Consider struggling for countless hours on a jigsaw puzzle. Then, suddenly, you adjust the last piece snugly to get the perfect box image. The feeling when you sit back to admire your work and that sense of accomplishment can only come with a job well done.

Imagine having a similar feeling about your ongoing accounts payable (AP) automation challenges. Envision automation helps you to handle the entire invoice workflow process from receipt to processing through payment. It is only possible with accounts payable automation.

5 Reasons for Automating & Digitizing Accounts Payable

We have already entered the AI world that allows you to ditch manual work and error-prone functioning. It improves financial efficiency and cash flow in the organization. However, AP invoice processing automation managed finances turn out to be a complex task with possible challenges being 

• Paperwork and manual invoice processing effort
• Timely vendors payments 
• Managing cash flow

AP automation creates a better link between your purchase-to-pay system and your vendor relationship and increases your automation levels, which translates into five significant benefits: 

1. Faster Cycle Times

For AP teams, time is money. The more automated and efficient the AP process is, the more return your organization will see on its investment. This will facilitate faster vendor payments. It also means AP invoice processing automation can be cost savings with speedier invoicing and capturing more early payment discounts. 

2. Reduced Invoice Errors and Duplicate Payments

Invoice errors in the AP process consume valuable time, erode vendor relationships, and result in duplicate payments. Such payment errors hit the accounts payable departments severely.

AP automation solution can automate invoice classification and receipts to the right account and then input detailed information into an account ledger, which can be referenced later. 

3. Increased Invoice Workflow Visibility

By automating your accounts payable, you can capture more financial data to support advanced invoice analytics and process improvement.

• Accounts Payable focuses on better understanding, predicting, and forecasting their invoice payment workflow. This visibility also opens the door for strategic tools that optimize invoice payment, like supply chain financing and dynamic discounting.
• Automating the vendor payment process enables organizations to provide vendors with real-time visibility into transaction statuses via AP dashboards, reducing time spent fielding vendor inquiries and improving vendor relations.

4. Additional Early Vendor Payment Discounts

Lengthy invoice processing cycles are the primary reason for missed early vendor payment discounts. Accounts Payable automation software compresses the invoice processing cycle. It allows organizations to benefit from better discounts and streamlined finances. 

With AP automation solutions like Aavenir Invoiceflow, you can automate invoice data entry, invoice approval, and invoice payment, reducing your AP team’s work time by 80%. 

5. Increased Supplier Satisfaction

Automating accounts payable processing results in shorter payment cycles, which means that suppliers get paid faster and can decrease their Day Sales Outstanding (DSO). It goes a long way in improving relationships with the supplier base.

AP automation enables your vendors to submit and track invoice receipts instead of emailing, communicate instantly with the team and receive automated payments. In addition, vendors can get discounts by setting up rate contracts and tracking delivery statuses in a single workflow.

Ready to Learn More? 

Aavenir’s smart AP Automation software solution uses the most advanced Artificial Intelligence technology that learns an organization’s invoices’ unique patterns to simplify invoice coding, ensure data accuracy, identify duplicates, and more.

Built on the Servicenow platform®, Aavenir Invoiceflow offers an easily configurable approval workflow that brings the AP team and non-accounting team on the same platform to expedite the AP process and save the cost of  PO/non-PO invoice processing.

A few benefits of end-to-end accounts payable automation are well established:

• Faster Invoice processing
• Reduced costs
• Greater process transparency
• Strengthened internal financial controls
• Lower error rates
• Enhanced cash management

Learn about Aavenir’s integrated solution for payment automation– Invoiceflow –and read how to digitize more of your AP process.

Learn how Aavenir Invoiceflow transformed AP processes for T.D. Williamson!