Supplier Invoice Management: Benefits of Automation

Why automate supplier invoice management

When an automated Accounts Payable management strategy is undertaken, the benefits of the strategy are soon noticed:

· Invoice control and traceability: An automated invoice flow not only prevents documents from being lost or duplicates produced, but it also allows payments to be made within the established deadlines, automatically raising alarm bells that a penalty may be incurred for a delay. This increased internal control of invoices also allows for a better classification of information, simplifying its sharing when necessary.

· Reduce document errors: Most management errors are caused by manual intervention, whose effectiveness is sometimes diminished by the workload of this type of repetitive tasks. By automating invoice management, this error rate is drastically reduced by up to 99%, while reflecting the entire history of the procedure, simplifying the carrying out of any audit.

· Faster invoice management. To talk about faster and more efficient supplier invoice management is to talk about a drastic improvement in the Finance department. Automation can reduce invoice management time by up to five days, thus favoring cash flow.

· Better budget planning. As was advanced in the previous point, thanks to the automation of the billing process, the Finance area has more tools to manage and plan its budgets. The vision obtained from the expenses is 360º, with a complete picture of the entire life cycle of Accounts Payable, favoring better analytics and decision-making based on data that allows better negotiation with suppliers. In essence, a much more strategic relationship with them is favored.

· Reduction in paper use. We are fully entering the era of Paperless, that is, a significant reduction in the use of paper, with what this entails in terms of associated costs and environmental protection. Having automated accounts payable management has been extremely useful during the pandemic, when there were months of lockdown in which only teleworking was possible, accessing bills from anywhere and on any device.

· Regulatory compliance. The activity of many companies is regulated in a very exhaustive manner, with very strong deadlines and conditions. Having the flow of invoices to automated suppliers facilitates compliance with these regulations, setting it in the business rules on which automation is based.

· Reducing costs and generating value. The reduction of payment deadlines and a better starting situation for negotiating prices with suppliers, the elimination of penalties for defaults or delays, the lower consumption of paper... these are benefits that directly target the company's accounts, allowing significant cost savings to be enjoyed. As if that weren't enough, downloading the templates for these tedious tasks, while improving the employee experience, also opens the door to dealing with tasks that bring greater added value to the organization.

What is Accounts Payable automation

The Accounts Payable automation process can be structured in five fundamental phases:

· Order request. This is the first step, that is, to make the purchase. The first thing to do is to know if you have enough budget and, if you have one, compare different offers (unless you already have a regular supplier). It is then and not before that the operation materializes. During the meeting and depending on the volume, deadlines, discounts, advantageous conditions for prompt payment, etc. are negotiated with the supplier.

· Product/service validation. Once the product arrives or the service is provided, the company must validate that it complies with what has been agreed, both in terms of characteristics and delivery times, etc., something that can largely be done unattended. At this point, the invoice is obtained, which enters the system and, if everything previously negotiated is fulfilled, is approved.

· Record of the operation. Once the invoice has been approved, the next step is its registration and payment within the agreed deadline. Automating the flow allows these payments to be fulfilled and, in addition, to detect those invoices that have not completed the automated process, so that any incident can be resolved before entering into a conflict with a supplier.

· Data Collection and Use. When an invoice is paid, its processing does not end. The billing process results in a report that summarizes all the data of the invoice and the operation carried out, being archived in the Accounts Payable system or in the ERP to keep a historical record of payments for future inquiries or audits.

Why Adea is your partner for automating Accounts Payable

Adea has teams specialized in automating the management of supplier invoices. Su know-how allows you to design the best processes to gain efficiency, providing them with levels of automation on which the best practices acquired during more than two decades of experience are based.

Outsourcing the automation of supplier invoice management with Adea results in an optimization of flexibility and efficiency for organizations, as well as a reduction in costs as a result of the improvement of the entire life cycle of the process, from the time the order is placed until the entire operation is recorded in the company's history, all in accordance with existing regulations and dynamically adapting to changes that may occur in the company.