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Take Control of Your Payables Process
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Take a Proactive Approach to Your Payables Process: How automation drives more than just efficiency
Theme- What does automation look like? The business world is experiencing change faster and more dramatic than ever and no industry is immune to the disruption. The new emerging technologies have companies recognizing the many benefits of extending the functionality of their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), or Accounting System by integrating solutions to focus on accounts payable. But, ERP alone may not be enough.
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Payables 51% manual 63% manual 76 % manual 93 % manual
Automation in small, medium, and middle-market businesses Payroll 51% manual Employee Expenses 63% manual Tax Management 76 % manual Accounts Payable 93 % manual Sources: Paychex (Payroll),PayStream Advisors (Employee Expenses), Deloitte and PwC (Tax), Federal Reserve Bank (AP) Looking where automation is currently in Payables for the majority…. The first payable bracket automated for companies is payroll. Levels or various degree of automation…. 49% of companies have automated their Payroll process. Leaving 51% still manual. Employee expenses – 63% still manual. Tax Management- 76% still manual AP- This is where we will place our focus for this reason- Large majority - 93% Paper-based Accounts Payable departments with manual processes remain commonplace. Largest opportunity to benefit from automation. Raises an interesting question as to why? Assume a costly investment and not enough capital? Too few invoices justify? If you process 50 or more invoices a month, you can justify. No business case formulated yet? Lack of IT resources Management of AP can be tedious and time-consuming. However, implementing a reliable and automated accounts payable process can be vital to the long-term vitality of your organization because AP impacts both your relationships with your vendors AND your cash flow which impacts future success and failure. Sources: Paychex (Payroll),PayStream Advisors (Employee Expenses), Deloitte and PwC (Tax), Federal Reserve Bank (AP) Olgletree, C. (2019, Feb. 25). Top Accounts Payable Trends to Watch for in Retrieved from 3
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Over-reliance on Manual-Based Processes
25% Manual routing of invoices for approval 23% Manual data entry & inefficient processes 18% Majority of invoices still received via paper format 9% Lost or missing invoices 8% Decentralized invoice receipt 7% High number of discrepancies & exceptions An over-reliance on paper-based processes emerged as the biggest problem plaguing AP departments. What are the top three challenges you face in your current AP process today? It looks like our results are very similar to the results of the PayStream Advisors survey. The top challenges for AP teams revolve around the normal day to day manual processing of the invoice: Dealing with the receipt of a paper document (25%) Manual data entry in to the system of record (23%) The routing of invoices and payments for approval (18%) One thing I think we can all agree on is that the challenges faced by most accounts payables departments are directly related to the fact that these AP workflows haven’t really changed much over the years, except for maybe receiving more invoices through instead of US mail. And that really hasn’t helped very much, since once the invoice is received it is typically printed out so it can continue its journey the same way as an invoice received in the mail, and that manually.
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Managing vendor relationships Maximizing short term cash flow
Simplifying reports and reconciliation The AP department plays a critical role in any organization and all accounts payables teams face very similar challenges. The success of any AP team depends in a large part on the approach used in the accounts payable process. It won’t come as a surprise that AP teams that take a proactive approach to accounts payable by automating the majority of the manual steps are more successful at achieving their objectives than those that don’t. A REACTIVE AP approach is continuing to operate primarily in a manual environment and addressing AP workflow challenges by hiring more staff, adding file cabinet to store invoices and documents, foregoing working on higher value tasks in order to just get the invoices into your accounting system and payments out on time. Operating in a reactive mode is not uncommon. This is supported by a 2018 B2B Payments and Working Capital Management Strategies survey Report done by Strategic Treasurer, where surveyed companies chose invoice delivery and capture as the most important AP process to automate. In second place, for areas to automate was, converting paper payments to electronic methods. In a PROACTIVE Accounts Payable approach, you look at the entire AP workflow, not just a small piece of it, such has document imaging, or paying more vendors electronically, but the entire flow from beginning to end to achieve meaningful and quantifiable efficiency and cost improvements, so ultimately, you can. Maintain and improve vendor relationships Maximize short term cash flow and improve visibility And simplify preparation of reports for management and auditors as well facilitate reconciling accounts Transition: So let’s take a look at each of these points in greater detail….
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Challenge #1: Paying invoices on time to solidify advantageous vendor relationships.
DEVANNA: When we think about a reactive approach, it is the manual base process. Let's look at Challenge #1, paying invoices on time to reinforce important vendor relationships Did you know 93% of vendors in the US reported late payments from domestic B2B customers. This is contributed to a manual process. Often times Accounts Payable (or AP for short), is typically the front line contact between the business and vendor representatives. Managing vendor relationships is much more than just paying the bills. A strong vendor relationship is very important. It can help you get better deals on the things you need to run your organization and help grow your network by advocating for you to other suppliers. So late payments are never good when it comes to vendor relationships. The average AP workflow is full of manual, time-consuming, hands-on tasks. I invite you to take a moment to think about all the steps your AP team has to take from the time the invoice arrives to the time you make a payment. How many steps are in your workflow and how long does it take for the invoice to jump from person-to-person? Obtaining approvals, printing and signing checks, and mailing payments are an extremely inefficient method and certainly extends the total number of days from receipt of invoice to payment. Nobody likes to dwell on bad stuff, but the higher your percentage of late payments, the more money your company is tossing out the window. not to mention the damage to your company’s reputation. Overall, the longer the average time it takes to process an invoice, the more likely it is that your AP team is tied up in labor-intensive, low-value tasks rather than focusing on strategic, judgement-based activities. Not to mention, the greater the opportunity for errors that can cost your company 10x the amount of time and money to fix when they surface downstream in the payment process. If this a reactive approach, what does a proactive approach look like… JEAN PROACTIVE Approach: Being proactive in paying your vendors the correct amount and on time means shrinking the time it takes to process the invoice and submit the payment. This can best be accomplished by leveraging solutions and tools that automate the manual, time consuming, and error prone processes and can perform these steps faster and with a higher degree of accuracy. By letting software capture invoice data, allocate expenses and update your system of record and route both invoices and payments for approvals and execution, with limited involvement of AP staff, the invoice to pay cycle is significantly decreased. Getting paid on time, or even early, will make your vendors happy by improving their order-to-cash cycle times, further they will also appreciate not having to spend time following up on late or incorrect payments caused by data entry errors. It truly becomes a win/win situation. And with less time spent processing invoices or responding to vendor inquiries, AP staff is able to focus on those higher value tasks. Transitions – let’s look at challenge number 2
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Payment Authorization
MANUAL AUTOMATED Jean, challenge 1 easily correlates with Challenge #2: Missed discount Opportunities and late fees. If you are not paying your vendors on time, it's safe to bet you may be paying late fees, but guaranteed you are missing out on early pay discount opportunities. If your suppliers are offering discounts, the paper based process of manually approving an invoice and cutting a paper check-often delays the ability to pay vendors in time to take advantage of those discounts. This is where the payments process is one of the places we should visit. Even though checks are still prevalent, most companies are making at least some of their payments electronically: by ACH, credit card, or wire transfer. Do you offer various payment methods and does each payment method have its own workflow? Maybe your week is something like this…. Tuesdays and Thursdays, you send ACH or credit card batches, and then remittance advice to the vendors. Friday is “check-run day,” and the team spends the day printing checks and stuffing and stamping envelopes. Then there’s probably a “wire day,” when someone is entering the wire information online for every wire they want to send. This could take about 5-10 minutes each. So if you’ve got 15 or 20 of them to do, that’s a few hours of someone’s time. In addition to acquiring the necessary approvals… which can take hours or days depending on if your check signer only signs checks once a week. The point is, in most accounting departments, there is no single payment process. In getting rid of some of the paper, they’ve introduced more work at the same time. If this a reactive approach what does a proactive approach look like… Time: 1 min 30. Jean: PROACTIVE Approach: (issue can’t get early pay discounts, multiple payment processes by method) Proactive AP teams also leverage automation solutions and tools to accelerate the payment approval and execution process to solve the issues of missed early pay discounts and multiple payment process flows. Automation supports the online routing of payments to designated approvers for review and authorization to pay, regardless of the payment method. Approved payments are automatically created and can be scheduled to be forwarded to your provider for execution on the desired date. An automated and integrated approach to payment processing electronifies all your payments, including checks, since the checks are printed and mailed by your solution provider on your behalf, and not AP. Automation allows Accounts payables departments to standardize and streamline the payment approval and execution workflows for all payment types, eliminating creating and transmitting multiple payment files and check signing parties. One the biggest challenges can be getting vendors to switch from paper to electronic payments. Like you, most of your vendors don’t have time to contact you about paying them by ACH or Card. [adoption] To increase usage of electronic payment types, proactive AP teams, partner with providers that can contact vendors on your behalf and explain the benefits of receiving electronic payments and help them enroll to receive future payments by their preferred electronic payment method, ACH or Card. Transition Devanna: As we know, the AP process does not stop there What does Automation look like?
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Challenge #3: Simplifying reports to limit resource constraints.
DEVANNA: After a payment is made, reports are generated for management and auditors which brings us to Challenge #3: Simplifying reports There is a lot of information from various systems and locations that are typically pulled in order to put together a proper consolidated report for management. In a paper environment, when you’re done issuing checks, you print out a copy of the check stub and staple it to the invoice. Then those stacks of invoices go into a room or filing cabinet somewhere, maybe on site, possibly off-site, so when someone asks for a report or an auditor comes through, you probably have to send a search party out to find it. This may not seem to be too cumbersome, but, when you’re making hundreds or thousands of payments a year, it can add up. Executives might have an idea about some inefficiencies, but nobody tells the CFO how many phone calls they’re fielding a month; or how many times they’re driving to a warehouse across town to pull invoices; or that they’re spending 20 hours every month typing the same information into a portal. Nobody even counts it, because it’s all seen as part of the process - it's always been done this way… But it doesn’t need to be. Jean: That’s exactly right Devanna, it doesn’t have to be that way. JEAN PROACTIVE Approach: The software and automation tools used by proactive AP teams simplify generating reports for management and responding to requests from auditors. Standard activity and audit reports are available at the click of button providing visibility in to the status of unpaid invoices, invoices coming due and payment activity. Since invoices, supporting documentation and reviewer and approver notes are all captured and stored long term online, it’s simple to locate and print historical information. Searching through paper or online files is eliminated. In addition, automation solutions integrate seamlessly with your accounting system or ERP system, receiving and sending information back and forth, to post invoices, record processed payments, as examples, so that that the two systems are always in sync. This ensures that your accounting or ERP system always remains the single source of truth for your organization.
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Reactive Proactive Paying invoices at or after due date
Opportunity cost savings missed – late fee, no early-pay discounts Reporting information not readily available Approve invoices 3x faster Move to more electronic payments Reporting simplified, readily available, transparent DEVANNA: Let's recap…. Leveraging automation can Challenge 1 help with the invoice capture and approval workflow to pay invoices on time to solidify important vendor relationships. Challenge 2 Optimize short-term cash flow to drive bottom-line growth by moving more payments to electronic methods and take advantage of early paid discounts and possible card rebates. Challenge 3 Lastly, simplify reports and reconciliation for management and auditors with two-way synchronization. We have been talking about streamlining and speeding up your processes from an operational perspective, but actually there is an economic benefit to making a change. Time: 30 second.
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60% Companies that have automated the AP and payment process spend
less compared to their manual processing counterparts JEAN There definitely is a cost benefit to automating a highly manual, slow and error prone process. In fact, companies that have automated the AP and payment process often can spend up to 60% less, depending on the maturity of your current processes, compared to organizations that continue to rely heavily on manual processing workflows. 60% savings is a big number, so I do want to break it down, and look at those processes contributing to that number through automation. The savings, and these would be both hard and soft dollars, are really coming from 3 key AP processes: Invoice Capture Invoice and Payment Approval Payment Execution Keep in mind, the basic AP processing steps aren’t going away, you’re just doing automating and eliminating the manual components that can be done more efficiently with the help of automation tools. First, let’s look at the manual invoice processing costs, since the accounts payable process starts with the receipt of the invoice.
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Multiple capture points Manual keying leads to inaccuracies
Duplicates harder to detect Jean The obvious costs associated with processing an invoice include the time spent: Manual sorting Manual data keying Manual matching to PO or back up information Creating paper copies/filing Paper storage and retention Calculating the cost savings for these items is simply a function the time saved times the cost of AP staff to perform those functions. Less obvious is the costs incurred due to the inaccuracies introduced when manually keying data or the inability to accurately track the status of an invoice or payment. A lot of resource time and energy is required to go back and do the research to first find the source of the error and then correct it. Bad data or lack of data also results in time spent responding to vendor inquiries about the stats of a payment or payment discrepancies. It can even lead to paying an invoice twice. Based on research, if you’re a medium sized businesses with annual costs of $100 million, and using the average duplicate payment rate of .1%, the cost can equate to loss of $300,000 over a 3 year period. Who would like to report that to the CFO. Overall, some researchers suggest that the cost of every error is 10 times greater to remediate than it is to prevent. Ultimately using automation reduces errors and your processing costs. SOURCES FOR STATS: (1) Detecting and preventing duplicate invoice payments (2) The Real Cost of Bad Data (3) Calculating the Costs to Process and Invoice (4) Payment Practices Barometer Americas 2017 (5) The Cost of Issuing Checks
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Matching invoices Acquiring approvals Paying invoices late
Next, let’s look at the costs to approve both the invoice and payment. This part of the process can be a real bottle neck for a lot of companies, creating significant delays, since this part of the process relies on an individual to take action in a timely manner. The saying, “time is money” really applies here. Costs are triggered by excessive time spent chasing down approvals from department heads and executives, some of whom may be located in other business units or other geographic locations. If approvers are on vacation or out of the office, sick on leave, and the invoice sits on the desk or in the inbox, the clock is ticking. Often invoices that sit around waiting to be processed end up missing in action, requiring a reboot of the process. This further extends the invoice to pay cycle. The time required to manually collect, rout and approve an invoices is a least 2 times greater than in an automated solution. This contributed to 48% of invoices being reported as overdue in 2017. Overdue invoices incur late payment fees, and impact vendor relations. There is also an opportunity cost if your vendor offers early payment discount. Any delays would make these impossible to take advantage of.
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Paper checks are most costly form of payment
Finally, let’s look at the costs associated with executing those payments, in particular, the costs of paying your vendors by check. Numerous studies have been done on how much it costs to create and process a check. And the cost range varies widely from $3.00 to $10 or more when you factor in all the variables that go in to the calculation, such as check volume labor (often the largest expense item Paper Envelopes postage, etc. Taking this all in to consideration, cost savings can come from reducing check volume AND by outsourcing the printing and mailing to provider who have the size and scale to perform this process more efficiently. Using an average check cost of $7.78 from the Aberdeen Group and doing the math, a company that processes 1,000 checks annually will incur $7, in expense. Studies show that when the check process is automated, that cost can be reduced more than 50% to about $3.00 per check. That’s an annual savings of approximately $4,780. Not bad. Aberdeen source:
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Reactive Costs Proactive Savings
Invoice Capture Costs Invoice Payment & Approval Costs Payment Execution Costs Automation increases accuracy Pay on Time – avoid fees, take discounts Less Checks, More Electronic Pays Example: Reactive vs. Proactive Cost $10.55 X 1,000 invoices = $10,550.00 $5.13 X 1,000 invoices = $5, 50% Savings! Manual cost vs Automated Savings. DEVANNA: Let's take a look at the Reactive costs versus the proactive savings Taking into account Invoice Capture Costs Invoice Payment & Approval Costs Payment Execution Costs All of these elements have hard dollar costs and soft dollar costs to include… because time is money. Jean eluded to the cost of Manual base process of $7.78 per check payment, but that's just costs associated to check payment alone. Let's look at the costs when you include invoice processing. Using the same research group, the Aberdeen Group for consistency purposes...they state $10.55 is the average invoice processing costs for companies who do not use automation. Companies with AP automation gain a 50% savings of $5.13 per invoice. The savings is significant…. You are probably already asking yourself… where do I start?? Aberdeen group is the source of above numbers Proactive savings example: Source: 2017 Is Here. Do you know where your invoices are? (2017, Jan. 31). Retrieved from
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AP Automation: It can mean many things
Document scanning/OCR Document management and workflow Purchase Order Management, Purchase-to-Pay ERP system Enterprise solutions for AP (upper middle market, small-to-large corporate) Generally it does not include payments! Where to Start? DEVANNA: AP Automation: It can mean many things… Document scanning/OCR Document management and workflow Digitize and store invoice documents Enable routing, workflow and approval Purchase Order Management, Purchase-to-Pay Create PO, Route for Approval, Issue to vendor ERP system Custom solutions Enterprise solutions for AP (upper middle market, small-to-large corporate) Document scanning, management, workflow, ERP integration However, it does not include payments! To maximize the process look for a comprehensive payables automation solution that cost effectively meets the invoice management (receipt, capture, authorization) and payment execution for your company. New emerging technologies continue to be deploy to allow businesses recognize the many benefits of extending the functionality of their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), or Accounting System by integrating solutions to focus on accounts payable. But, your ERP alone may not be enough. 17
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How end-to-end AP Automation works
Accounting ERP/System Bank Invoice Capture & Payment Automation JEAN So let’s put it all together and see what an end to end, automated AP workflow looks. An end to end solution is going to include your Accounting System (system of record), which is connected to your AP Automation Solution which is connected to your Payment Processor, typically your bank. 16
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Continuous sync from Accounting/ERP
system and from bank Customer Sync from AP Scan The process starts with a synch between the system of record to the invoice capture and payment automation solution or tools. Invoices received via US, and other sources are scanned input in to the automation solution in preparation for their automated journey.
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Customer Auto capture and code CAPTURE INVOICE
Sync from AP Auto capture and code Scan Once the invoice is in the system, the header and line item details on the invoice are automatically captured and verified.
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ERP/Accounting System
CAPTURE INVOICE PO MATCHING Customer Match PO w/ coding Sync from ERP/Accounting System Auto capture and code. Scan Captured data is use to match to open Purchase Orders (PO) invoices, and the invoice are automatically coded to based on defined rules.
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Auto-route web approval
CAPTURE INVOICE AUTO ROUTING Customer Sync from AP Auto capture and code Auto-route web approval Scan If Purchased orders are not used or the invoice doesn’t have a purchase, it is automatically routed via the web to defined individuals for approval.
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Online review and approval
CAPTURE INVOICE APPROVE INVOICE Customer Sync from AP Online review and approval Auto capture and code Scan Approvers are notified of pending invoices and go online to quickly review and approve the invoice from their desk top, tablet or phone.
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Securely approve payments
CAPTURE INVOICE APPROVE INVOICE AUTHORIZE PAYMENT Customer Sync from AP Securely approve payments Online review and approval Auto capture and code Scan Payment approvers are notified when an invoice has been approved, and they also go online like to securely approve the payment and schedule the payment to be delivered for processing immediately or at a later day.
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Customer End-to-end controls CAPTURE INVOICE APPROVE INVOICE AUTHORIZE
PAYMENT Customer Sync from AP End-to-end controls Online review and approval Auto capture and code Scan Throughout the process, company and provider controls are applied, including 2 factor authentication before a payment is released, company defined payment approval limits and separation of accounting manager and payment approver duties.
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Customer Check ACH Wire Card CAPTURE INVOICE APPROVE INVOICE AUTHORIZE
PAYMENT SEND PAYMENT Customer Check Sync from AP Auto capture and code Online review and approval ACH End-to-end controls Wire Scan Card The solution automatically gathers the necessary payment information, including remittance details, based on the payment methods: Check, ACH, CARD, Wire and creates the payment in the correct format.
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Customer Send electronic CAPTURE INVOICE APPROVE INVOICE AUTHORIZE
PAYMENT SEND PAYMENT Customer Sync from AP Send electronic Auto capture and code Online review and approval End-to-end controls Scan With the click of a button the approved payments, regardless of type, are sent to your processor for execution.
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and Remittance received
CAPTURE INVOICE APPROVE INVOICE AUTHORIZE PAYMENT SEND PAYMENT Customer Vendor Payment and Remittance received PO-to-invoice reconciliation Sync from AP Online review and approval Auto capture and code End-to-end controls Send electronic Scan Automatically post Payment information back to Accounting/ERP system Vendors receive their payment and associated remittance detail for posting along with the check, or via , if the payment is made electronically. Throughout the process flow, the accounting system or system of record is automatically kept updated by the AP automation solution to reflect status of all invoices and payments.
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Payments fraud is at an all-time high
Why AP Automation now? Payments fraud is at an all-time high It’s (really) time to move away from paper checks Finance Professionals are consistently underestimating the cost of processing and paying invoices Accounts payable – not just operational overhead; now more bottom-line impact DEVANNA If we learned anything in 2018, it’s that AP is going through a major transformation. Five core trends driving this shift: Payments fraud is at an all-time high- risk and controls Fraud continues to be a top concern for most companies. One report found that 86% of organizations have experienced at least one incidence of fraud in the last two years One of the best ways you can reduce fraud is by getting rid of paper checks. Plus, the adoption of a closed payment network that validates all members and their banking information and can cut down on possible fraud. I think we hammered this home… but It’s (really) time to move away from paper checks. Companies still make so many payments by paper check, even though technology has made checks nearly obsolete in the consumer world. Even after years of studies, research, and discussion….Finance Professionals are consistently underestimating the cost of processing and paying invoices. We invite you to perform an internal analysis of what it takes your company to process an invoice and check payments. Many companies are only just starting to realize what an important role AP plays in business operations. In 2019, accounts payable has the opportunity to become highly influential and a bottom-line contributor to their entire company. And businesses that are willing to go digital in the AP department will see the biggest transformation in years to come. 29
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What Problems Would You Like to Solve?
Manual, error prone and time consuming invoice capture and data entry processes Inefficient, manual, paper-based, invoice routing and approval processes Weak, inconsistent payment approval controls High percentage of paper checks susceptible to fraud DEVANNA So….What problems would you like to solve? Think about what your competitors doing... Automation is nothing new, but in 2019 it will go from a “nice to have” to a “must have” for the AP department. Automating your processes is necessary if you want to compete in the current business climate. Imagine what your finance departments could accomplish with automated AP processes.
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DEVANNA START YOUR PROACTIVE APPROACH TODAY. We talked about the bottom-line of the company and the benefits, which are great. But more importantly it is about the benefits your staff will gain. AP automation is NOT about reducing staff, it is about the Best use of your staff and expanding your ability to grow without having to add to your current team. It's about having a scalable solution. Investing in automation significantly reduces the turnaround time in invoices processing, increases the exactness of the invoice data, better payment policies, improved and streamlined workflows, security and control with alerts and reminders, and streamlined reporting to always know where and when an invoice payment may be in the process. If you feel your company has not been managing accounts payable in the most efficient way, consider this year to be the year for efficiency.
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Questions? Canned Questions:
Does BB&T or other providers offer a full end-to-end solution for the entire payables process or are there a variety of solutions that must be piece meal together? Jean How do I start to look at performing an internal analysis of the cost to process an invoice and payment? Dev We have partially automated our AP process by using a solution to help document scan and store our invoices, but we still cut paper checks. Is there a way to be able to use our existing solution and streamline or automate the payment process? Dev What are some best practices or tips to start the conversation with teams regarding automating AP? Jean We cut a lot of paper checks and use Positive Pay for fraud prevention which has greatly reduced our risk exposure. What other fraud risks and exposures are you seeing outside of check payments in respects to AP? Dev
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Thank you Canned Questions:
Does BB&T or other providers offer a full end-to-end solution for the entire payables process or are there a variety of solutions that must be piece meal together? Jean How do I start to look at performing an internal analysis of the cost to process an invoice and payment? Dev We have partially automated our AP process by using a solution to help document scan and store our invoices, but we still cut paper checks. Is there a way to be able to use our existing solution and streamline or automate the payment process? Dev What are some best practices or tips to start the conversation with teams regarding automating AP? Jean We cut a lot of paper checks and use Positive Pay for fraud prevention which has greatly reduced our risk exposure. What other fraud risks and exposures are you seeing outside of check payments in respects to AP? Dev
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