Boost efficiencies by syncing Sage with Accounts Payable automation

It’s pretty straightforward: efficiency contributes to profitability. Getting more done with less effort is essential to a healthy bottom line.

A paper-based accounts payable process can consume valuable bandwidth and resources, because it’s expensive to perform repetitive, manual tasks. Automating these mundane tasks can help a company realize immediate savings, reduce errors caused by manual data entry, and mitigate exposure to invoice fraud. Automation is a huge driver of efficiency.

This is why 86% of CFOs view digitization of finance processes as key to their company’s success. 

Read on to learn how combining Accounts Payable automation with your Sage solution can deliver numerous benefits to your organization. 

Technology investment attracts (and retains) top talent

Did you know technology can help you with human resources? Industry research reveals almost 60% of employees identify tools and technology as very important to them when evaluating job opportunities. Employees want to be effective, to contribute meaningfully, and get the job done efficiently. 

How does integrating AP automation help staff be the best they can be?

Research indicates that 56% of an AP professional’s time is spent on data entry. Like hiring a personal assistant, automation makes life much easier for these busy professionals. When the machines do the drudge work, your staff can focus on more meaningful tasks. 

Learn more about AP automation for Sage users in our free webinar on July 19.

Integration eliminates mundane work and costly paperwork

Time savings and increased efficiency are clear benefits of automated AP. Research also shows that the time savings achieved by AP automation ranges from 70 to 80%.

Forget keystrokes. The days of manually entering data from invoices is over. Sage AP Automation automatically imports all the information you need — such as vendor, GL account, item, warehouse, and unit of measure — to make quick work of creating an AP invoice or purchase order. 

Sage AP Automation saves your team from time-wasting (and error-prone) tasks while providing a higher level of oversight to your entire AP process. Your team can track, in real time, every stage as an invoice travels from purchase order, through coding, to approvals and, finally, to payments.

The system learns as it goes — with SmartCoding technology, your frequent GL coding automatically populates for recurring invoices. With the average cost of correcting an invoice estimated at $53.50, accuracy is good for your business.

Read more about how to empower your accounting team by integrating automated AP into your Sage solution

AP automation provides the following benefits: 

• Purchase order matching. Invoices are automatically cross-referenced with their POs and receipts — this validation helps eliminate fraudulent or duplicate payments.
• Automated data entry. Import any list required — including POs — to create an AP invoice.
• Approval routing. Customize approval routing to ensure only the people who need to sign off are included, thus avoiding bottlenecks. Approvals can be made remotely. 
• Multi-entity view. One central, customized dashboard presents all your accounts payable information in one place, increasing visibility at all stages and making reporting a snap. 
• Modular solutions. Your accounting team can pick and choose the solutions that fit best with their needs and processes.

For a deeper dive into the benefits of AP automation, read our blog. 

Faster workflows increase impact at busy organization

For United Way British Columbia, integrating AP automation allowed them to move quickly in areas that mattered most. 

“UWBC is a leader in social impact in our communities and [AP automation] allows us to do that much more effectively and more efficiently,” says Kim Winchell, Director of Community Impact & Investment.

“We would be spending 50% more of our time on manual processes. We wouldn't be able to get funds quickly to those that need it, so our non-profits would have to wait one to two weeks, and when we have people who have lost their homes, that’s just not acceptable.”

For UWBC, speed is critical. AP automation helps them turn donations into action faster, so they can deploy critical support to more people when they need it.

Read more about how Sage AP Automation integrates with Sage software. 

Seamless integration with your Sage ERP 

As you’ve read, the ease of integrating Sage AP Automation with your Sage ERP solution creates many advantages. Connecting only takes a few minutes. After set-up is complete, automatic synchronization can be set to occur whenever you want. It’s also possible to initiate syncing at any time, at the click of a button. 

Ready, set… go!

For businesses looking to move ahead of the pack, it should be clear that integrating AI technology backed by machine learning (ML) is no longer a ‘wish’ — it’s a reality. One that’s easy to achieve and provides tangible advantages — from cost savings to employee retention to vendor satisfaction, and more. There’s no time like the present to embrace the future — and take the lead. 

Learn more about AP automation for Sage users in our free webinar on July 19.