Why You Should Transition Accounts Payable To Paperless

What are the main goals for your business? Do you want to increase productivity, raise revenue, and also grow your business? Oftentimes it can be difficult to discern a business trend from legitimate strategies with proven results. Transitioning to a paperless accounts payable process is a guaranteed way to boost productivity and scale your business.

The entire point of the Accounts Payable department is to pay bills and invoices for a business. This task, while seemingly quite simple, requires an extraordinary amount of effort, manpower, and money. Broken down into its most basic parts, there are two ways to achieve this task: with paper and without.

The Downside of Using Paper

There are many negatives to using a paper-based accounts payable process. First of all, it costs more to process invoices with paper. Paper processes are slow and they come with hefty supply, labor, storage, and processing costs. A paperless accounts payable solution will allow you to process invoices faster, capture early payment discounts, and eliminate supply costs. Check out our Paperless ROI Calculator to see how much you could be saving.

You are also more likely to have human errors with a paper system. Human error is always a potential issue with manual data entry and your company may fall victim to late fees or accidental duplicate payments. Digitized invoices with Intelligent Data Capture (IDC) and electronic invoice approval workflows eliminate common data entry errors and speed up payable processing.

In addition, going paperless is a much better eco-friendly solution. Paper accounts for 26% of all waste in landfills. The deforestation caused by our mindless and wasteful use of paper can have a devastating effect. Trees are needed to produce oxygen and to protect the world from additional Global Warming.

The Benefits of Automating the Accounts Payable Process

In addition to it being more eco-friendly and more cost-effective, there are a lot of benefits you will find with the transition to Accounts Payable automation software like:

Faster payments – Implementing AP automation removes the slow physical step of manual invoice processing where one staff member must pass along the invoice to a manager for approval or mail paper checks to vendors. Invoice processing speed will reach an all-time high when you make the transition to paperless accounts payable software. Automated workflows make the entire process seamless to help your business capture early payment discounts and eliminate late fees.
Significant cost savings over time – Not only do paperless invoices cost less to process, but with a paperless accounts payable system, fewer employees are necessary. Some companies discover new roles and job titles for former AP workers in departments such as finance and accounting, analysis, internal processes, and business strategy. Improving your business processes by streamlining the approval process is a great way to reduce labor costs.
More storage space – Get rid of paper processes and paper records. A digital document management system like Epicor ECM will keep all incoming invoices, electronic records, and other digital files in one secure location. Transitioning to a paperless system will give you more storage space as you won’t have to fill your office with clunky filing cabinets.
Better vendor and supplier relationships – With paperless invoicing, your business will see happier vendors and suppliers who are pleased with how fast their payments arrive compared to the slow paper-based system that can take weeks to process payments.
More visibility into cash flow — AP automation software offers accurate reporting tools and metrics with real-time information so your AP team can have more visibility into the number of invoices you process a month, cost per invoice, how much you are saving, and how to boost AP productivity. This allows your accounting team to focus on cash flow management and business growth rather than tedious task of organizing and managing paperwork.

Additional AP Automation Features

The AP automation services at Mosaic have quite a few beneficial features:

Image capture – This saves your business in mailroom deliveries, envelopes to open, and postal charges that come with receiving invoices from remote offices.
Intelligent Data Capture (IDC) – You will no longer have to mess with manual data entry as there will be immediate tagging of all invoices.
Approval and coding – This allows you to pay invoices in ¼ the time, capture discounts, and avoid late payment charges.
Posting and paying – This saves you from slow and error-prone manual data entry into your ERP and it simplifies the vendor payment process.
Storing and retrieving – No file cabinets or filing supplies, massive space recovery, and no Iron Mountain relationships.

If you want to learn more have a look at What is AP Automation?

How to Make the Transition to Paperless Accounts Payable Software

Once you’ve made the decision to recycle those paper invoices and try paperless accounts payable process software, there are a few key steps to follow to make the transition go smoother:

Identify your goals: The first thing you need to do is pinpoint your specific reasons for transitioning into a paperless accounts payable process. Whether it’s to cut costs, reduce errors, increase efficiency, or free up staff, identifying your goals will ensure that everyone is on the same page and provide clarity for the entire team moving forward. It will also be easier to track your progress and measure your success.
Communicate with your team: Once your goals have been identified by each department, make sure everyone is in the agreement including leadership and management. By setting expectations and getting everyone on board, you can minimize future conflicts, as well as include any potential concerns from other employees through collaboration and integration. It is always great to look at each step to implement a new system.
Find a system that works for your office: When searching for the best AP automation services for your business, you want to make sure you’ll be able to integrate with your accounting software seamlessly and have the capability of handling a large number of payments, invoices, and transactions.

Moving Forward with Accounts Payable Process Automation

Getting everyone on board to transition to an accounts payable automation process will have your company one step closer to digital transformation. By following this simple guide, you can ensure that the process takes place as easily and seamlessly as possible so that you can spend less time on manual processes, and more on doing what you do best: running your business.