The AP function plays a
key role within an organization’s financial operation. The process
can impact accounts payable software working capital, the efficiency and cost of the
procure-to-pay process, and relationships with strategic vendors.
Manual process decreases AP performance, resulting in high processing
costs, missed early payment discounts, late payment fees and so
forth. In order to transform AP team from the manual processing to an
automated high-performance one, organizations require various steps
that address process, labor and technology requirements. Here we
explain how organizations can achieve AP transformation.
In the very first step of
the transformation process, organizations should centralize the
receipt of invoices and convert them into ERP formatted data. This
immediately impacts cycle time, supplier inquires, invoice processing
cost and time. It creates a basis for process automation and labor
optimization downstream. Once the invoice intake is strongly laid
down, they should focus on minimizing labor cost in processing-
approval, reporting, vendor inquires, discrepancy resolution,
compliance and so forth. It can be minimized by moving some of the
matching, discrepancy and vendor workload in-advance so that invoices
can be validated and accepted/rejected before entering the workflow,
thus reducing workload.
Discrepancy resolution
and approval workflow should be automated. Invoices should be
processed from receipt-release-payment without human intervention.
Organizations need to implement a robust system that works for all
invoices- PO, non PO, travel and expense, across all ERPs. The
invoice processing system should easily integrate with various
applications it needs to interface. It should offer line item
matching, easy-to-customize workflow, spend analytics, vendor
portals, and mobile approval capabilities. A best-in-class accounts payable software solution provides all these capabilities that can
dramatically transform your AP process.
