Invoice Reconciliation and the Future of Accounts Payable Automation

As you start scaling your company and finance team, what can you do to improve your accounting processes at a lower cost? Luckily, technology has begun to evolve to tackle these issues that are time-consuming for your team. Accounts payable automation software is the best (and possibly only) way to affordably scale your finance team regardless of your growth or the number of invoices processed. Here are some of the ways software is addressing the major concerns of today’s accounts payable teams.

1. Prevent invoice fraud

One of the issues to be addressed is fraud, which lurks in places you wouldn’t expect, like your very own invoices. According to OpenEnvoy, a fintech startup providing automated invoice auditing, 30% or more of your invoices could have unfavorable accuracy errors. Throwing people power and resources at the issue can prove to be extremely costly. By automating the process of checking invoices to their originating documents, OpenEnvoy helps your company eliminate AP fraud and overcome careless vendor invoice practices. The software automatically detects any invoice total or line item that doesn’t match the purchase order or estimate it was billed against down to the penny and immediately notifies you, adding money to your bottom line and giving you more control over your cash flow.

2. Simplify B2B payments

Making payments at scale is expensive and challenging. AP automation software can automate your vendor transactions and customer invoice management. This technology enables you to reduce the tedious manual tasks within the accounts payable process, saving you money by eliminating the need for human intervention and extra vendor management while also reducing compliance risk. You can empower your accounts payable department with customized approval workflows and simple bulk processing that scales with your needs, whether you are paying 100 invoices or 10,000.

AP automation software such as Routable helps you get paid faster with tools like automated reminders, early payments, and flexible payment methods. You can track actions from your vendors and purchase orders, along with seeing real-time ledger notifications increasing problem visibility. It also easily integrates with your current automation system or ERP system to easily process any invoices you upload, whether using PDFs, scanned paper invoices, or you convert other types of vendor invoices. 

3. Remove manual processes

AP automation technologies can also streamline tedious, repetitive work that takes valuable time away from your team so they can focus on more critical items. In the example of invoice fraud, many financial leaders realize that inconsistencies hiding in their invoices are a goldmine, but the cost of hiring a team to discover them is just too high. In addition, these teams can be prone to the same kind of human error that caused issues in the first place. Sometimes larger companies end up outsourcing this discovery to consulting firms, while others end up outsourcing their entire auditing process to payment networks. Neither of these options are at all ideal for a company. AP automation tools like OpenEnvoy empower you to handle these audits in-house without all of the daunting manual labor.

There are similar issues facing AP departments in making payments. According to an IOFM study, AP departments “spend 84% of their time bogged down by a seemingly endless list of manual and semi-automated invoice processes, including data capture.” Because these processes take so long, they are often delayed payments, with AP teams scrambling to make them on-time and keep their vendors and vendors happy. On top of that, inconsistencies due to human error can further worsen these issues. By simplifying bill payments, automating data entry, and creating streamlined AP workflows with solutions like Routable, your team has more freedom to focus on what matters.

How OpenEnvoy + Routable can help

Together, AP automation technologies like OpenEnvoy and Routable allow financial teams to focus on their important, strategic projects rather than becoming bogged down by repetitive tasks. By implementing both types of automation, your team can become dramatically more scalable and specialize in areas that make a significant impact while improving your audit trail for compliance. Use OpenEnvoy and Routable together to audit your invoices, make easy payments, and empower your financial team through accounting automation. Visit Routable's website to start working with their product today, and contact us to demo how we can work with you to implement AP automation in your team.