Ap Document Management Software Avoids Three Common Cash Leaks

Accounts Payable (AP) is a document-driven process. Some invoices are simple, some complex. Some arrive electronically, others through fax machines or the postal service. Despite ERP efficiencies, the manual AP document processes necessary to support ERP data extend cycle times and increase risk of error. Paper processing and approval, duplicate data entry, and lack of effective collaboration often result in missed discounts, late-payment penalties, and inaccurate accruals. Document management software can help.

Staying strategic and lean in AP can be critical to the financial health of an organization during both busy and slow periods. Every discount must be found and every penalty avoided. Organizations look to improve AP processes in slow times in order to prepare for higher activity when productivity is up and payments to suppliers increase.

The Challenges
When organizations need to optimize AP, they face inefficiencies in three major areas:

-Slow approval and payment cycles, which result in missed discounts and late payment penalties.
-Low visibility resulting from data and documents being stored in separate systems and locations.
-Fixed costs - paper, duplicate data entry, storage, shipping - don't add value.

The Solution
Document management software solutions for AP enable organizations to capitalize on methods that eliminate unnecessary costs and add value.

Automate AP Processes with Imaging and Workflow. Leave No Discount on the Table. Imaging allows you to electronically capture paper AP documents as soon as they come into the organization, making them immediately available for processing. No more waiting on interoffice mail for accruals decisions or exceptions resolutions that require supporting documents. Document management software's Workflows automate workload distribution, reviews, and approvals. AP departments process more documents in less time, without custom programming.

-Eliminate stalled invoices and automate document routing.
-Easily perform and augment three-way matching, including exceptions resolution.
-Seize all vendor discounts, improve vendor relationships, and increase favorable terms.

Unite the Data in your ERP Systems Quickly and Cost Effectively. Stop Duplicate Work.
Lack of system integration leads to duplicate data entry and wasted search time. It also increases the risk of errors and adds excessive time to AP cycles. Even so, unification initiatives often stall due to the high cost of custom coding, infrastructure, and ongoing IT maintenance. It doesn't have to be that way. With document management software solutions for AP:

-Eliminate redundant data entry and turn hundreds of hours of mundane tasks into automatic system operations with integrated document management and workflow. Premises-based, SaaS, or hosted offerings extend flexibility without custom coding.
-Easily share data among systems and auto-index documents upon receipt to optimize downstream forecasting and strategic planning with real-time reporting.
-Extend the reach and investment of your ERP. Trigger AP workflows as soon as a document is scanned or electronically imported into your ERP or document management software.

Get Rid of Paper in AP. Replace it With Electronic Document Agility.
Paper gets lost. It's also expensive to buy, store, ship, and manage separately from the data it supports in line-of-business systems. When invoices and other documents are captured electronically upon receipt to the organization, those costs are eliminated and the documents have more value. They can be placed where users intuitively expect to find them - such as in ERP transaction, financial reporting or asset management screens - saving time and resources:

-Instantly track document history and status, including who has seen it and decisions or approvals.
-Resolve vendor disputes instantly with supporting documents at users' fingertips; including purchase orders, invoices, and packing slips.
-Replace costly, error-prone paper processes with automated records management.


Why Document Management Software?
With document management software solutions for AP, you can eliminate the bottlenecks that add time, cost and risk to AP. Process automation with electronic document management allows you to process more documents in less time.

-Collect every early pay discount available and eliminate late payment penalties.
-Manage volume increases without additional labor by automating routine tasks.
-Automate AP processes with dynamic accrual monitoring that ties to your ERP.
-Know where you stand. Get ERP data with the documents to back it, instantly.

Contact your local document management company for more information about how document software can benefit AP.