The Case for Accounts Payable Automation
Sun Oct 30, 2016 | Genesis Technologies
If you process more than 500 AP invoices per month, imagine what you could gain with a workflow automation solution that pays for itself.
This blog post outlines the business case for our AP Invoice Automation solution. Just plug in your numbers or contact us and we can estimate them for you.
AP Invoice Processing Costs
The first step in building your business case is to estimate costs associated with the following:
- How much time it takes to manually GL code invoices with data entry by your staff
- How much additional time it will take if your invoice volume is increasing
- How much time it takes to manually route invoices for approval: both paper and email PDFs, and what happens when someone is on vacation or doesn't manage their email efficiently
- How many early payment discounts are missed and the total dollar amount lost
- How long it takes to search and retrieve invoices when there are questions, issues and audits
- How many times an invoice has been paid more than once
- How much office space is consumed by filing cabinets
- How much you pay for offsite storage and if you're paying for documents that have exceeded their required retention schedule
- How much you pay for shredding large volumes of files
How AP Invoice Automation Works
Our AP Invoice Automation solution starts with scanning paper invoices so they can be electronically routed and quickly retrieved later.
With optical character recognition (OCR), the majority of data entry is eliminated because line items for each invoice can be automatically extracted and populated directly into Microsoft Dynamics GP or whatever accounting software / ERP system you use.
Once scanned, workflow automatically routes each invoice based on pre-configured business rules with automated reminders to ensure they are approved and processed on time so you can capture early payment discounts and prevent paying the same invoice twice.
When the auditors come, they can be given access so they can search and retrieve invoices and other documentation themselves, and nothing needs to be stored onsite or offsite again. Once documents reach the end of their retention period, they are automatically deleted by software instead of having to be shredded.
ROI & Payback Period
Based on the following savings, the Genesis AP Invoice Automation typically pays for itself in 6-18 months:
- Productivity gains from minimizing data entry
- Not having to hire additional staff to process increasing invoice volumes
- Reducing the time needed for audits (your staff and theirs)
- Being able to capture early payment discounts
- Never paying an invoice twice again
- Reclaiming office space
- Not having to store paperwork offsite
- Not having to shred invoice backfiles
- Never losing your invoice backfile to a flood or fire
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