What if there was a way you could significantly reduce your invoice processing costs and boost invoice process cycle time so that it’s faster than 4 out of 5 of your peers?

It can be done. And it’s not smoke and mirrors.

The secret: Greatly reduce the amount of paperwork involved in the Accounts Payable process. Paper opens the door to a host of errors, according to a recent AberdeenGroup report. When staffers have to punch in data by hand and manually match invoice information, you can expect high error rates and increased costs.

The more invoices you receive (and process) electronically, the fewer your opportunities for errors. This process of electronic payment capability is commonly known as e-payables when referring to Accounts Payable processes.

Employing e-payables can increase the efficiency of:

• invoice receipt and handling
• reconciliation and approvals
• disbursement scheduling
• settlement, including confirmation and reporting, and
• internal and external service support

 Bottom line: Companies that streamlined the A/P process by doing away with most paper in favor of automation showed they could reduce the costs of processing invoices from receipt until the bill’s paid. At the same time, those companies reduced the amount of time it took for the same invoice-to-payment function.

Tags: Accounts Payable, automation, invoice