What Makes Accounts Payable Software Useful?

From ensuring accuracy in processing to improving the speed at which processing is done to bringing in transparency and visibility into the accounts payable process, AP software is highly useful for organizations.

Accounts payable software is very useful for organizations in a number of ways. In fact, it is much more useful for organizations as part of a comprehensive procurement platform rather than a standalone application since it allows them to eliminate cumbersome manual data transfer, and ensure that AP tasks are completed in time.

Accuracy

Accuracy in processing invoices is very helpful. In transferring data from the paper invoice to the system, Accounts Payable specialist often makes mistakes. Also, sometimes, vendors themselves commit mistakes, which would be entered directly without matching against purchase orders and delivery receipts. All of this can be remedied with the AP software, which processes all invoices accurately.

Processing Speed

If AP specialists look to improve processing speed, they might have to give up on accuracy, and vice versa. However, with Accounts Payable software, both can be gained without necessarily having to give up on the other. The software will increase processing speed by eliminating obstacles and automating tasks.

Transparency and Visibility

A function like AP which deals with invoices and payments needs to be transparent. However, in many organizations, this is not the case since these processes are handled manually, and only the AP specialists are privy to most of the information. There needs to be a lot of effort put in to preparing reports so that senior management can be kept informed of the status. With the AP solution, transparency and visibility are easy to achieve. Since the software centralizes management and handles data in a transparent manner, all users need to do is to log into the system.

Matching

Incoming invoices need to be matched against those that already exist in the system, and the corresponding purchase orders and/or delivery receipts. Manually done, this is a cumbersome and time-consuming task that takes a lot of resources to be done effectively. In contrast, Accounts Payable software automates matching and seamlessly matches invoice data against all the required corresponding documents. Any discrepancies are immediately flagged and brought to the notice of the pertinent people so that the right action can be taken. There can be no deliberate mischief as the software will refrain from processing any doubtful invoices.

Fraud Control

With AP software, you can prevent accounts payable fraud and ensure it is effectively controlled. Organizations can implement measures to guard themselves against fraud. In the first place, matching helps with weeding out faulty and inconsistent invoices. Further, transparency and visibility also help in controlling fraud. Also, with multiple approvals and audits as part of the process, the scope for fraud can be controlled.

Analytics

Analytics are quite useful in measuring how the process is functioning and what needs to be done to improve it so that the organization can gain the best value from it. Analytics need to be accessible to everyone at all levels so that they can perform their tasks better. With AP software an analytics package that users can launch to calculate the performance of the process and share these results with everyone.

Automation

One of the biggest benefits of the Accounts Payable solution is the automation it brings with it. This automation is all-encompassing, and caters to all the stakeholders. From sorting through incoming invoices to routing these invoices for approvals from managers and department heads, most of the tasks can be automated. The software also automatically triggers notifications and acknowledgements so that all the users are kept in the loop effectively.