5 signs your NetSuite ERP needs a helping hand to optimize accounts payable

NetSuite is one of the most effective financial management tools on the market, providing your accounts payable (AP) team with valuable capabilities. Whether you want to create and track purchase orders or keep your vendor records in check, the ERP can make these tasks simpler.

But it can't do everything. And if you're an AP professional relying solely on NetSuite to manage your financial processes, you may face several common challenges. If these AP problems sound familiar, it could be a sign that your NetSuite ERP needs a helping hand.

Your team spends a significant amount of time managing data entry

"Our AP clerk was spending 30-40% of their time doing data entry and keying in invoices. The whole process was time-consuming."

Dean Olevson, Director of Finance, Radisson Blu Minneapolis Downtown

The problem Radisson Blu faced is a common one for teams that rely solely on their NetSuite ERP to manage payables. When an invoice is received, it must be entered into the system by hand. Not only is this a time-consuming process up front, but it's prone to errors. Data entry errors are usually not detected until further down the line, when an AP professional must track down the error and correct it.

How automation lends a helping hand

90% of organizations state that AP automation drastically reduces time spent correcting data errors.

By integrating with your ERP, AP automation software eliminates manual data entry. When an invoice is received, the software uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, immediately capturing header and line-item details with up to 99% accuracy.

Your team wastes hours or days chasing down approvals

"...there was no way to see if the invoices and purchase orders had received the proper level of review and approval. We had to document that through emails. There was a lot of back and forth – it was not ideal."

Jose Breton, CAO, Brickell Biotech

Approvals can be one of the biggest bottlenecks in the accounts payable process, and this is especially true for teams that rely solely on their NetSuite ERP for AP management.

Invoices often move through informal channels, being delivered to approvers in paper form or via emails. These methods lack visibility and cannot be tracked, which makes it difficult to determine the status of an invoice and leads to documents slipping through the cracks. This problem is even greater for growing organizations, as the process becomes increasingly more difficult to manage as more invoices enter the mix.

This is more than just an inconvenience. When invoices slip through the cracks, you risk late payments. That can lead to fees, penalties, and even supply chain disruption. It also strains relationships with your vendors.

How automation lends a helping hand

With automated approval workflows, organizations gain real-time visibility into the status of every invoice. After an invoice is received, it's automatically routed to the appropriate approver, based on your organization's set process. Regular reminders are sent until approval is granted, ensuring that invoices are not forgotten about or neglected. Customizable rules also mean that you can set conditions, such as requiring multiple approvers for an invoice over a certain amount, or contingency plans for when an approver is out of the office.

Your team struggles with process transparency

"If vendors are asking about an invoice... I have no proof if it's in a filing system that made it into a box in the storage unit."

Tessa Leverett, Staff Accountant, Arizona Country Club

Without a centralized, cloud-based system to manage your accounts payable data, it can be difficult to determine where a PO is in the AP process. On top of this, there's no clear trail for future audit or reference. Data may be stored in various systems, such as spreadsheets, or even in a physical space if your company is still reliant on paper-based processes.

Not only is this a problem come audit season, but it means you have no clear picture of your outgoing cash, making it difficult to cash plan.

How automation lends a helping hand

AP automation software eliminates this issue by integrating with your ERP and providing you with real-time, cloud-based data. This data enables management and authorized members of the accounts payable team to see the status of every invoice at every step of the journey.

All data is visible via a single dashboard, that consolidates data from the rest of your tech stack. This means you no longer must navigate between different systems to view your vital information. On top of this, customized reports can quickly be created based on the KPIs that matter most to your organization, and invoices can be easily searched by GL code, vendor, legal entity, or amount.

Your team is challenged by expense management

"Every week, our restaurants would send in packages of all of their receipts and expense forms. I'd come back from a long weekend and just want to cry because there'd just be piles on my desk."

Michael Hood, Procurement Manager, Kitchen Table Group

Expense management is one of the most important accounts payable activities, but it can be inefficient if you rely on your ERP alone. Receipts and documentation must be collected and stored, forcing your team to navigate between spreadsheets and even paper files. Employees end up spending hours combing through reports to identify errors and hunt down missing information.

A whopping 19% of expense reports contain errors, and every error adds 18 minutes of work to correct.

The process is also vulnerable to duplicate expense claims and intentional fraud. Without sufficient oversight and control, out-of-policy claims, fake receipts, and inflated costs are all too easy to miss, costing your company money.

How automation lends a helping hand

AP automation reduces paper clutter, slashes the time spent processing claims, and cuts down the risk of errors and fraud. Employees gain the ability to upload receipts and claims remotely, simplifying their process and ensuring details are entered and tracked in a digital system.

Cloud-based storage means no more sorting through paper receipts or navigating between spreadsheets as expenses are verified and approved. And AI and machine learning capabilities are leveraged to scan the expenses, identifying irregularities or signs of fraud.

Tasks like gathering expenses, entering them into a spreadsheet, printing, signing and submitting are all handled with a few clicks of a button. Automatic general ledger (GL) coding allows employees to specify expense type, based on the company's existing categories, streamlining the review and approval process as well.

You are spending too much to process invoices

Without AP automation software, companies are forced to rely on manual processes. That's not only an inefficient use of time, but it's also a waste of money. Let's look at the numbers.

A generally accepted estimate states that the cost of manually processing an invoice is equivalent to 30 minutes of employee labor. That puts the per invoice cost at somewhere between $12 and $35, depending on where you are located and your labor costs. Now, imagine that number multiplied by the number of invoices your company processes on a weekly or monthly basis. The cost quickly adds up!

It's an expense that businesses can't afford, especially as issues like economic uncertainty continue to be a concern.

How automation lends a helping hand

By eliminating data entry, streamlining the approval process, and automating processes like PO matching and payments, AP automation software drastically reduces the amount of time and labor spent on invoices. That translates directly into savings.

Let's say that the average manually processed invoice costs $15 — a little higher than the $12 estimate used above, but significantly lower than the $35 top end. By automating the process, teams reduce their processing costs to $5 or less. That's a savings of at least 66.6%! And that doesn't even factor in potential costs such as late fees or fraud that often accompanies manual payables.

Elevate your ERP with AP Automation

Whether it's by eliminating data entry, streamlining the approval process, simplifying expense management, or providing your team with unparalleled data visibility, AP automation helps you to elevate your payables process.