The Institute of Financial Operations & Leadership (IFOL) has revealed that enhancing operational efficiency and cost management are the top priority for over 60% of AP professionals. Facing economic uncertainty, the rise of AI, and the continued distribution of the workforce, optimizing processes has never been more important.
That's where AP automation comes in. A quick tour through some of the main benefits like efficiency, accuracy, cost savings, and fraud protection make it the clear choice for organizations looking to achieve AP success.
Make the most of your time
We all wish there were more hours in a day. While AP automation can't actually increase the time between dawn and dusk, it can empower your team to use their time more efficiently and reduce the amount wasted with manual processes.
Did you know? The average AP workflow drops from 80 hours to 41 hours per week with AP automation. That's more than 50% in time savings!
Quadient Accounts Payable by Beanworks makes your invoice approval and processing rate 9X faster; saving you 60-80% in processing costs and reducing the amount of time spent on invoice data entry by 83%.
Eliminate errors
A recent PYMTS study found that data entry errors take up about 17 hours per week. On the flip side, nearly 90% of organizations said that AP automation reduces that number. One of the main reasons why: artificial intelligence-enabled data capture.
Quadient AP's automation tool SmartCapture captures invoice data with 99% accuracy. Line Item Capture, another Quadient AP feature, goes one step further by extracting information like descriptions, unit cost, and quantities – meaning this information no longer needs to be entered manually. Taken together, these AI-enabled data capture tools speed up data entry, reduce the risk of errors and fraud, and accelerate the entire AP process.
Stop wasting money
Manually processing an invoice isn't just a waste of time; it's also a waste of money. Some organizations use a commonly accepted estimate that the cost of processing a single invoice equals 30 minutes of employee labor, providing a range of US$12 to US$35 per invoice. But depending on your organization's specific circumstance, the cost could be even higher.
Calculate how much your manual invoice workflow is costing you with the Quadient AP ROI calculator.
Organizations that use AP automation have an average cost per invoice of $5 or less. That's a saving of $13 per invoice. For companies processing 500 invoices per month, that's an annual saving of $78,000 — not a number to be sniffed at in today's cash poor economy!
Unite your distributed workforce
As today's workforce becomes more and more distributed, finding ways to be collaborative and communicative when relying on manual processes is tough. You need a solution that allows your team to work together and access vital data from any location.
Quadient AP's cloud-based solution enables everyone with a stake in the AP process to simultaneously review payables at any stage in the workflow, add comments, seek clarification, or explain discrepancies, with a single click.
24/7 fraud protection
Fraud is an evergreen concern in the world of finance. In fact, More than half of large companies experience some sort of invoice-related fraud every year! But you can rest a little easier if you use AP automation to manage your business' finances.
Quadient AP automatically flags duplicate invoices and introduces enhanced financial controls, while providing protection from things like phishing scams, falsified expenses, and payments to unapproved vendors. Custom workflows also reduce the risk of fraud by allowing you to separate responsibilities; avoiding conflicts of interest and ensuring accurate oversight.
Audits made easy
Performing an audit shouldn't be so painful. The lack of centralized information and the siloed systems, particularly if significant amounts of data are being stored in physical files, can make access difficult — and make a complex process much harder than it needs to be.
Quadient AP's electronic invoicing simplifies the audit process through digital storage, allowing you to search for invoices by vendor, GL code, amount, legal entity, or any other information on the document. You can also access the complete workflow history of an invoice, gaining insight into the approval steps taken, comments, and dates for when specific actions took place.
One size doesn't fit all
The needs of your company are unique. A one-size-fits-all solution to payables may be of some use, but it won't help you to optimize your efficiency or better engage your workforce. For that, you need a customized solution tailored to the specifics of your organization.
Quadient's AP automation solution is customizable for what you need to empower your AP team to be at their best. For example:
- You can create unique workflows that let you route POs, invoices, and payments to the appropriate team member.
- You can set specific budgetary controls for your needs, based on department, vendor, or project.
- You can access real-time reporting to take control of spend and accruals.
It's time to automate
Quadient AP gives your team end-to-end visibility into your entire AP workflow. That means no more time wasted looking for invoices or scrambling to make payments, no more lost opportunities for advanced payments and vendor discounts, and enhanced protection from fraud.
What are you waiting for?
Schedule a demo today and start taking advantage of all the great opportunities that AP automation offers.
