Accounts Payable Process Automation and its Top Benefits

Using outdated software and processes in your accounting process can slow the entire process down — but accounts payable automation can be a huge help.

It makes the accounting process much quicker and more efficient. In other words, you can go ahead and automate purchase orders, supplier invoices, accounting, and approval.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss in-depth what accounts payable process automation means, what it looks like, and how it can help your business.

What is Accounts Payable Automation?

Any tool, process, or software that removes the manual aspect of accounts payable and automates the process falls under the category of accounts payable automation.

Instead of having to physically drop orders and invoices, you can now take care of the entire process digitally. Data entry can be completely removed from the question since some of these tools have the ability to scan the documents and extract information all by themselves.

This is achieved through Optical Character Recognition and is the first step in the automation process. The character recognition step is followed by routing, coding, reviewing, and approving invoices.

In an ideal situation, you would be able to take care of the entire accounting process without the interference of manual labor.

The entire P2P process is taken care of when it is automated, and you no longer have to deal with unorganized invoices and remembering your payment dates. If you’d like to learn more about the automation process for invoices and receipts, click here.

Benefits of Automation

Now that you have an idea of what the process of the accounts automation process looks like, let’s understand all the benefits of moving away from manual accounting.

Time Saved

Earlier, you would have to constantly check the invoice and enter data manually, which is slow, repetitive, and inefficient. When the entire process is automated, a ton of time is saved since the accounting is almost instantaneous.

Fewer Errors

When data entry is performed manually, there is always the scope of human error. However, this is completely removed when the accounting is done by software that is optimized for such a process. Through the OCR process, the invoices and receipts are scanned thoroughly and the risk of mistakes is little to none.

Improved Accessibility

If you had to make the documents manually, you would have to go through the tiring task of ensuring that the paper is acquired, printed, and placed properly. However, this hassle does not have to be involved when it is done online. All you need is a stable internet connection to go ahead and create a professional document.

On the other hand, all your teams get access to the purchase orders and invoices that need to be completed which improves efficiency and transparency throughout the organization. Teams no longer have to stall their work to wait for resources, and they can coordinate with the other parts of the company much more smoothly.

Lower Costs

Hiring and training someone to manually enter data, the cost of ink and paper, and filing the invoices is a costly and hectic process. But you don’t have to go through this at all. Using a cloud-based solution to take care of your business accounts, you can store all your invoices online and manage them much more efficiently than maintaining them physically.

In the long run, you are looking at a much-reduced cost of operation by subscribing to an online accounts payable system.

Reduces Workload for the Teams

Having to create and manage physical purchase orders is an unnecessary burden on your team and only reduces their productivity. By automating the process, you can increase the efficiency of your employees and make work much smoother for them so that they can devote their time to the issues that really matter.

Final Thoughts

Regardless of whether or not you’re a small business or large, you should consider an account payable process automation since it is the more modern, cost-efficient, and accessible solution for your business. Overall, you are looking at a great long-term solution for basic business problems at a decreased cost.

If you’d like to take a test run of what it is like to use such an automation tool and how it benefits your business operation, click here.

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Sarah Murphy

Sarah is a Content Manager for Mesh Payments. Before working in marketing, she completed her Master of Journalism degree at Toronto Metropolitan University (f.k.a. Ryerson University) and worked as an arts journalist in Toronto. She was a content writer for tech companies in the retail and workforce management sectors before joining Mesh in 2022.