If you're thinking to yourself, "Maybe there is a better way". Then take 2 minutes to watch our overview video where we explain ways to free up your AP Staff's time and in more ways than you may have thought about.

Of course this answer will vary company by company, industry by industry and person by person. The fact of the matter is that it does take quite a bit or time to enter each and every supplier invoice into the ERP system and some are better and faster at this than others.

If you look around any accounts payable department you are likely to see file cabinets, bankers boxes and stacks of paper invoices all in vary degrees of completion. One of the most tedious, time-consuming and error-prone steps and expensive steps in the accounts payable process is manually keying every single invoice into the ERP system for payment processing.

Now a lot has already happened prior to this step (routing, coding, approvals, PO matching, exception processing, variances, etc), but for the moment lets focus on invoice entry.

It's now time to enter each invoice. So the AP Staff roll up their sleeves and starting typing away, click, click, click, vendor name, vendor number, invoice number, invoice date, purchase order number, gross amount, freight, taxes and amount due. This could literally be hundreds of keystrokes per invoice!

Multiply this by the number of invoices that get entered each day as compared to the amount of time spent by your AP Staff manually keying every single invoice and you can start to see where this very tedious process can quickly become very, very expensive!

There have been a number of studies performed by Aberdeen Group, PayStream Advisors and PYMNTS about how much time it takes for AP Staff to manually process and key supplier invoices on a daily basis and the results are staggering. On average, AP Staff spend two-thirds of their day doing data entry! In an 8 hour day, that is 5.5 hours a day spent typing on a keyboard.

Not only is this not a good use of time. This is incredibly costly and expensive. Your AP Staff are trained, skilled and experienced in finance related matters, yet their skills are under utilized and they become data entry clerks.

In this day and age, organizations are seeing high turnover rates, struggling staffing shortages, hiring bottlenecks and continual rising costs. There are ways to offset these conditions and make way for process improvements that can be embraced by all.

How much time does it take you AP Staff to print or save invoices ever day? What if I could show you that we could completely eliminate this step from your AP Staff and free up this time so that they can focus on more important tasks related to the financial well being of your organization!

Is manual data entry making the best use of your AP Staff's time?

There is a better more efficient and cost efficient way!

Of course this answer will vary, company by company, industry by industry and person by person. The fact of the matter is that it does take some time to print out the supplier invoices. Some are better at this than others.

If we look at the methods used by suppliers as a way to submit their invoices for payment processing, emailing is high on the list. In most cases an accounts payable department is receiving anywhere from 70% to 90% of invoices via email with the average being around 80%.

This translates into a lot of clicking to open email messages, opening each attachment and deciding if it should be printed, or not. Maybe you staff got a but creative and rather than clicking the print button on each and every attachment, they open the attached invoice and save them into folders and rename each file so that that they can make sense out the long list of files that are collecting every day.

In the end, no matter whether your AP Staff print out each invoice or save each invoice file or your network somewhere, this is a a slow, tedious, and cumbersome process which can quickly become riddled with problems.

How much time does it take you AP Staff to print or save invoices ever day? What if I could show you that we could completely eliminate this step from your AP Staff and free up this time so that they can focus on more important tasks related to the financial well being of your organization!

Is this the best use of their time?

Leave your comments below!

True Story. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

I had been calling on Mary who is the AP Manager of a mid-sized manufacturing company for years, 5 years to be exact The reason for calling Mary was of course to introduce our approach to accounts payable process improvements and more specifically, automation as a way to streamline processes, increase efficiencies and reduce overall costs.

Mary had been at this company for many years and she just wasn't interested.

During each call I would ask a few basic questions about how supplier invoices got processed, I'd try to understand where the bottlenecks and issues were to see if we could help improve things.

There would always be some reluctance to answer my questions, or a reason why they didn't need any help in accounts payable. The usual responses would be we're old fashioned, our people are faster or its nice to have or too expensive.

Then one day, I got a phone call. I was shocked. It was Mary.

"We've got a new CFO and they're interested in AP Automation".

I said, that's great! But I thought you didn't need any help. Mary admitted to me that it wasn't that they didn't need it, she just didn't understand it and was embarrassed to tell me this.

She was afraid that something new like this might make her look weak, or that she might be looked at as the bad guy (or gal) for bringing in new processes, or worse, would she need to let someone on her team go if this actually worked.

The new CFO got what they wanted, which was process efficiency in finance and low and behold Mary's AP Department became so efficient that this opened up some doors for promotions! Mary was eventually promoted to Corporate Controller and much of this was attributed to the efficiency gains that we're realized once she embraced AP Automation.

In the end, Mary's fears were preventing her for making progress. In the end it all worked out and the AP team couldn't have been happier and wished she had done this sooner.

Don't let fear paralyze you from making decisions and moving your business or personal life forward.

Healthcare organizations face different challenges to their counterparts in other sectors. The highly-competitive nature of the industry creates pressure to adopt a lean approach to delivering goods and services to customers. This has led to an increasing emphasis on customer centricity and faster, more robust supply chains. While there tends to be a focus on front-end process improvements, healthcare providers realize that there is also a need to extend these improvements to their back-end processes, particularly in accounts payable (AP) and procurement.

AP refers to the entire process by which organizations pay for goods and services, from the receipt of the goods to the processing and payment of the vendor invoice. In an effort to reduce costs and optimize efficiency, leading organizations are implementing AP automation software and streamlining their back office functions.

This white paper serves as a guide for finance leaders on the drivers for implementing AP automation and the value it adds to the Healthcare supply chain. It summarizes the issues that healthcare providers are faced with, and the benefits that AP automation has delivered to a range of organizations, including, reduced costs, increased visibility, improved efficiency in AP processes, and enhanced vendor management. The paper highlights the ways in which AP automation can be integrated with existing ERP, procurement, and supply chain systems, and ensure tangible results including:

Organizations in the Healthcare sector have a faster supply chain, and there are greater demands to purchase and deliver goods and services quicker and in innovative ways. As businesses increasingly focus on meeting the needs of the customer in order to outperform competitors, many healthcare organizations are putting competitive pressures on providers to improve processes in the front and back ends of the business. The use of e-commerce, in particular, and the demand for ever shorter delivery times has forced manufacturers and distributors to shift focus from traditional to a much faster turnaround on orders and deliveries. For this tilt to be possible, supply chains must be fast and reliable, and back end processes must be agile and automated.

This pressure to improve back end processes to achieve cost reduction and maximum profitability is widely covered in industry research. Forrester research predicts that customer centricity, analytics, and optimization will be key for healthcare providers in order to distinguish themselves from competitors and mitigate the risk of reduced growth. Research confirms that management will fundamentally change the pace of their business, replacing cumbersome, manual processes with automated, agile ones. According to further research, this is a key area of focus for the future: 81% of executives surveyed agreed that operational efficiencies are a priority to improve profitability.

Organizations can gain a competitive edge in the Healthcare sector by allowing finance teams to focus on their core activities. AP automation eliminates the manual tasks of invoice data entry, coding, approval, matching, and payment, allowing operations and finance teams to focus on strategic, high-value work. A dedicated system for automating AP tasks ensures that costs are significantly reduced and spend management is brought under complete control. AP automation can have considerable impact on the bottom line, delivering cost savings as a result of increased transparency over company spend, improved efficiency, reduced costs, and better relationships with vendors.

Healthcare organizations typically utilize industry-specific systems for procurement, particularly for purchasing goods, as this accounts for approximately 80% of total spend and is vital for revenue growth. However, when it comes to goods, including expense items such as marketing, legal fees, utilities, etc., organizations generally do not employ a dedicated system for procurement and AP, and instead rely heavily on manual processes. This results in deficient spend management, a lack of transparency, and poor vendor management, which contributes to inefficient AP processes. AP automation replaces these inefficient processes with structured solutions that enable finance leaders to take control of company spend, increase productivity of their teams, and improve vendor relations.

The Healthcare industry has many industry-specific challenges in purchasing goods and services such as tolerances (allowing an organization to manage under shipments, late shipments, and unit price variations that cause discrepancies between the PO, invoice, and goods receipt), surcharges (for returns or for over handling of goods), and over-receipting (receiving more goods than originally ordered), and individual organizations have additional, bespoke business requirements to meet. AP automation solutions facilitate all these healthcare-specific requirements as well as the standard AP requirements such as duplicate invoice checking, varied payment terms, discount allocations, and VAT calculations. In a manual AP environment. This results in disjointed back-end processes, with a primary focus on goods, and crucially, without one single view over finance operations.

In typical Healthcare environments, the different types of invoices are often separated by different processes or by different systems, or by different AP teams. This separation of processes for PO vs Non-PO spend results in unnecessary complexity, duplication of resources and a lack of visibility of overall spend. Invoices for goods are typically received in e-mail, PDF or paper formats. Procurement of goods is typically managed by industry-specific solutions and while these systems may automate the creation and approval of purchase orders (PO), organizations ultimately rely on manual processes to complete the remaining AP steps including invoice capture, matching, and posting for pay

On the expense side, Healthcare organizations typically do not utilize systems specifically for expense invoices or the associated Non-PO AP tasks, in which case the AP teams are left to manually complete every step from procurement through to payment of invoices. This manual processing is inefficient, slow, and uncontrolled, with a high number of touchpoints which drives up the costs involved in processing an invoice, and increases the risk of human error. This makes it difficult to manage expense spend, which is often non-PO based and can often account for over 20% of total spend. Typical problems that arise with non-trade spend are retrospective approvals, maverick buying, and non-adherence to company spend policies.

In Healthcare environments, it is common for organizations to have large numbers of vendors across global locations. This poses several complex challenges which often are not sufficiently managed by existing ERPs and, as a result, organizations implement further manual processes to handle them. One challenge faced by many healthcare organizations is duplicate invoices and duplicate payments. In AP departments with no automation, manual processing naturally results in human inefficiencies and inconsistent invoice handling processes. From a vendor point of view, there is no visibility over whether or not an invoice has been received, approved, or paid, which often leads to vendors submitting invoices multiple times (by post, EDI or email) in an effort to get paid more quickly. Since there are no reliable ways to detect duplicate invoices in a manual environment, AP teams end up duplicating their effort to process these invoices and in some cases ultimately making duplicate payments which result in commercial implications and require further effort to remedy.

Vendor management is another area where Healthcare organizations often find they struggle. This is due to limitations in the ERP vendor master data and the lack of structured tools within the ERP to efficiently and accurately manage existing vendors and on-board new vendors. Simple requirements, such as ensuring that all vendors are compliant with tax clearances, industry certifications, insurances, and other buyer-specific policies, are typically managed externally from the ERP using offline, manual processes. Likewise, vendor contract renewals and other vendor updates are often handled in a similar manual fashion.

The AP automation solution allows organizations to control buying from approved vendors and management can enforce strict ‘No PO, No Pay’ policies and gain full visibility over what is being purchased. AP automation solutions work seamlessly with multiple ERP systems and provide a single view of the world for AP teams.

Segregated AP teams can be consolidated and the manual paper-based processes and spreadsheets are replaced with structured and controlled systems. This allows the entire AP process to be automated by one solution, eliminating the need for two separate AP processes, and two separate AP teams. The automated processing of invoices enables finance teams to only handle invoices by exception and to prioritize by key criteria such as value, early payment discounts, aging, etc. Reporting and analytics also provide finance leaders with the necessary dashboards to project operational and financial metrics such as processing times, FTE productivity, approver performance, invoice accruals and vendor performance.

Other industry-specific challenges can also be managed. In Healthcare it is not unusual for vendors to send invoices before the goods arrive - often as soon as the goods are ordered - in an effort to expedite the receipt of payment. Situations like this can cause real problems with traditional manual processes. However, with AP automation, invoices are automatically assigned an expected arrival date and are held pending the goods receipt note (GRN). When the GRN is received, the system triggers an automatic 2- or 3-way match, and unless an exception is found it will be automatically approved and routed for payment.

AP automation provides a single system for processing all invoices through a structured workflow with automated matching and built-in approval logic. This ultimately enables the touchless processing of invoices and focuses AP teams on only handling invoices with exceptions.

Invoices can be captured in any format including paper, XML, PDF and EDI, so healthcare providers can accept invoices electronically from sophisticated vendors using XML/EDI or, for other vendors, they can also automate the processing of invoices received by paper, email or PDF or submitted through an online invoicing portal. Vendors receive notifications regarding the status of submitted invoices, providing them with visibility over whether invoices have been received, processed, approved or paid.

AP automation allows for better control over the organization’s cash flow. It equips the AP team with transparency over all vendors, enabling them to consider early payment discounts, and to strategically buy from preferred vendors and schedule payments in order to avail of these discounts. The solution also facilitates multiple languages and currencies, and provides full visibility over pending payments, allowing management to make informed decisions on when to pay invoices without incurring unnecessary charges. Taxes and freights, which are not always accurately accounted for in a manual environment, is fully automated within the AP solution, enabling precise payment and reporting.

The costs incurred in the finance department can be significant. Automating the AP process enables organizations to achieve better employee productivity, increased visibility and control over spend (both trade and non-trade), and significant cost savings at each stage in the AP process. Industry research by PayStream has found that 90% of CFOs that implemented AP automation achieved an average savings of 80% in invoice processing costs.

The cost of manually processing invoices can be significant. Forrester reports that over 97% of invoices are processed manually. The average cost of processing invoices varies, but can amount from $15 up to $45 per invoice.

AP refers to the entire process by which organizations pay for goods and services, from the receipt of the goods to the processing and payment of the vendor invoice. Successful organizations are modernizing their AP processes by automating each of the steps involved. AP automation can be achieved by transforming the following tasks:

Competition between healthcare providers has resulted in greater demands to establish differentiation. In order to get ahead, organizations are making efforts to provide improved healthcare services to people. Considering the emphasis on speedy supply chains and the importance of vendor relationships for success in healthcare have started to improve back end processes in order to increase efficiency and maximize profitability. Leading healthcare organizations have deployed AP automation in order to deliver considerable efficiencies and have achieved faster invoice processing times, reduced invoice processing costs, improved vendor relationships, and lower overheads and labor costs. Automation of AP processes allows for better visibility and control over total spend (both trade and non-trade) which enables finance teams to produce higher value reporting and analysis of operations.

BlueCreek Software is a leading provider of financial process automation and developer of Vision360 Enterprise software. Vision360 replaces inefficient processes with solutions that transform financial processes, reduce costs, and ensure that organizations meet their business and compliance obligations.

BlueCreek’s Vision360 Enterprise solution fully integrates with all major finance systems, and ERP systems including Meditech, SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards, Lawson, MS Dynamics, Sage and many more.

From payroll to accounts payable (AP), B2B payments fraud continues to threaten organizations of all sizes, industries and geographies.

It’s a risk to which no one is immune, even billionaire investor Mark Cuban, who recently spoke with reporters at CNBC about his own experience dealing with a nasty case of AP fraud.

Nearly $13 million was defrauded out of two finance companies over nearly six years by MyPayrollHR, admitted the payroll company’s CEO, Michael Mann, who pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, reports in the Times Union said. Mann admitted to conspiring to fraudulently secure loans worth millions of dollars for Mann’s own companies. To do so, he reportedly represented false invoices allegedly owed to those companies in the form of accounts receivable. Reports noted, however, he has not entered a plea in response to charges of bank fraud.

$82,000 was stolen from Cuban’s first company via AP fraud, the entrepreneur told CNBC. He reflected on the experience that occurred at his first company, MicroSolutions, when he was only 24 years old. “I’m like, ‘OK, for our accounts payable, we print out the checks to the vendor,’” he recalled, adding that those checks were then given to a receptionist to pay suppliers. Yet that receptionist forged those checks to pay herself, leaving just $2,000 left in the company’s bank account — a scenario Cuban ultimately said helped him get more serious about his business ventures.

More than $300,000 was embezzled from a California company through its corporate card, reports in VC Star said. An internal audit of the Simi Valley business found one employee recently promoted had been misusing the company’s commercial card to make unauthorized purchases, while that individual is also accused of manipulating the firm’s payroll system to overpay herself. That employee has been arrested, reports said.

$740,000 was stolen from a Washington county via phishing attack, local Tri-City Herald reports said. An email posing as a legitimate construction vendor for Benton County requested an invoice payment, and a government employee fell for the scam that had convinced the employee to change the payment details for that particular vendor. Authorities were able to recover a majority of the funds. The case coincided with separate reports in The Durango Herald of a similar scam targeting county officials in New Mexico, which led to $447,000 stolen from Bernalillo County.

$4.5 million was embezzled from an Oregon company over a decade by a woman accused of submitting fraudulent invoices for a fake vendor. According to KEZI reports, that employee would then generate checks in AP to pay that false vendor, wielding her position in the company’s accounting and finance departments to then direct those payments to her personal account. The employee reportedly admitted to mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and tax evasion.

A $168.7 million invoice fraud ring was busted by Indian officials, the Hindustan Times reported recently. Three men were arrested under new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regulations following an investigation, which reportedly discovered the men allegedly falsifying invoices and companies in order to steal funds from iron and steel manufacturers.

In this week’s B2B Data Digest, PYMNTS uncovers the latest stories in B2B payments fraud from Cuban and others, including a busted invoice fraud ring in India, plus the latest on the ongoing MyPayrollHR fraud saga.

Reprint Credit: PYMNTS

PYMNTS is reinventing the way companies share relevant information about current developments in the connected economy space. Our powerful B2B platform is the #1 site in the U.S. and globally by traffic and the premier source of news and analysis for the industry.

We've all heard about or maybe even been the victim of phishing schemes, and phony invoices, click here for your order, and ransomware attacks by fraudsters. These attacks are never going to stop, and it seems the accounts payable department is the one under fire. Why? They pay the bills!
 
With lots of incoming invoices and emails to sort through the accounts payable department is the area of least safeguards and technology, which heavily relies on people and manual processes.
 
There are ways to reduce the risk of potential fraud, while increasing efficiencies and reducing costs, our article is food for thought.

In a recent fraud study, more than 68% of organizations said they were the target of fraud and phishing attacks. The majority of attacks by fraudsters were conducted by email. An ever increasing number of attacks are targeting the finance departments of organizations and primarily focusing on the accounts payable department.

Since the accounts payable department is responsible for issuing payments to suppliers, it would appear that this are is an easy target for fraudsters and scammers.

It's estimated that the cost of these crimes is upwards of $42 billion dollars per year!

Vision360 AP Automation uses artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and robotic process automation (RPA) and applies this intelligence to every single incoming email and invoice. Vision360's advanced invoice detection monitoring will eliminate duplicate invoices as well as stopping invoices devised to appear as phony vendors.

The benefits of Vision360's invoice automation doesn't stop there. Accounts Payable Departments can leverage electronic invoice routing and workflow for approvals, while automated PO matching will systematically perform the three-way match. The final step in improving efficiencies while reducing labor and costs is by connecting Vision360 with the financial ERP system. By connecting the AP process with the ERP system, AP Staff are freed from the tedious, error-prone and time consuming task of manual data entry. 

On the surface, the Accounts Payable (AP) process seems to be fairly simple. Right? Let's think this through for a moment: Suppliers send in their bills for goods or services. When the invoices arrive the AP Staff look at the invoice and makes sure the invoices get approved, processed, entered and paid.

Are we missing anything here? The process seems simple. So, is this the reason that AP Automation doesn't make sense to some organizations, is because the AP process is TOO simple? Hmmmm...

Maybe we should break down a few of the steps that the AP Staff perform each day? We already know that suppliers submit invoices for payment. So how do invoices arrive each day? By postal mail? By email? Okay, so nothing out of the ordinary yet. Someone on the AP Staff opens the envelopes and takes out the invoices and gets them organized for processing. Okay, seems straight forward. The AP Staff are used to it and have probably been doing this since the company started. But wait, many companies have switched their suppliers to email invoices to the AP department. Isn't this better than opening envelopes and mail. It must be better, because now all the AP Staff have to do is open every email, from every supplier and click "print". This sounds like a far more efficient use of the AP Staff's time. Are we missing anything yet...

So far, so good on the AP process. Seems very simple. Now that the AP Department has all the invoices in and organized, what's next? Some invoices come from suppliers and reference a purchase order (PO) number and some don't. I see so the invoices with a PO number are, how shall we say, pre-authorized to be paid. Right?

Well, not really. It just means that the buyer got an approval to buy. but it doesn't mean the invoice is correct or for the right amount. Well, that's not the AP Staff's problem, is it? It kind-of-is the AP Staff's problem. The AP Staff will need to compare the supplier invoice against the purchase order to make sure the quantity, the unit price all match. If the invoice and the purchase order match the AP Should be able to pay it, right? Yes, that sounds right. But wait. How does the AP Staff know that the buyer actually got the goods or services they ordered? This is another really good question. They don't.

So they AP Staff don't really know if the buyers received the goods or services that they ordered? Then how can the AP Staff process and pay the bill? Well, they need to match the invoice a third way, the AP Staff also have to match the invoice to something called, "the Goods Receipt". Now in days passed, the Goods Receipt would be a physical piece of paper, a packing slip or some type of document to prove that things we received. In today's world of Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP's), warehouses, receiving departments and buyers have the ability to "confirm" that items have been received in the ERP system.

Okay, so not that we've given some thought to the way AP Staff match PO invoices to process and pay them we're starting to understand why AP Automation isn't really necessary. Right?

BUT, I know this is far out thought and is probably very rare, "What happens if an invoice doesn't match the PO or the Goods Receipt?" What then?

Well, this happens. Probably more often than the AP Staff would like. We call these invoice "exceptions".

When exceptions happen then the AP Staff need to switch gears a bit. Some companies have what the call, "Allowable Tolerances", meaning its okay for a supplier to charge them a bit differently, or incorrectly as long as its not too much. So this means the AP Staff break out the calculator and do some quick math and as long as the invoice is "under" the set tolerance level by either a percentage or dollar amount then the invoice can be paid. Otherwise,  the AP Staff will need to get the buyer involved, or procurement to deal with the exception invoices and decide what to do with them and whether or not to pay, how much to pay, etc. 

We're still on track right? I can see why AP Automation would not be needed.

Let's not forget about the invoices that don't have PO numbers assigned to them. What about those?

That's got to be easy, right? The AP Staff just send the invoices to the approved for approval and that's it. Well, you would think that's all there is too it. What is the approver is in a different building or working remotely or traveling? So the AP Staff scan the paper and email the invoices to approvers. How hard can that be? It's not necessarily hard. But it sure is a slow and tedious process. The approvers are busy, maybe they get to the invoices, maybe the invoices quickly get buried in an email inbox, I am sure no invoices ever go to SPAM or Junk mail folders. So this process must be very efficient.

Don't invoices need to assigned to the "Chart of Accounts" (COA)? Yes they do. Sometimes the buyers do this, sometimes the AP Staff are responsible for this. Sometimes both.

The approvers probably just print the PDF invoices, scribble the COA, their initials and date with an "Okay to Pay", then re-scan the invoice and re-email back to the AP Staff. Now, is an invoice requires many approvals, let's say the invoice is for $12,000 dollars and needs three (3) approvals. The AP Staff only has to do this process three (3) times.

Okay, so lets recap what the AP Staff have done so far and why they don't need AP Automation.

1. Suppliers send postal mail and emails and the AP Staff open mail, print emailed invoices and get everything organized for processing. The AP Staff do this every day and it's so easy that AP Automation isn't needed.
   
2. If a supplier invoice has a PO Number on it then the AP Staff handle those invoices differently and match the invoice to the purchase order and in some cases to the Goods Receipt. If for some reason the invoice doesn't match for any reason then there are additional steps the AP Staff must take and treat the invoice as an "exception". The exception invoices involve other people and departments and possibly some other processed if there are taxes, or freight or tolerances. Got it. These steps happen every day and because the AP Staff have this process down pat there is no reason to use AP Automation. Makes sense.
   
3. If a supplier invoice doesn't have a PO number on it and needs to be reviewed, approved or assigned to the Chart of Accounts then the invoices are sent to approvers every day. There's a bunch of back and forth and the AP Staff keep track of all of this and because they're so good at what they do AP Automation isn't needed. Do I have this right?
   

So far we've reviewed what it takes to get a supplier invoice in, reviewed, processed and approved. We're done. Right? Wrong!

Now the AP Staff have to manually hand key all of the information from the invoice into the ERP financial system in order to be able to pay the bill. So how hard can this be. Right? I mean, if a company has a few hundred invoices that need to be hand keyed for payment processing and the AP Staff are good at keying data then this sounds really easy. Heck, the AP Staff manually enter supplier invoices all day, every day of the week. So now we know that there really is no need for AP Automation.

Now that we've gone through the very high level, basics of processing supplier invoices and how the expertise of the AP Staff get utilized, it's very easy to start to add up what it costs organizations in time, energy and more importantly costs.

I see!! It is much more economical to use experienced AP Staff to perform all of these manual tasks over and over again, because the AP Staff are more efficient than AP Automation.

Now, it all makes sense.

Interested in learning more? Attend our next informational webinar. Always free.

Imagine. Thank you John Lennon. You are missed. ​

Small-to-Midsize business are frequent targets of accounts payable scams and email invoice fraud. Email is one of the easiest methods used by scammers and fake invoices is one of the most common types of fraud.  According to a survey by the Association for Financial Professionals, 81% of organizations have been targets of fake invoices and payments fraud since 2019. Large companies are not immune to this type of fraud they typically have more resources and technology available to utilize in their fight against this ongoing battle.

Let's face it, on a daily basis scammers, hackers and fraudsters are coming at organizations from every conceivable angle, using whatever they can to get and steal information and money. It is very difficult for average people to recognize what is a fake email, or phone call or activity and prevent or stop these attacks. An organization needs every single person, employee and staff member to be on the lookout, vigilant and recognize what is a scam vs what is not.

The best way to combat fake invoices and payments fraud is with a enterprise level Accounts Payable Automation solution. Accounts Payable automation solutions can help address fraud issues. Most enterprise level AP Automation systems are based on systematic checks and balances based on financial principals and rules.

Here are a few examples of systematic checks and balances that an enterprise AP Automation system like our Vision360 Enterprise system can provide businesses in the fight against payment invoice scams and payments fraud:

• Is the vendor valid and approved in the ERP system for payment
• Are buyers authorized to approve invoices and match their authority limits
• Apply systematic segregation of duties and invoice escalations
• Do invoices match against purchase orders issued by procurement
• Eliminate manual data entry of invoices for posting and payment
• Complete audit trail of invoice approval, payment and invoicing lifecycle

These are some high-level examples of ways that enterprise level AP Automation can assist in the fight against hacking, phishing and fraudulent invoice activity. Of course the benefits of an enterprise level AP Automation system goes well beyond fraud prevention and helps businesses of all types and sizes to improve efficiencies by eliminating the tedious error-prone tasks of receiving, routing, coding, matching, approving and entering invoices into the ERP system for payment.

For more information about our Vision360 Enterprise AP Automation solution and how it can help you address these challenges and more, please contact us at 603-437-1400 or contact us directly using the button below.

Small-to-Midsize business are frequent targets of accounts payable scams and email invoice fraud. Email is one of the easiest methods used by scammers and fake invoices is one of the most common types of fraud.  According to a survey by the Association for Financial Professionals, 81% of organizations have been targets of fake invoices and payments fraud since 2019. Large companies are not immune to this type of fraud they typically have more resources and technology available to utilize in their fight against this ongoing battle.

Let's face it, on a daily basis scammers, hackers and fraudsters are coming at organizations from every conceivable angle, using whatever they can to get and steal information and money. It is very difficult for average people to recognize what is a fake email, or phone call or activity and prevent or stop these attacks. An organization needs every single person, employee and staff member to be on the lookout, vigilant and recognize what is a scam vs what is not.

The best way to combat fake invoices and payments fraud is with a enterprise level Accounts Payable Automation solution. Accounts Payable automation solutions can help address fraud issues. Most enterprise level AP Automation systems are based on systematic checks and balances based on financial principals and rules.

Here are a few examples of systematic checks and balances that an enterprise AP Automation system like our Vision360 Enterprise system can provide businesses in the fight against payment invoice scams and payments fraud:

• Is the vendor valid and approved in the ERP system for payment
• Are buyers authorized to approve invoices and match their authority limits
• Apply systematic segregation of duties and invoice escalations
• Do invoices match against purchase orders issued by procurement
• Eliminate manual data entry of invoices for posting and payment
  
• Complete audit trail of invoice approval, payment and invoicing lifecycle

These are some high-level examples of ways that enterprise level AP Automation can assist in the fight against hacking, phishing and fraudulent invoice activity. Of course the benefits of an enterprise level AP Automation system goes well beyond fraud prevention and helps businesses of all types and sizes to improve efficiencies by eliminating the tedious error-prone tasks of receiving, routing, coding, matching, approving and entering invoices into the ERP system for payment.

For more information about our Vision360 Enterprise AP Automation solution and how it can help you address these challenges and more, please contact us at 603-437-1400 or contact us directly using the button below.

In Accounts Payable, exceptions are part of the game we play. The numbers will not always match up, and your invoices will not be 100% error-free. Some will arrive incorrect; others will become problematic when processed into your system. There are common error sources that you should be mindful of, and there are equally common ways of attempting to mitigate the problem. It’s important is to understand where problems can pop up, what options you have for identifying and fixing them, and how those choices can impact the efficiency and effectiveness with which you handle the invoice processing cycle. This article will walk you through this analysis, flagging some trouble spots for your review, and offering some advice on how to minimize their impact in your operations.

What Causes Exceptions? Simply put, an exception is any situation where the numbers you receive do not match what you expect. Three key elements come into play here: (1) whether you and your supplier truly agree over the figures, (2) whether the information is accurately entered into the supplier’s system, and (3) whether any of those figures were incorrectly input due to manual data processing from the physical documents. The interaction of those different elements creates the four main sources of exceptions: accurate data that is entered inaccurately, accurate data that is lost in translation, inaccurate data that is nevertheless entered accurately, and inaccurate data that is made worse by faulty translation.

Accurate Data Entered Inaccurately. There is agreement on what the items and numbers should be, but an error was made in transcription. This is a keying error, either when preparing the invoice by hand, when creating it in the source system, or when keying it into the buyer’s portal. These errors are purely attributable to mistakes in data entry.

Accurate Data Lost in Translation. There is agreement on items and numbers, and those details are recorded accurately, but due to print/image quality, font choice, extraneous markings, etc., the information is inaccurately read by the recipient. This can come from the physical printer or from within the software used to translate documents and images to usable data. These errors stem from the use of technology to transform data to physical form – and then back again.

Inaccurate Data Entered Accurately. There is a disagreement over items, numbers, or terms, but the supplier’s view is accurately entered on the invoice. The invoice may be prepared without referencing an existing contract, so that proper terms or discounts are not reflected. The invoice may not reflect an outstanding credit that was expected to be applied against the total due. Similarly, the buyer’s expectation could be erroneous, such as when their expectation of a lower price is based on volume discounts under an unknowingly expired contract. These types of errors stem from problems with integrating and tracking disparate sources of information.

Inaccurate Data Further Lost in Translation. Take data that’s already “wrong” and further complicate the situation by inaccurate transmission. This looks much the same as the earlier categories, but can be more difficult when trying to identify the root cause. For example, if you’re charged $1.00 instead of $0.90, that 10% difference may be easily traced to the supplier failing to apply a negotiated discount called for in an existing contract. But if the price is mistakenly entered as $7.00 (due to a stray mark on the physical paper invoice), you now have two steps to work through: figuring out that the base price should have been $1.00 and that the purchase was governed by a contract which would bring the actual cost to $0.90. In this case, consulting the Purchase Order should provide clarity, but you might need to refer back to the contract as well to clear things up with your supplier’s Collections/Receivables representative. These errors are the result of from a combination of disagreement over the correct figures and technological problems when transforming a physical document into usable data.

A (Sad) Comedy of Errors. You disagree about terms, quantities, or prices. That already-incorrect information is then mistyped in the source document. Finally, to complete the failure trifecta, some printing artifact adds another source of error by misreading the information in import. This unlikely series of events is caused by a lack of integration (disagreement), reliance on manual keying (data entry).

What Impact Do These Errors Have? There are time and cost implications in dealing with exceptions. The degree to which they impact your operations derives from how you choose to deal with the problem. Generally, you have three choices: (1) you can choose not to investigate, (2) you can do enough to uncover the error and dispute it, or (3) you can fully research the situation to uncover the source of the problem.

Not identifying errors. When problems slip through, you’re simply paying as invoiced, which is a bit of mixed bag. If an invoice was accurate then there’s no harm done. If it was inaccurate but the deviation was minor, then you’re probably fine (unless the volume of invoices processed means thousands of “slightly off” invoices add up to respectable amounts in aggregate). The real problem is that you don’t know – and that’s where fraud is a big risk. Were the invoices goods or services actually purchased? Were they delivered? Is this a valid vendor? If we assume that everything else has been functioning perfectly (which is generally not a good assumption to make) then both your cost and time impact is essentially zero. In all likelihood, your cost impact (or undiscovered over-payment) is greater than zero, while the extra time devoted to finding errors remains nil.

Identifying errors. When problems are uncovered, there are two main performance-related questions to ask: how much time did it take to identify the problem, and how much time will be required to fix it? In the simplest case, you’d uncover a problem by comparing the invoice against one other document – either the original Purchase Order or the receiving document. That may show an incorrect price, or confirm that the incorrect number of an item was received. The difficulty of (or time required for) consulting those documents is based on how and where they are stored, and what the process is for retrieving them. Are copies of PO's stored in a filing cabinet, organized by vendor? Are they stored near AP or with Purchasing on another floor or in another building? Are receipt documents available at all for this purchase, and if so, where are they stored? By asking these questions, you mitigate your risk of over-payment (or fraudulent payment), but at the cost of labor hours that could be spent on other tasks.

Determining root causes. If the numbers don’t quite match, most of the information you need is likely on the documents you had in-hand when identifying the error initially. However, you may also need access to supplier contracts, credit memos received, or debit memos sent (but not acknowledged by a return credit memo). As before, this leads to questions of where and how these documents are stored and how they can be retrieved. It also requires additional time to sift through the documents and track down the source of any discrepancies. This information will be both important and helpful when registering a dispute with your supplier’s accounts receivable department. If they are well-run, they follow different procedures for genuine disputes than for traditional collections, and your documentary proof will ensure that you’re placed in the correct queue. This category of investigation increases the amount of labor consumed, with the intent of uncovering underlying problems and preventing errors in the future. It may not make sense to undertake for every small purchase from an occasional supplier, but could very well be justified when dealing with high-volume and/or strategic suppliers, since the errors uncovered would likely be repeated in future transactions.

Why Do These Errors Happen? As mentioned above, some “errors” are attributable to a disagreement between what you and your supplier believe to be correct. That said, there is also a lot of room in the invoice-creation, -receipt, and -processing cycle for more mundane (but equally important) problems to crop up. There are common error sources in those situations where you and your supplier are actually in agreement on the numbers, but the documents involved don’t match that shared understanding.

What Can Be Done? There are some common patterns. When documents are stored on paper, they require physical storage – which may or may not be located within a convenient distance to AP. If it is within the same office, retrieval speed is dictated mainly by how quickly you can walk and by how well your storage is organized. In a larger building or campus environment, this speed is more dependent on request submission, processing, and interoffice mail delivery. For distributed environments (multi-office locations), request submission and retrieval are the same, with fax, scan-and-send, or even postal mail replacing the interoffice option. If you deal with any appreciable number of purchase orders and invoices, a digital storage approach can save a lot of time.

If you have an organized and efficient way to store and retrieve electronic documents, then your best bet is to maximize the number that you receive from suppliers. Because hand-keyed documents are prone to data entry errors, you should request that system-generated invoices be sent electronically, even if that’s just via email. If you are able to import data into your system, data extraction services and solutions work very well, especially on documents that have been digital from the start rather than those that have been printed, mailed, and then scanned into an image that may introduce some artifacts. That said, their bread-and-butter is in the paper-to-digital conversion process, so the technology has ways of reducing the negative impact of those sorts of stray markings.

As above, having documents in digital form can speed up retrieval and access time – and that can be a huge efficiency gain when the physical copies would be somewhere at the end of a request-and-mail process. Once you have that quick access, you’d still be doing a manual comparison by eye. That’s where automated PO matching can improve both efficiency and effectiveness in identifying errors. Again, if you receive only a small volume of relatively simple (i.e. one- or two-page) invoices, this may be overkill. As volumes and complexity increase, however, something has to give: you can either process quickly with the potential to miss something, or methodically in order to catch problems. Since matching is usually part of an invoice workflow package, it also offers help in areas beyond the current discussion.

Conclusion When dealing with invoices, errors will occur. They may be due to disagreements, to data entry errors, or to some degree of technological confusion when converting between paper and digital formats. Ignoring the potential issue is not a satisfactory solution. Beyond that, the amount of time and money devoted to spotting errors and identifying root causes is a business decision to be made based on the size and setup of your organization, the potential costs of those errors, and the level of investment necessary to get things into shape. The best solution may simply be digitizing or receiving invoices electronically, extracting and validating invoice data, and leveraging AP Automation technologies that automatically route, GL code and 3-way match invoices while connecting to your ERP system to eliminate manual data entry. Regardless of the specific approach taken, it is necessary for all accounts payable departments to recognize the difficulties that inaccuracies and errors can introduce, and the availability of multiple options (both process- and technology-related) to help improve the situation.

2014 Reprint and slightly modified to fit the AP Processing Requirement and standards of 2021
Scott Pezza Director, Industry and Value Advisory for Spend Management

Manufacturing organizations face different challenges to their counterparts in other sectors. The highly-competitive nature of the industry creates pressure to adopt a lean approach to delivering goods and services to customers. This has led to an increasing emphasis on customer centricity and faster, more robust supply chains. While there tends to be a focus on front-end process improvements, manufacturers realize that there is also a need to extend these improvements to their back-end processes, particularly in accounts payable (AP) and procurement.

AP refers to the entire process by which organizations pay for goods and services, from the receipt of the goods to the processing and payment of the vendor invoice. In an effort to reduce costs and optimize efficiency, leading organizations are implementing AP automation software and streamlining their back office functions.

​This article serves as a guide for finance leaders on the drivers for implementing AP automation and the value it adds to the manufacturing supply chain. It summarizes the issues that manufacturers are faced with, and the benefits that AP automation has delivered to a range of organizations, including, reduced costs, increased visibility, improved efficiency in AP processes, and enhanced vendor management. The paper highlights the ways in which AP automation can be integrated with existing ERP, procurement, and supply chain systems, and ensure tangible results including:

Organizations in the manufacturing sector have a faster supply chain, and there are greater demands to purchase and deliver goods and services quicker and in innovative ways. As businesses increasingly focus on meeting the needs of the customer in order to outperform competitors, many manufacturers offer goods via multiple channels putting pressure on companies to improve processes in the front and back ends of the business. The use of e-commerce, in particular, and the demand for ever shorter delivery times has forced manufacturers to shift focus from traditional brick-and-mortar to online ordering. For this tilt to be possible, supply chains must be fast and reliable, and back end processes must be agile and automated.

This pressure to improve back end processes to achieve cost reduction and maximum profitability is widely covered in industry research. Forrester research predicts that customer centricity, analytics, and optimization will be key for manufacturers in order to distinguish themselves from competitors and mitigate the risk of reduced growth. Research confirms that management will fundamentally change the pace of their business, replacing cumbersome, manual processes with automated, agile ones. According to further research, this is a key area of focus for the future: 81% of executives surveyed agreed that operational efficiencies are a priority to improve profitability.

Organizations can gain a competitive edge in the manufacturing sector by allowing finance teams to focus on their core activities. AP automation eliminates the manual tasks of invoice data entry, coding, approval, matching, and payment, allowing operations and finance teams to focus on strategic, high-value work. A dedicated system for auto-mating AP tasks ensures that costs are significantly reduced and spend management is brought under complete control. AP automation can have considerable impact on the bottom line, delivering cost savings as a result of increased transparency over company spend, improved efficiency, reduced costs, and better relationships with vendors.

Manufacturing organizations typically utilize industry-specific systems for procurement, particularly for purchasing goods, as this accounts for approximately 80% of total spend and is vital for revenue growth. However, when it comes to goods, including expense items such as marketing, legal fees, utilities, etc., organizations generally do not employ a dedicated system for procurement and AP, and instead rely heavily on manual processes. This results in deficient spend management, a lack of transparency, and poor vendor management, which contributes to inefficient AP pro-cesses. AP automation replaces these inefficient processes with structured solutions that enable finance leaders to take control of company spend, increase productivity of their teams, and improve vendor relations.

​The manufacturing industry has many industry-specific challenges in purchasing goods and services such as tolerances (allowing an organization to manage under shipments, late shipments, and unit price variations that cause discrepancies between the PO, invoice, and goods receipt), surcharges (for returns or for over handling of goods), and over-receipting (receiving more goods than originally ordered), and individual organizations have additional, bespoke business requirements to meet. AP automation solutions facilitate all these manufacturer-specific requirements as well as the standard AP requirements such as duplicate invoice checking, varied payment terms, discount allocations, and VAT calculations. In a manual AP environment. This results in disjointed back-end processes, with a primary focus on goods, and crucially, without one single view over finance operations.

​In typical manufacturing environments, the different types of invoices are often separated with either by different systems, or by different AP teams. This separation of processes for PO vs Non-PO spend results in unnecessary complexity, duplication of resources and a lack of visibility of overall spend. Invoices for goods are typically received in e-mail, EDI, or XML for-mats, while non-trade invoices are received in e-mail, paper, or PDF formats. Procurement of trade goods is typically man-aged by industry-specific solutions and while these systems may automate the creation and approval of purchase orders (PO), organizations ultimately rely on manual processes to complete the remaining AP steps including invoice capture, matching, and posting for payment.

​On the expense side, manufacturing organizations typically do not utilize systems specifically for expense invoices or the associated Non-PO AP tasks, in which case the AP teams are left to manually complete every step from procurement through to payment of invoices. This manual processing is inefficient, slow, and uncontrolled, with a high number of touch-points which drives up the costs involved in processing an invoice, and increases the risk of human error. This makes it difficult to manage expense spend, which is often non-PO based and can often account for over 20% of total spend. Typical problems that arise with non-trade spend are retrospective approvals, maverick buying, and non-adherence to company spend policies.

​In manufacturing environments, it is common for organizations to have large numbers of vendors across global locations. This poses several complex challenges which often are not sufficiently managed by existing ERPs and, as a result, organizations implement further manual processes to handle them. One challenge faced by many manufacturers is duplicate invoices and duplicate payments. In AP departments with no automation, manual processing naturally results in human inefficiencies and inconsistent invoice handling processes. From a vendor point of view, there is no visibility over whether or not an invoice has been received, approved, or paid, which often leads to vendors submitting invoices multiple times (by post, EDI or email) in an effort to get paid more quickly. Since there are no reliable ways to detect duplicate invoices in a manual environment, AP teams end up duplicating their effort to process these invoices and in some cases ultimately making duplicate payments which result in commercial implications and require further effort to remedy.

​Vendor management is another area where manufacturing organizations often find they struggle. This is due to limitations in the ERP vendor master data and the lack of structured tools within the ERP to efficiently and accurately manage existing vendors and on-board new vendors. Simple requirements, such as ensuring that all vendors are compliant with tax clearances, industry certifications, insurances, and other buyer-specific policies, are typically managed externally from the ERP using offline, manual processes. Likewise, vendor contract renewals and other vendor updates are often handled in a similar manual fashion.

In today's world the need has never been great for staff, teams and employees to have remote access to business decision making information and accounts payable is no exception. Since the COVID outbreak in March of 2020 teams of people have been forced to work remotely and or from home. With limited access to information, invoices and documents necessary to keep the supply chain moving, many manufacturers feel sluggishly behind. Those manufacturers who were already prepared by implementing applications that provided the immediate secure transfer of knowledge outside their four walls were able to continue operating with little to no interuption. 

The AP automation solution allows organizations to control buying from approved vendors and management can enforce strict ‘No PO, No Pay’ policies and gain full visibility over what is being purchased. AP automation solutions work seamlessly with multiple ERP systems and provide a single view of the world for AP teams.

Segregated AP teams can be consolidated and the manual paper-based processes and spreadsheets are replaced with structured and controlled systems. This allows the entire AP process to be automated by one solution, eliminating the need for two separate AP processes, and two separate AP teams. The automated processing of invoices enables finance teams to only handle invoices by exception and to prioritize by key criteria such as value, early payment discounts, aging, etc. Re-porting and analytics also provide finance leaders with the necessary dashboards to project operational and financial metrics such as processing times, FTE productivity, approver performance, invoice accruals and vendor performance.

Other industry-specific challenges can also be managed. In manufacturing it is not unusual for vendors to send invoices be-fore the goods arrive - often as soon as the goods are ordered - in an effort to expedite the receipt of payment. Situations like this can cause real problems with traditional manual processes. However, with AP automation, invoices are automatically assigned an expected arrival date and are held pending the goods receipt note (GRN). When the GRN is received, the system triggers an automatic 2- or 3-way match, and unless an exception is found it will be automatically approved and routed for payment.

​AP automation provides a single system for processing all invoices through a structured workflow with automated matching and built-in approval logic. This ultimately enables the touchless processing of invoices and focuses AP teams on only handling invoices with exceptions.

Invoices can be captured in any format including paper, XML, PDF and EDI, so manufacturers can accept invoices electronically from sophisticated vendors using XML/EDI or, for other vendors, they can also automate the processing of invoices received by paper, email or PDF or submitted electronically. Vendors receive notifications regarding the status of submitted invoices, providing them with visibility over whether invoices have been received, processed, approved or paid.

​AP automation allows for better control over the organization’s cash flow. It equips the AP team with transparency over all vendors, enabling them to consider early payment discounts, and to strategically buy from preferred vendors and schedule payments in order to avail of these discounts. The solution also facilitates multiple languages and currencies, and provides full visibility over pending payments, allowing management to make informed decisions on when to pay invoices without incurring unnecessary charges. Taxes and freights, which are not always accurately accounted for in a manual environment, is fully automated within the AP solution, enabling precise payment and reporting.

The costs incurred in the finance department can be significant. Automating the AP process enables organizations to achieve better employee productivity, increased visibility and control over spend (both trade and non-trade), and significant cost savings at each stage in the AP process. Industry research by PayStream has found that 90% of CFOs that implemented AP automation achieved an average savings of 80% in invoice processing costs.

The cost of manually processing invoices can be significant. Forrester reports that over 97% of invoices are processed manually. The average cost of processing invoices varies, but can amount from $15 up to $45 per invoice.

AP refers to the entire process by which organizations pay for goods and services, from the receipt of the goods to the processing and payment of the vendor invoice. Successful organizations are modernizing their AP processes by automating each of the steps involved. AP automation can be achieved by transforming the following tasks:

• All types of invoices including paper, PDF, fax, EDI and email can be automatically captured in the system. The relevant invoice data is captured from each invoice and is used for rules based processing. Touchless processing for most of the invoices through capture, matching and approval means only exceptions need to be handled by AP team members. Other automated checks prevent problems such as duplicate invoices, missing PO numbers, and unregistered vendors at the source before they cause bigger problems and more work downstream.
• Automated 2- or 3-way matching of POs, invoices, and goods received eliminates manual paper-based processing, which typically results in the straight through processing of up to 80% (or more) of all invoices. Auto-match rate: This allows organizations to measure the percentage of invoices that are processed straight-through, without manual intervention. The higher the percentage, the more the AP team is able to handle exceptions.
• Approval automation allows for invoices to be routed electronically, reducing approval times. Complex rules based on roles, hierarchies, product type, and varying approval limits can be configured to ensure adherence to company spend policies. Sophisticated workflow automation not only enables approval routing within a single entity, but also across multi-entity organizations.
• Seamless interoperability between the AP system and an organization’s procurement and/or ERP system ensures full visibility of the end to end AP process along with a complete audit trail for every transaction.
• Reporting analytics enable finance leaders to continuously monitor and improve the operational AP processes while also delivering timely and accurate month end reporting.

Learn more about AP Automation and see it live!

​Competition between manufacturers has resulted in greater demands to establish differentiation. In order to get ahead, manufacturers are making efforts to provide improved goods and services to consumers. Considering the emphasis on speedy supply chains and the importance of vendor relationships for success in manufacturing, companies have started to improve back end processes in order to increase efficiency and maximize profitability. Leading organizations have deployed AP automation in order to deliver considerable efficiencies and have achieved faster invoice processing times, reduced in-voice processing costs, improved vendor relationships, and lower overheads and labor costs. Automation of AP processes allows for better visibility and control over total spend (both trade and non-trade) which enables finance teams to produce higher value reporting and analysis of operations.

​BlueCreek Software is a leading provider of financial process automation and developer of Vision360 Enterprise software, replacing inefficient processes with solutions that transform financial processes, reduce costs, and ensure that organizations meet their business and compliance obligations.

Do you have questions or want to learn more?

1. DO WE NEED ACCOUNTS PAYABLE (AP) AUTOMATION?
​
We don’t know if you NEED Accounts Payable (AP) Automation, that will be up to you to recognize and decide. HOWEVER, there are probably some very good business reasons for considering or even implementing an AP Automation system or process in your organizations finance department. We’ll discuss those towards the end of this.

Keep in mind, what we have found is that many corporate executives have either never been in an accounts payable role or limited experience and have a very different view of what their AP Staff actually deals with on a daily basis OR some finance executives have been far away from the day-to-day activities that they forget about all of the challenges that consumes the AP Staffs time each day.

First let’s set the stage for what we’re about to discuss.

2. WHAT EXACTLY IS ACCOUNTS PAYABLE?

Accounts Payable (AP) are the amounts of financial obligations you, or your business owes a supplier because you purchased goods or services on credit from the supplier. For these goods and or services you’ve agreed to pay for them within a specific period of time, this is called the “Terms”.

Think about this for a moment. Think of your household monthly bills – utilities, rent, mortgage, cell phones, Netflix subscriptions, digital cable and internet – these all represent your personal “accounts payable” at home. At home you probably keep track and pay for these services each month, most likely by receiving electronic bills (invoices) via email or electronic notifications and using electronic payment methods such as credit cards.

In business, Accounts Payable represents a company’s obligation to pay off a short-term debt to its suppliers. Businesses, Accountants and Finance Teams use accounting software to track when they receive invoices and when they make payments to manage cash flow and to pay their suppliers on time. For many businesses, however, the accounts payable process is a manual, paper-based process that costs the company time and money. While many professionals pay their personal bills quickly and conveniently online, their company’s finances are often very antiquated with paper invoices, manual tasks, filing cabinets, and paper checks with no visibility to any information.
​
So why is it acceptable to use electronic processes for managing home expenses, but not at your company?

3. WHAT IS ACCOUNTS PAYABLE AUTOMATION?

Over the last decade, forward-thinking companies have adopted AP Automation to automate the paper and manual elements of processing invoices and making payments. These software solutions integrate with their accounting software and enable the accounts payable department to streamline workflows and reduce processing costs.

AP Automation adds significant value to Accounts Payable, including real-time visibility into performance and financial status, increased accuracy, and better compliance with tax laws and industry regulations. Simply put, if a company is still receiving paper invoices or paying bills, they’re not capitalizing on today’s best practices. They’re also missing out on the unlimited po-tential for savings after relieving their AP team of time-consuming tasks such as opening the mail, data entry and filing mountains of paper. These manual tasks can lead to lost invoices, human error during data entry, and duplicate invoices.

4. DOES YOUR COMPANY NEED AP AUTOMATION?

You most likely have a person or two or three on your AP Staff that are more than capable of doing things like opening mail, printing out the invoices your suppliers email to your company, scanning those paper invoices and printed email invoices (which by the way you received electronically), emailing the invoices around to people for approvals, then chasing those same people down who don’t approve their invoices on time (or at all). When the vendors call to inquire about the status of the pay-ment of their invoice I would bet your AP Staff will happily talk with the vendor about where the invoices are at and when you’ll pay them.

Now let’s think about two types of invoices from suppliers, “Non-PO Invoices” (needs approval) and “PO-Invoices” (needs to be matched). When it comes to Non-PO Invoices your AP Staff chases down the approvals, lots of back and forth AND now you have to assign the charges to the “chart-of-accounts” via general ledger (GL) coding. In your company who is responsible for making sure Non-PO invoices are GL coded properly? This seems like a simple step, unfortunately this step is riddled with errors mainly because no one understands the chart of accounts very well.

Purchase Order Invoices on the other hand are much more complex. The price for goods are negotiated and agreed to in advance and the terms are set. The Purchase Order acts as the pre-approval to spend money on behalf of the company. When the invoice arrives your AP Staff will most likely confirm that the invoice price is consistent or matches the purchase order price. Purchase order matching usually falls into one or two categories, a 2-way match (invoice & PO) or a 3-way match (invoice, PO & goods receipt). In any case the matching process in either case if a very tedious process that usually involved dealing with things like taxes and freight charges which are not typically on a purchase order.

Assuming that the matching process goes well and there are no discrepancies it may take a few minutes to an hour or so to match a PO invoice, HOWEVER it is not often that a PO invoice matches exactly. Because of discrepancies in costs and pricing companies have developed internal allowable tolerances. What this means is that as long as the invoice due amount falls within an acceptable tolerance range of a few dollars or a percent or two, then the AP Staff should just pay it. Now let’s think about what it takes to figure out if an invoice is within your allowable tolerance. Since most people aren’t very good at calculat-ing numbers in their head your AP Staff most likely take out their calculator on every PO invoice to make sure the invoice due amount is within your allowable tolerance.

So your AP Staff just spent an enormous amount of time matching the PO invoices item by item and calculating whether or not the invoice due amount is within your allowable tolerance and some invoices EXCEED your tolerance, so now what? Now the back and forth begins, your AP Staff scans the PO invoice, emails a copy of the invoice to the buyer—and waits. Maybe your AP Staff emails a copy of the invoice to your purchasing department—and waits. The back and forth continues, the chasing game is played, the vendors are waiting for payment and invoice piles are growing, invoices are falling behind, your AP Staff are being blamed for the slow process.

​Finally, after all of the tedious manual back and forth to get approvals, the back and forth to deal with invoice exceptions now your AP Staff can finally key the invoice data into your financial system for payment processing. Your AP Staff can file away all of the paper invoices into file drawers and bankers boxes and when a tax audit happens your AP Staff will be happy to roll up their sleeves on a weekend to rifle through all the boxes of paper invoices over the last few years to try and find the invoices.

5. WE SPENT A SMALL FORTUNE ON OUR ERP SYSTEM. CAN’T WE JUST USE THAT SYSTEM?

The vast majority of companies run some sort of enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. ERP systems are very expensive and are touted as all-inclusive business solutions, and we all want one system to handle everything.

The fact is, ERP systems, while extremely valuable business tools that work well for collecting, storing, managing and interpreting data from various business activities, fall woefully short when it comes to AP invoice capture via optical character recognition (OCR), data-validation, invoice approval routing, and PO matching and exception-handling. This is because ERP’s don’t have the ability to support the multiple processes (receipt, review, approval, etc.) that are prevalent with each invoice transaction. ERP’s are simply not specialized enough in any one area to provide the best AP automation solution you can get.

While the ERP seems like a good idea on the surface, a company’s AP staff is still burdened by all of the manual aspects of processing the supplier invoices BEFORE an AP invoice even makes it to the ERP system. The AP Staff would be consumed with opening envelopes and mail, managing an email inbox where some suppliers send PDF invoices, printing out the PDF invoices to paper and then eventually scanning all of the invoices one-by-one into the ERP system (if that is even possible to do).

After the invoices are scanned your AP Staff would be responsible for OCR’ing the data from each and every invoice AND making sure all of the invoice detail data is correct. This includes the vendors names, the invoice date, the purchase order number, any taxes that might be on an invoices, any freight charges or extra fees that your company might be responsible for as well as the full amount due of the invoice.

Now keep in mind that OCR Software is not part of or included with any ERP package, so this would require your IT Director or IT Manager to investigate OCR tools, purchase the software, get trained on the software, train your AP Staff how to use the soft-ware and how to troubleshoot issues of mis-reads, incorrectly interpreted data and bad transactional data that may make it into your payables process and ultimately into your ERP system.
​
It’s important to understand that the design of most modern ERP systems is based upon the premise that a person (the AP Staff) is going to manually handle all data entry and, as such, the developers of these ERP systems do not focus on a technology which replaces that data entry. This fundamental design assumption also leads to poor exception handling, because the assumption is that humans (the AP Staff) have already corrected the data as they entered it. In reality, error rates through manual human inter-vention are fairly high while visibility and productivity remain low and expensive.

It’s worth pointing out that, while upgrading an ERP to continue to handle ever-changing exceptions and business rules is difficult (lots of time required, expertise needed, and expenses incurred). It’s made even more difficult when you consider some companies, because of acquisitions and mergers, have multiple ERP systems in use across a global enterprise, a situation that makes streamlined workflow in an AP process almost impossible to achieve. These are just some of the pitfalls that can be avoided by going outside your ERP for AP automation.

6. WHAT’S IN AP AUTOMATION FOR OUR COMPANY AND STAFF?

CFO's & Finance Executives: By leveraging AP Automation finance execs are able to reduce overall costs while taking advantage of freed up staff and resources that can affect the bottom-line and assist in strategic and corporate growth.

Corporate Controllers: Will gain better visibility and control to the payables process that they otherwise would not have. Controllers can also leverage real-time KPI's and analytics via AP Dashboards to measure AP performance and monitor cash flow.

Accounts Payable Teams: AP is able to eliminate paper invoices and the manual back and forth caused by printing and emailing invoices between the parties involved in obtaining approvals. The AP department will now have "ultimate control" over the processing of supplier invoices. The AP process is streamlined by electronically routing, coding, matching supplier invoices through a pre-defined set of accounting rules. Because we connect payables with your ERP there is no more manual data entry or keying of invoices. This will allow AP Staff to spend time on more important financial functions rather than chasing approvals on invoices and being consumed by data entry.

In today's world of AP Staff working offsite, remote or from home online AP Automation systems such as Vision360 Enterprise allow AP Staff to manage the entire payables process from just about anywhere.

Invoice Approvers: The rest of your company is busy, they have responsibilities and tasks to get done. By allowing approvers to simply "click a button" to approve invoices, and from anywhere, helps to free them from scribbling on paper and scanning, emailing or interoffice mailing invoices back to accounts payable. 

Accountants & Research Staff: Instant access to view and research supplier invoices from any computer by authorized staff helps to streamline monthly, quarterly closes as well as year-end. Internal, external and tax audits are much more efficient with greater efficiency and less headaches for finance executives.

7. WHAT CAN YOUR COMPANY ACHIEVE WITH AP AUTOMATION?
​

• Lower than average costs to process supplier invoices. The average cost to manually process a supplier invoice ranges between $10.00 and $15.00 per invoices. Source: Aberdeen Group, IOFM & Paystream Advisors
• Both hard-dollar and soft-dollar savings across the entire corporation.
• Grow your company without adding additional AP Staff or FTE’s to manually process invoices to accommodate growth.
• Eliminate manual time consuming processes of routing, coding, matching, approving and keying of supplier invoices.
• Vendor relations are improved by implementing an AP Automation process.
• All levels of corporate finance are able to make better business decision based on real-time KPI’s and financial data.
• Your corporate business rules, accounting practices and policies are detailed and enforced.
• Vendor discounts which impact the bottom-line are never missed and accounted for and taken consistently/
• Gain complete visibility and control to corporate spending, financial condition and liabilities.
• Gain a competitive advantage over your competitors.
  ​

The above is a very short list, just look around your organization. Where are the bottlenecks, where are the in-efficiencies, where are the problems and day-to-day challenges your payables staff is faced with?

8. A FEW DIFFERENT WAYS TO APPROACH AP AUTOMATION

Accounts Payable Automation can take on several looks and depending on a company’s goals and objectives each approach has varying degrees of results. The end result however is improved efficiencies and lower overall costs to process supplier invoices.

• Front-End Invoice Capture: this involves capturing the invoices at the time they arrive. Front-End Invoice Capture generally requires paper invoices to be converted to digital images and emailed invoices to converted to images or saved as electronic files. The end result is that paper is eliminated.
• Invoice Capture with Workflow Routing: By coupling the Front-End Invoice Capture with a Workflow tool companies can benefit by faster, more efficient invoice routing and approvals.
• Invoice Capture with Workflow Routing and ERP Integration: By taking the process to the next level and integrating the routing and invoice approvals with your ERP system will further enhance your efficiencies by eliminating manual data entry of invoices.
• Invoice Capture with Workflow Routing, Purchase Order Matching and ERP Integration: This is a great solution for process efficiencies at every level. Just imagine a payables process where supplier invoices are received electronically, automatically matched to purchase orders, routed to approvers based on your approval matrix, and auto-entered into your ERP system without the need for a single keystroke, knowing that your companies business rules were enforced and that strict controls were put in place to ensure security, privacy and compliance.
• Invoice Capture, Workflow, Matching and Electronic Supplier Payments: This is the ULTIMATE solution for creating not only the highest level of process efficiency, but also the highest level of ROI. When paying suppliers electronically, companies can earn "Cash Back Rebates" which can go straight to the bottom line and generate revenue and increase profitability! 

9. WHAT ARE THE STEPS FOR FULL AP AUTOMATION
​

• Invoice Capture: Your suppliers can submit invoices for payment directly into the AP Automation system or hard copy invoices can be converted to digital by scanning them using your existing equipment and/or mailed to one of our shared service centers where incoming invoices are converted to secure digital invoices each day. By utilizing Vision360's best-in-breed data capture technology and cross checking invoice data against your existing databases all captured data is verified for accuracy ensuring the highest level of data accuracy possible.
• Invoice Approvals: Based on your specific invoice processing rules in Vision360 Enterprise, supplier invoices are automatically routed for review and approval by the appropriate staff member. If an invoice exceeds a users approval limit that invoice is then escalated up to the next authorized approver. To simplify the G\L coding invoices pass through a set of validation rules to ensure coding is correct the first time and auto-coding templates further enhance this process by eliminating the need for anyone to manually code an invoice.
• Purchase Order Matching: While Non-PO invoices might require someone on your staff to review and approve those invoices, the same is not necessarily true for PO invoices. Using Accounts Payable Automation, Purchase Order invoices are automatically checked against your PO database and receiving data (for 3-way matching) when the invoice arrives. Utilizing a series of cascading matching rules the Vision360 Enterprise AP Automation system will auto-match Purchase Order invoices systematically. Invoices that mis-match are flagged and set aside for the appropriate personnel for review.
• ERP Integration: Vendor and invoice data get synchronized with your ERP system (SAP, Oracle, JDE, Lawson, Infor, NetSuite, Dynamics GP, NAV, AX, Epicor, QAD, Sage and more) providing full end-to-end process automation. By connecting the accounts payable process with your ERP system this eliminates the need for AP Staff to manually enter invoices into the accounting system further leveraging your ERP investment and maximizing your return on investment.
• Archive, KPI’s & Reporting: Supplier invoices are instantly available at any computer for immediate access and review by authorized users. Vision360's archive means paper is no longer needed to be filed or stored because invoices are only a mouse click away! Vision360's dashboard and reporting provides instant visibility to every single invoice. This allows users to access the information they need to analyze key performance indicators and invoice progress to watch for problems before they occur.

There is no doubt that the current situation is putting extra demand on everyone across the board. It seems right now everyone is affected one way or another by the pandemic either both at home and on the job.

With onset of a remote workforce it is becoming more of a challenge than ever before for accounts payable departments to get invoices out for proper review and approval and still meet the terms of suppliers. Many suppliers understand that we are in difficult times and are willing to work with their customers to help, however the AP Staff are still struggling with getting invoice approved. 

By utilizing an online accounts payable processing system like Vision360 Enterprise organizations are able to manage the payables process much more efficiently than if they had to shuffle paper invoices around. 

There are a few reasons to consider an online accounts payable processing solution:

• AP Teams can work remotely and manage the payables process
• Approvers can approve invoices from anywhere in the world
• Reporting for monthly closes are streamlined with advanced reporting
• Suppliers are happy because they're being paid more timely
• Non-essential tasks caused by all the back and forth are eliminated 
• Online dashboards, KPI's and analytics provide finance teams the information they need top make sound business decisions
  
  

Read our white papers:

• Accounts Payable Automation has Something for Everyone
• The Ultimate Guide to AP Automation
• 100 Reasons Why You Need AP Automation
• AP Benchmarking: How Does Your Payables Process Compare?

Consider attending one of our informational webinars to learn more about ways to make your payables process more efficient to save time, energy and money. 
​

The global pandemic of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has turned the entire world on its head, some non-essential businesses have been forced to close, others are seeing a downturn in customers, employees are getting ill and your AP Staff are not immune to anything and probably feeling the pressure of all of this. 

Businesses are quickly being forced to re-evaluate how they operate and conduct daily business. The day-to-day routines that we have all been accustomed to for so long have been disrupted by the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

The company you work for may be switching gears at this very moment and having to react to the current situation. At every level of the organization people may be rethinking policies, having to adjust business processes and work schedules as they try to figure out the best course of action. 

So how will your Accounts Payable Team  manage their operations when there is so much uncertainty right now? We've outlined 4 key areas for AP Staff to focus on to help keep the accounts payable process flowing, your suppliers happy and goods/services coming in.

1. A/P Staff conditions
​To continually meet the needs of both internal and external customers, you first need to ensure your A/P Staff is well equipped to do so. If your company’s like most, it’s advised employees who can work from home to do just that.

Many A/P departments use telecommuting as a perk for their staff, so you may already have clear remote work requirements outlined. If your team’s less familiar with working from home, make sure your A/P lead communicates how it works and what’s expected.

Remote AP Processing systems and solutions can help to provide AP departments with direct access to electronic invoices while providing remote users the ability to review and approve invoices from any device anywhere in the world. 

For example, do staffers have all the necessary access, connectivity (Internet) and equipment (scanner, printer) they need? Must they stick to normal business hours? Should they use specific digital tools/platforms to communicate with your team? What technologies are they permitted to use? Which brings us to …

2. Fraud concerns
​Working at home spurs more fraud threats. As mentioned recently, remote work is one of the top cybersecurity threats in 2020, since homes and public places aren’t as secure as corporate networks.

Scammers know that lots of people are working from home right now and are already devising scams to obtain private data and money. In fact, they’re using the coronavirus specifically as an email hook to get people to click (e.g., links promising updates and stats). So, remind your A/P staff to stay especially alert on the tech front.

A benefit of utilizing an online AP processing system is that there are checks, balances and controls that will identify potential fraudulent invoices from making their way into your payable process

3. Vendor management
​Looking at business more broadly, it’s clear that the coronavirus pandemic is having a huge impact on companies’ productivity, revenue and supply chain. Most are trying to maintain operations while protecting employees and customers.
​
That’s why it’s critical to make sure A/P Staff knows how your vendors are faring, if their normal ops are changing and how the payables process might be affected or interrupted. Also, make sure you’ve discussed your current strategy for paying vendors, since you may want A/P Staff to focus more on payment timing to be strategic with cash flow.

An accounts payable processing system can assist in these areas by providing A/P Staff the visibility and control they need in order to keep the payable process moving and your vendors up-to-date regarding the progress and status of their invoices. 

4. Employee communications 
Along with staffers and vendors, there are other employees in Finance and Purchasing who A/P may have to make a little extra effort to stay in the loop with right now. You could suggest scheduling routine conference calls to get status updates and discuss potential problems.
​
And AP processing aside, you’ll also want to keep communications open overall to ensure that cash flow is in sync with your ever changing business needs. 

This information is intended to provide basic helpful information and in no way intended to provide, diagnosis, represent any type of diagnosis or healthcare solutions to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic. 

For more information regarding our remote accounts payable processing solutions and services, please contact us directly. Our remote AP processing services and solutions are trusted by iconic brands like Welch’s and Yankee Candle and across all types of industries from manufacturing and retail to healthcare and high-tech.  Pease visit our website at www.Vision360Enterprise.com or contact us directly 603-437-1400.​

Portions of this article credited to the CFO Daily News. 

If you're still manually processing supplier invoices here's how they could flow through your payables process if you were using AP automation.

1. Your suppliers send their invoices directly to your online AP invoice automation system.
   
   
2. Invoices that need to be reviewed and approved are automatically sent to the correct person the first time, without you having to do anything.
   
   
3. Approvers are automatically notified and reminded about invoices needing approval, without you having to chase down the invoice or bug someone to get an invoice approved.
   
   
4. Invoices that have purchase orders are systematically matched against your PO's and receipts for 2 or 3-ways matching. Things like variances, tolerances, taxes and freights are processed based on your business rules.
   
   
5. Duplicate invoices and invoices from unapproved vendors are stopped and automatically sent to an exception queue for review.
   
   
6. Invoices that are approved, coded, matched and authorized for payment are sent to your ERP system without anyone entering a single keystroke. 
   
   
7. Your top suppliers are notified automatically about the status of their invoices without having to pick up the phone and calling your AP staff.
   
   
8. The entire AP process is managed, secured and controlled right from your AP Dashboard which is sitting right in front of you on your computer screen.
   
   
9. You can see and touch every single invoice regardless of where it is and who has it - because now you're in control of your payables process. 
   
   
10. All of this, plus, the reports, statistics, KPI's and analytics you can imagine instantly available  so that  you always know exactly how efficient your AP department is operating.

Read more about the steps to making this happen, "Steps to AP Automation" or read our latest blog post, "AP Automation has something for everyone!" 

If you would like to see Accounts Payable Automation live and in action let us know and we'll schedule a day and time that is convenient for you and your team.

Today's CFO faces never ending pressures to grow revenues, ensure financial controls and reduce operational costs across the enterprise. This is no easy task for any CFO, who has to deal with things like economic uncertainty, increased regulatory requirements and increased scrutiny from investors. 

CFO's have a few diverse and challenging roles, Steward, Operator, Strategist and Catalyst. The traditional role require CFO's to preserve the assets of the organization by minimizing risk and getting the books right and running a tight finance operation that is efficient and effective. 

It's increasingly important for CFO's to be strategists, helping to shape the overall strategy and direction, instilling a financial approach and mindset throughout the organization to help all parts of the business to perform at a high level.

As Strategist, CFO's help influence the future direction of the company by taking a seat at the strategy planning table. CFO's are vital in providing financial leadership and aligning business needs and financial strategies to grow the business.

As Catalyst, CFO's can drive the execution of change within an organization. CFO's are in a position that allows them to drive business improvement initiatives such as enterprise process improvements, cost reductions, and innovations that add value to the business and affect the bottomline.

As Operator, CFO's have to operate an effective and efficient finance team that provide many different financial functions to the organization such as treasury, tax, sales, planning, analysis, accounts receivable and accounts payable. 

As Steward, CFO's work to protect the vital assets of the company, ensure compliance with financial regulations, close the books accurately and communicate value and risks to investors and boards.

With all of the challenges faced by today's CFO how can Accounts Payable Automation help? By leveraging current AP Automation technologies, finance departments operate at a much higher efficiency level, with lower overall operational costs than those finance teams relying on manual processes. 

The CFO can now be assured that financial rules, policies and procedures are being enforced by the AP Automation technology. This ensures that proper protections are in place, segregation of duties are enforced and compliance requirements are met. 

Since today's AP Automation solutions provide an extremely high-level of efficiency gains, finance departments are no longer burdened by time-consuming, error-prone, manual tasks and can now focus on financial tasks that will help CFO's to manage cash flow, monitor liabilities and make more effective business decision regarding the future growth and bottomline of the company. 

Vision360 Enterprise, by BlueCreek Software is one of the fastest growing AP Automation solution providers on the market. Our services and solutions are trusted by iconic brands like Welch’s and Yankee Candle and across all types of industries from manufacturing and retail to healthcare and high-tech. For more information about Vision360 Enterprise or any of our services and solutions please visit our website at www.Vision360Enterprise.com or contact us directly 603-437-1400.