55 billion invoices are already being sent out worldwide in paperless form as per the current Billentis Report. But, that’s just 10% of invoices from the total. For processing purposes, the remaining 90% is a mystery whether to do manual entry – or digital scanning?
The stats highlight how huge the ratio is and how high the impact will be on vendor relationships due to error-prone and delayed invoice approvals. This is probably because no invoice automation solution is being used by the organization.
But is it really that hopeless?
This blog highlights the major IT vendor invoice processing challenges that can hit the business ROI if not taken seriously. It also highlights how to implement accounts payable automation to help businesses for efficient working.
Challenges and Vendor Invoice Management Software
Challenge#1
Time-consuming and error-prone manual vendor invoice data entry and matching of POs, GRNs and invoice data
Invoice data entry errors are among the biggest problems plaguing invoice processes that are yet to be automated. Manual invoice data entry is time-consuming. Even a simple mix-up can result in costly errors for your company. And when you are talking about money that’s owed to your business, there isn’t room for sloppy work.
Solutions
Configurable Invoice Processing Engine- Detects various parts of vendor invoice through regular expression, machine learning extraction models, and unique parsing strategies, in other words extracting structured field-level invoice data elements from image or document
Challenge#2
Tracking of vendor invoice information stored in different data formats from thousands of IT vendors
It’s hard to find records of past vendor invoice processing if you’re filing your information manually. Also trying to organize your vendor invoice records manually is great if you’re a perfectionist with too much time on your hands. But it’s just too much to keep up with manual filing and paper storage takes up huge amounts of space you could put to better use.
Solutions
Smart Vendor Invoice Data Reader- Identifies, categorizes, ingests data required for account payable workflow from any vendor invoice formats (PDF, EDI, XML, paper, etc.) covering PO and non-PO invoices captured via scanner, e-invoice, or mobile app.
Challenge#3
Unclear vendor invoice status due to lack of transparency and slow processing due to approval issues
Often the current status during vendor invoice processing is not clear: Has the invoice been received? Has it been validated? Is it correct? When will the invoice be posted, when will it be paid? The status of all these individual stages and the time frame involved often lacks transparency – not only for the vendor but for the company too.
As a result, more and more inquiries arise, especially in the case of long processing times. Answering these questions further burdens the accounting department and delays the process.
Solutions
Invoice Approval Workflows- Eliminate manual validations and inefficient follow-up calls or long emails. Execute on-time payments on ServiceNow powered flexible workflow platform with rules-driven conditional approvals, complete audit logs, and alerts.
Conclusion
Are you feeling these pain points? If so, it’s time to consider automating your vendor invoice process to eliminate disorganized vendor invoice processing and manual invoice approvals lead to numerous problems for the AP team. Getting an invoice automation solution streamlines invoice processing and reduces discrepancies. Moreover, it eliminates the struggle of invoice matching and follow-ups for approvals.
To see, how AP automation will build efficiency of your accounts payable team schedule a demo today.
