As the old adage goes, time is money—and far too many small and medium businesses are spending a lot of time (and therefore money) on a cumbersome accounts payable (AP) process.
Think back on your month. Have you or anyone in your business spent hours searching for missing invoices, cleaning up out-of-date books, or chasing signatures and approvals? If so, it may be time to automate your AP processes.
Let’s first look at an example of how automating AP with a proven cloud-based solution can make business processes more efficient.
Example: accounts payable automation with BILL
Hundreds of thousands of businesses trust BILL (formerly Bill.com) solutions to manage their financial workflows, including payables, receivables, and spend and expense management.
As detailed in our recent “Accounts Payable Automation” webinar, we recommend BILL to many clients because it enables a simple, secure, four-step AP process:
- Capture: Send bills via email, upload, and drag and drop.
- Approve: View and approve bills online from any device.
- Pay: Choose one of multiple payment options.
- Reconcile: It’s all integrated, with a built-in audit trail.
All you have to do is create bills and enter them into the system—then you can move on to other tasks since the payments are sent automatically and securely. If bills require approval, you don’t have to search for them; instead, you simply enter approvers into your account, and they’re automatically notified when they need to review a payment.
Security benefits of accounts payable automation
A further benefit of automated AP solutions is that they offer added security and privacy, with features like advanced data encryption and digital payments that keep account and routing information private. In addition, automated AP solutions use paperless payment methods that provide added security. There’s always an audit trail, and separation of duties is built in with defined by user roles.
Just make sure that whichever automated AP solution you choose will sync with your accounting software to reconcile payments with full remittance details and an audit trail.
Need advice or support?
Insero & Co. is here to help, whether you want advice on switching to an automated accounts payable solution or are considering outsourcing some or all of your accounting functions. Our financial professionals have decades of experience working with nonprofits and businesses, and are available to help you find smart, efficient solutions to your accounting challenges.
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About the Author: Kimberly Gangi
