AP Automation: The Secret Weapon of the Controller

The controllers of today must be able to hand off the auditing and invoice management tasks in order to make more time for long term planning and goal setting. In fact, one survey suggests that of 800 controllers interviewed, 70% admit to spending their time on daily tactical activities (like paying invoices) while only 30% spend their time on proactive planning. But, what if controllers had reliable tools that could take over the nitty gritty day-to-day tasks such as invoice auditing and number crunching? While the tactical work can be done by anyone (or anything), strategic planning requires the controller’s expertise and scope of knowledge. Implementing digital tools will allow controllers more opportunity to analyze and design long term financial plans and serve as a partner to the CFO.

AP Automation tools are a controller’s secret weapon, they shift the balance of duties from tactical to strategic in three specific ways: 

1. Offload invoice collection and data entry

Outsourcing invoice reconciliation services encompases everything from managing data collection to auditing and reconciliation. Outsourcing is a mountainous task typically completed by AP teams and controllers, ultimately costing ample time and money. 

The benefits of outsourcing data collection, invoice auditing, and reconciliation to an experienced company or specialized tool include: 

• Relief from manual processes;
• Saved time - expedited auditing over a shorter period of time
• Fewer errors thanks to state of the art technology
• More human energy spent on creating long term solutions and financial processes 

2. Centralize AP and provide a structure everyone can count on

Centralizing all AP activity to one reliable system ensures that approvers, managers and department heads have access to a single story for all received invoices and payments made. This can help put an end to lost or unaudited invoices and ensure clarity on all invoices received. 

3. Empowering the people

Giving AP personnel the opportunity to put their creativity toward long term planning as opposed to tedious auditing, number crunching, and vendor inquiries will be empowering and beneficial to all companies. Outsourcing invoice auditing will free up the time of AP teams and allow projects to be executed faster and more efficiently than ever before. 

With these things in place, controllers can now have access to reliable, accurate invoices and data; have a full picture of company cash flow on one system when it's time to adjust budgets; and redefine the duties of AP teams in order to best fit the needs of the company. 

By investing in OpenEnvoy, you put another layer of control in your system and process to protect your company and its financial assets. Explore how OpenEnvoy can help your team reap the benefits of saving time and money through automating invoice auditing.  Checkout https://openenvoy.com and make sure to connect with an expert.