Automated Invoice Managing - No Longer The Preserve Of Giant Multinationals

By Author: Yogendra Shinde
Total Articles: 266
Comment this article

Invoice management solutions were originally considered as the preserve of the gigantic mega-sized organizations, the big multinationals and global conglomerates stretching throughout the world and crisscrossing the country with branches and offices.

However - and while these bigger organizations are continuing to streamline their Accounts Payable (AP) processing with automated options - a number of other businesses are recognizing the advantages of implementing an automated invoice management solution.

These are set up, flourishing firms, normally with turnovers of £30m to £500m, often independent, at times family-owned, and operating across several locations or may be based at one. From across the board industry-wise, these organizations represent various markets, from retail and finance to hospitality, production concerns, delivery and logistic organizations, educational establishments, health and service providers.

The unifying factor is that these expanding organizations want efficient AP processing.

The Accounts Payable department remains to be one of the most paper-rich and process-intensive ...
... in every organization.

Implementing an invoice management solution means those paper-based invoices could be changed into electronic form, wiping out the problems related to processing paper - the likelihood of loss, time-consuming storing needs, access and safety problems, along with the associated expenses.

An invoice management solution also enables efficient processing of the rising quantity of e-invoices sent and received - currently many companies need to print these to continue processing.

Utilizing an invoice management solution also signifies that all of the invoices could be processed constantly, within the same system and regardless of the initial format.

Invoices are automatically matched to orders and receipts, queries solved, invoices coded accurately and authorization finished according to organization guidelines anywhere in the business over the internet.

Automated workflow brings further major advantages - improved visibility and control, alerts set up to ensure deadlines are met, the automatic processing of repetitive jobs to free AP staff for more strategic work, together with the associated lowering of processing costs.

And 'enhanced visibility and control' are not just buzz-words. One of the major business issues facing an organization is that of late payment - and evidence points generally to this resulting not from a deliberate policy but due to poor practice and unproductive and slow manual invoice processing procedures on the part of the payer.

In a report just last year Bacs, the not-for-profit organization liable for 'maintaining the integrity of payment-related services' explained: 'Frustratingly when chasing delayed payment, almost one in five SMEs (18 percent) were simply told the customer had either forgotten to pay or just hadn't got around to settling the bill.'

With calls for the government to take more strict action to protect companies against delayed payment and toughen the government's Prompt Payment initiative late payments are going to become an increasingly major headache for the late payers as well as those organizations owed money.

Enhanced visibility and control also help organizations eliminate duplicate payments.

The market for invoice management solutions is without a doubt expanding with firms also attracted by the potential to extend the advantages of document management in the AP department to other business areas, leveraging on their initial software investment.