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5 signs your AP processes might be outdated

Challenges in recent years have taught us the importance of technology and highlighted the fragility of businesses. In fact, many businesses are still playing catch up from the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

One key area that could be damaging your business is accounts payable (AP). AP is a multi-step process and many of these processes could be outdated and damaging your business. How do you know if your processes are outdated? Let’s go through the five biggest signs and explore what you can do about it.

Signs your AP processes out-of-date

1.You are manually coding data

Not only is manually coding data incredibly arduous and time consuming, but it is also error prone which can have costly consequences. 

2.You are still using paper

In 2023 we really needn’t be using so much paper – paper invoices can be misplaced or lost, sensitive data can be compromised, and it can take a long time to find what you’re looking for. Plus, did you know it costs on average £11 to process a paper invoice? The cost is even higher when you factor in manual data entry, printing, and storage costs.

3.Late payments

Paying your invoices late consistency is a sure-fire sign that your AP processes aren’t working out, and can have knock on effects such as penalties, poor supplier relationships and less flexibility to negotiate terms resulting in higher supply costs.

4.You have to chase approvers

Do you feel as though you spend most of your time chasing approvers for invoice approval? Often approvers have a pile of invoices sitting on their desk waiting to be approved which can be challenging for all involved and leave AP personnel needing to make awkward excuses to suppliers.

5.It can take weeks or even months to analyse data

With manual AP processes it can take weeks, and sometimes months to thoroughly analyse your supplier payable data to give you a true picture of which invoices have been paid, versus how much money is coming into the business.

How can you improve your AP processes?

Have you gone through the above list and found yourself alarmed at how many you have ticked? The solution is simple! Automating your AP processes with a robust AP automation solution can be quicker, reduce errors, provide real-time data analysis, and improve approval times and will bring your AP processes up to speed in 2023. 

Some of the key features and benefits of Opera 3 SQL SE AP Automation are as follows:

• Saves time and drives productivity gains of between 65% and 95% depending on how many invoices are processed.
• Includes line level data extraction.
• Invoice capture in many languages, currencies and amounts.
• PDF, doc/docx, xls/xlsx, htm/html, xt, tif/tiff plus many other file types accepted.
• Reduce invoice approval time by 50%. Automated email notification to approvers and reminders to speed up the process.
• Comprehensive reporting and dashboards provide drilldown to specific suppliers and their invoices to highlight the status of each invoice.
• Provides visibility over every invoice throughout every stage of its lifecycle.
• “Defaulting” capabilities for Ledger coding to reduce repetitive processes.
• Ledger coding is simple to automate by supplier, specific invoices and for each and every line of the invoice.
• Eliminates duplicate invoices.
• Reduces the risk of fraud.
• Improve supplier relationships with faster payments.
• Fixed price per invoice with no additional charges for number of invoice pages, currency or language.

Next steps…

For more information about Opera 3 SQL SE AP Automation please contact us today to arrange a demo and see it in action. 

Posted On: July 05, 2023