the wrong amount, they are jeopardizing their good relationship with the vendor, possibly resulting in the necessity to find a comparable supplier that offers similar pricing; something that may be difficult, or even impossible.

And if they do find another supplier that charges them more for paint and varnish, it’s very likely that the boat shop will have to pass those increased costs onto their customers.
Accurate Payments

Accuracy is important for all parts of your business, and your AP department is no exception. Establishing a solid invoice processing strategy using internal controls allows you to process invoices timely and accurately. If you’re still approving invoices as they come in and hand them off to your AP team manually, consider a few advantages of automating your AP processes.
- Prevents overpayments
- Prevents underpayments
- Ability to take advantage of early payment discounts
- Prevents late payments and penalties
- Prevents unauthorized payments
Reduces Labor Hours

Without a set process in place, employees will spend much of their time tracking down misplaced invoices, making copies of electronic invoices, and getting approvals from multiple parties. Streamline your invoice processes, and your employees can spend their time on more important tasks.
Digitally Archived Records

When invoices are automatically backed up electronically with easy options to search there is no longer a need to pile desks high with folders to search for that missing document.

What Are the 3 Main Steps Involved In Invoice Processing?

There are multiple steps involved in accurate invoice processing, with three main steps involved in the process, with each step involving multiple tasks.

Invoice Receipt

A vendor or supplier will send an invoice after goods or services have been delivered. Once the invoice is received, the AP department should verify the invoice for authenticity by ensuring that the product on the invoice was received in the quantity noted.

If a purchase order was used when ordering the product, it should be matched with the invoice as well as the delivery receipt to ensure that all three documents match. If there is any discrepancy, it must be investigated prior to routing the invoice for approval.
Invoice Approval

Once three-matching has been completed, the AP team will route the invoice to the appropriate department for approval. The invoice may need to be routed to multiple departments depending on whether multiple approvers are required.

It’s important to establish a deadline for approvals to be completed, or payments can be delayed or even delinquent, resulting in late fees and penalties.
Invoice Payment

Once the invoice has been approved, it will need to be entered into accounting software with payment terms included. If approved in time, a discount can be taken, if one is offered. If a discount is not available, or the discount day has already passed, the invoice due date will need to be entered in the application.

An outstanding payables report should be run weekly so payments will be processed on time. In keeping with the separation of duties principle, payment authorization and payment processing should be completed by two different staff members.

What Are the Important Things To Check On an Invoice While Processing?

Verifying an invoice is one of the most important things you or your AP staff will need to do. There are several things that will need to be checked when verifying.

Vendor Information

The first thing you should check is the vendor information, which should include a complete mailing address as well as an email address.

This information should be verified with the vendor information on file, as well as the information included on both the purchase order and the shipping receipt. If the information doesn’t match, it will need to be further investigated.
Invoice Number

Each invoice from a supplier should have a unique invoice number. If the number matches an invoice you have already paid you should query the invoice as it is likely a duplicate.
Purchase Order Number

If you use a procurement system in your business, that same number should be displayed on your invoice. Of course, not every invoice received will need to include a purchase order number, but when they are used, the two documents must match.
Product Description

When reviewing an invoice, it’s important to check that the product or service received matches what was purchased. This is where using a purchase order comes in handy. But even without a P.O., it’s important that AP determine that what was purchased is what was received.
Payment Terms

When creating a relationship with a supplier or vendor, credit terms are negotiated between the buyer and seller at that time. For example, if the two parties agree on Net 45 terms, those terms will need to be included on the invoice. Any other terms would require further investigation.

What Are the Best Practices for Invoice Processing?

Whether you’re a new business trying to use invoice processing best practices, or your company needs to reassess their current processes, it’s always a good time to start using best practices when processing invoices.

Set up and maintain internal controls

Whether you’ve been paying bills for years, or you’re just starting out, the most important thing you can do is to set up and maintain internal controls. It’s well known that accounts payable is a department ripe for potential fraud.

But much of that fraud can be eliminated when you set up an internal control process that assigns different accounts payable tasks to different employees.

For example, if you have a single person handling accounts payable, that person is responsible for the following:
- Approves new vendors
- Enters new vendors into the system
- Verifies invoices that are received
- Sets up payment
- Runs checks or pays vendor electronically
With the ability to do all of the above, how difficult would it be for an employee to create a fictitious vendor and pay them.

One of the most important components of your internal controls is using segregation of duties. Segregation of duties ensures that one person approves the order, one person verifies the invoice, one person authorizes payment, and one person signs the check or approves the electronic payment.

By having more than one person process invoices from beginning to end, you can reduce or even eliminate the possibility of fraud.
Reconcile accounts promptly

Keeping your accounts reconciled daily helps you identify any checks that have not been cashed.

There may be a legitimate reason why the supplier or vendor has not cashed your check, but keeping an eye out for outstanding checks and following up with the vendor or supplier can help you maintain cash flow, eliminate possible late fees (if the check was lost), and help you maintain a good relationship with your vendors and suppliers.
Prioritize Invoices to Optimize Cash Flow

Positive cash flow is important for any business, no matter the size. That’s why prioritizing invoices for payment is essential. Invoices should always be slated for payment based on their due date, not on when they’re received.

Let’s say you receive an invoice with 2/10 Net 30 terms on a Monday, a second invoice with Net 30 terms on a Tuesday, and a third invoice with Net 15 terms on Wednesday of the same week. In what order should you pay those invoices?

To take advantage of the two percent discount, you’ll want to pay the 2/10 Net 30 invoice first. Then, you’ll want to pay the Net 15 invoice, even though it came in last. Finally, you’ll pay the Net 30 invoice. This allows you to maintain a good level of cash flow for your business while also taking advantage of the discount offered.
Check for Duplicate Payments

Even with the proper processes in place, you may still end up with duplicate payments, particularly if you’re still using manual processes. Hopefully, you’ll spot a duplicate payment before it goes out to your vendor or supplier, but if it doesn’t, you’ll need to contact your vendor immediately to see if you can get the check returned.

In many cases, a vendor or supplier is reluctant to return the check and may be open to issuing a credit on your account. However, if you don’t regularly use the vendor, it means having your money tied up for months.

The best way to handle the issue of duplicate payments is to make the move towards AP automation, which will automatically flag duplicate payments before they’re sent out.
Cross-train staff to cover for absences

If you have a single employee processing AP, what happens when that employee is sick or takes vacation? Do your vendors and suppliers have to wait until they return to be paid?

While it’s never a good idea to have one person handling all AP tasks, not having a backup trained is even worse. By cross-training a few of your employees to process AP when necessary you’re able to maintain a consistent flow of payments while also providing another set of eyes to review the AP process, especially important when only one person is handling AP.
Make the move to invoice automation

Making the move to invoice automation is one of the best things you can do for your business. Automating the invoice process can do the following:
- Eliminate manual data entry
- Expedite invoice approvals
- Eliminate duplicate payments
- Reduce the possibility of fraud
- Reduce invoice processing costs
- Allow you to store documents electronically
- Perform three-way matching

How Can I Improve My Invoice Processing?

One of the best things you can do for your business is to move towards complete AP automation, starting with invoicing. Once you see how much time, money, and labor costs you’ll save, making the switch to complete AP automation will soon follow.

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What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our Accounts Payable Automation Software page to see how Planergy can automate your AP process reducing you the hours of manual processing, stoping erroneous payments, and driving value across your organization.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post Invoice Processing Best Practices In Accounts Payable appeared first on Planergy Software.

B2B Fintech: The Technology Impacting The Future Of Business

Rob Biedron — Fri, 07 May 2021 14:44:51 +0000

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

How to transition from paper and excel to eInvoicing.
How AP can improve relationships with your key suppliers.
How to capture early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.
How better management in AP can give you better flexibility for cash flow management.

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B2B Fintech: The Technology Impacting The Future Of Business

Category

Finance

Written by Rob Biedron
14 min read

Tags

AP Automation Industry 4.0 Technology & Software

Last edited

June 4, 2024

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In recent years, consumer fintech has grown in popularity. Why? These consumer fintech startups have vastly improved the customer experience across a variety of financial applications.

For instance, Intuit, the company behind Quickbooks and TurboTax, purchased Credit Karma for $7.1 billion in 2020, and PayPal purchased Honey (the coupon code finder app) in 2019.

And it doesn’t end there. 6% of U.S. adults with a checking account are now using a challenger Bank like Chime or Current as their primary bank instead of relying on industry giant financial institutions like Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase.

It’s now easier than ever for consumers to get bank accounts with debit cards, without going the traditional checking account route or relying on a credit union.

Until recently, the spotlight has been on consumer fintech but the business-to-business (B2B) fintech space is starting to take center stage.

B2B fintech as we know it today actually began 20 years ago, with companies that were focused just on two core areas: banking as a service and payments. The most notable consignee to come out of the first wave was PayPal.

The company was founded at the beginning of the internet operating on a B2B2C model by embedding at the point-of-sale with merchants and enabling companies to conduct transactions with those merchants effortlessly, without exposing their credit card information.

The company now has a market cap of more than $230 billion. Though it didn’t remove the need for traditional banks, it did quite a bit to streamline payment processes and made for better payment solutions.

In the 2010s, fintech 2.0 emerged with the definition expanding. Within the core fintech, we saw banking as a service and payments continue to grow with companies like afterpay and square. Then it continued to grow with the increase of lending-focused fintech companies like Lending Club and e-commerce infrastructure like Shopify.

In the 2020s, we’re sure to see fintech 3.0 expand even further to include major players in the fraud, risk, and identity areas – many of which are already in the works. It’s also expected that we’ll see growth and big winners in many fintech adjacent areas like privacy, security, and compliance.

Today’s B2B fintech startups are common in the lending space, as well as banking as a service – like software as a service or saas, but with banking. Businesses like Klarna, Fundbox, Affirm, and Kabbage are making it easier for people to manage cash flow.

By offering businesses working capital loans and the ability to receive money for services that consumers then pay back in four payments, these lenders are using financial technologies to change the entire ecosystem, without requiring businesses or consumers to rely on traditional credit.

Giving consumers the flexibility to make payments on purchases is especially helpful during the pandemic when there is so much struggle. That is a major reason why these companies continue to do so well.

Let’s take a closer look at the major technologies that impact B2B fintech.

FinTech is here to stay, and we can expect to see technology continuing to influence B2B (and B2C) FinTech for the foreseeable future.

Big Data and Machine Learning

According to SAS, “big data” is data that is so large, fast, or complex that it’s difficult or impossible to process with traditional methods.

The act of storing and accessing large amounts of information for analytics has been around for a long time but the concept of Big Data only started to gain momentum in the early 2000s when an industry analyst started to articulate the mainstream definition using the three V’s: volume, velocity, and variety.

Volume: Businesses gather data from a variety of sources such as social media, smart devices, business transactions, equipment, and videos, and more. In the past, storing it would have been difficult, but cheaper storage on cloud platforms has made it easier.
Velocity: As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to grow, data comes in two companies at an unprecedented speed and has to be handled in a timely manner. Using RFID tags, smart meters, and sensors drives the need to handle these massive amounts of data in near real-time.
Variety: Data comes in a variety of formats from structured and numeric data in databases, to unstructured data in emails, video, audio files, financial transactions, and more.

SAS also considers two more Vs:

Variability: As if velocity and variety of data weren’t enough, data flow is often unpredictable because it changes often and varies greatly. Businesses have to know when something is trending in social media and how to manage seasonal, and event-triggered peak data loads.
Veracity: Veracity refers to data quality. Because data comes from so many different sources, it’s difficult to link, match, and transform data from one system to another. Businesses have to be able to connect and correlate relationships and hierarchies with multiple data linkages, otherwise, the data gets out of control and becomes unusable.

Data is everywhere these days, and companies of all sizes are constantly inundated with massive amounts of it. In the past, businesses relied on trained data scientists and analysts to harness the information and convert it into analytics and insights poor decision-making. It played an important role in business intelligence.

Today, however, big data technology and machine learning, also known as predictive analytics, is available to help. And today’s security tools help to protect financial data.

Research shows that one-third of respondents are aware of big data and machine learning in the B2B fintech industry and adoption continues to increase. According to the IDC, worldwide revenue for big data and business analytics was expected to surpass $203 billion by 2020.

Thanks to this technology, we can analyze historical data to spot trends and make predictions.

Why it’s useful in a variety of industries and applications. Particularly in B2B fintech, it can be used to predict market risk, reduce fraud, play a potentially fraudulent transaction until a human steps in to make a decision, forecast financial trends, and more.

It can also produce actionable Insight from advanced reporting in data analytics. Ultimately, it gives you in-depth visibility so that C-suite executive members of the company can easily see strategic insights.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

According to IBM, the term artificial intelligence refers to “any human-like intelligence that is exhibited by a computer, robot, or other machine.”

This refers to a computer or machine’s ability to mimic the abilities of the human mind – from learning through examples and experience, understanding and responding to language, making decisions, recognizing objects, etc. and combining these with other capabilities to perform the same function as humans may perform such as driving a car or greeting a customer.

Data shows that people are most familiar with AI as an emerging technology. Nearly half of the people surveyed are aware of its use in fintech applications such as AP automation like that provided by Planergy.

Respondents are most likely familiar with AI because of the revolutionary change it has created across a variety of industries. In fintech, the technology creates deep personalization that helps build consumer relationships in real time.

Data shows that many B2B companies are using AI to improve operations including their financial services. 83% of businesses surveyed cite it as a strategic priority.

Using AI can boost productivity by up to 40% because it automates the mundane tasks that consume valuable time. Through automation, companies can reduce hiring costs while also freeing the staff for more strategic and fulfilling responsibilities.

Nearly 25% of customer experience officers (CXOs) believe AI will have the biggest impact on their organization within the next 5 years. 84% of businesses say that AI will make it easier for them to sustain or obtain a competitive advantage and 75% of them say AI technology will allow them to expand into new businesses.

Blockchain

According to Built In, blockchain technology is defined as a “decentralized distributed ledger that records the provenance of a digital asset”. By inherit design, the data on the blockchain is unable to be modified which makes it a legitimate disrupter for payment industries, cybersecurity, and Healthcare.

The blockchain is a distributed network that can record payments and other transactions quickly, in a transparent, verifiable, and permanent way. It makes use of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as the exchange medium. Among B2B fintech users, there is limited knowledge of the blockchain’s ability.

There are a variety of applications, but compared to AI, it is much less known in the fintech world. Only about 25% of respondents are familiar with how it is used in fintech.

Even with the technology available, U.S. businesses are owed over $3 trillion dollars in accounts receivable on any given day. Most small businesses are lost in a confusing world of payment providers and merchants can choose from a variety of platforms that are difficult to distinguish from one another.

Many small businesses aren’t getting paid on time and deal with fraud risk. Independent software vendors and small merchants lean toward tools that are easy to implement thereby opting for simplicity over speed and profit.

As the B2B FinTech industry continues to grow, it will be easier for even the smallest of businesses to implement automated workflows and procurement-to-pay processes that larger organizations currently use. This will make it easier for them to compete with larger businesses, and help to level the playing field.

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What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

Read our case studies, client success stories, and testimonials.
Visit our “Solutions” page to see the areas of your business we can help improve to see if we’re a good fit for each other.
Learn about us, and our long history of helping companies just like yours.

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

Download a free copy of our guide to future proofing your accounts payable department. You’ll also be subscribed to our and notified about new articles or if have something interesting to share.

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools, techniques, and best practices. Many readers tell us they would have paid consultants for the advice in these articles.

The post B2B Fintech: The Technology Impacting The Future Of Business appeared first on Planergy Software.

AP Automation Archives : Planergy Software

Invoice Cycle Time: What Is It and How To Improve It

What's Planergy?

Cristian Maradiaga

King Ocean

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

Invoice Cycle Time: What Is It and How To Improve It

IN THIS ARTICLE

What Is the Invoice Cycle Time?

Invoice Receipt

Invoice Validation

Invoice Approval Preparation

Invoice Payment

How Do You Calculate Invoice Cycle Time?

Manual Invoice Cycle Time

Automated Invoice Cycle Time

What Is the Average Invoice Cycle Time for a Typical Company?

How Does a Poor Invoice Cycle Time Impact a Company?

What Are the Challenges With Invoice Processing?

How Can you Improve Invoice Cycle Times?

Manual Data Entry

Approvals

Three-Way Matching

Storing Documents Digitally

Reduces Human Error

Identify Incorrect Payments and Fraud

What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Related Posts

Spend Management for QuickBooks Online

What's Planergy?

Cristian Maradiaga

King Ocean

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Spend Management for QuickBooks Online

IN THIS ARTICLE

Purchase Order Creation in QuickBooks

Budgeting

Invoice Processing

Supplier and Vendor Management

User Access Controls

Standard Users

Company Admin

Reports Only

Time Tracking Only

Reporting

Spend Management Best Practices

Use a Dedicated Spend Application with QuickBooks Online for Improved Spend Management

Two- and Three-Way Matching

Automated PO Processes

Purchase and Invoice Approval Workflows

Budgeting Controls

Supplier Relationship Management and Approvals

Spend Analytics

Accounts Payable Automation

Accurate AP Reporting

Granular User Access Controls

Have the Best of Both Worlds

What’s your goal today?

1. Use Planergy to manage purchasing and accounts payable

2. Download our guide “Preparing Your AP Department For The Future”

3. Learn best practices for purchasing, finance, and more

Related Posts

Accounts Payable: What Is It, Definition, Job Description, Process, and Software

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Cristian Maradiaga

King Ocean

Download a free copy of "Preparing Your AP Department For The Future", to learn:

Accounts Payable: What Is It, Definition, Job Description, Process, and Software

IN THIS ARTICLE

What Is Accounts Payable?

Understanding Accounts Payable

Is Accounts Payabale a Liability or an Asset?

What’s the Difference Between Accounts Payable and Notes Payable?

What’s the Difference Between an Accrued Expense and Accounts Payable?

Is Accounts Payable a Credit or a Debit?

Accounts Payable Example

Accounts Payable Job Description