One of the most important aspects of running a business is maintaining accurate records of your finances. This includes keeping track of invoices and ensuring that they are paid on time. Traditionally, this has been a manual process that is time-consuming and prone to human error. However, automating invoice processing with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can have a number of benefits for your business. In this article, we will take a look at the top 10 benefits of automating invoice processing with RPA.
What is invoice processing?
Invoice processing is a family of methods that ensures all short-term debts get paid to the vendors on time or before to earn early payment discounts.
Invoice processing is a cycle of receiving an invoice from suppliers, complying invoices against business standards, adding details in the ledger account, cross-checking for accuracy, sending for approval, and processing the payments.
This cycle of process is iterative and counterproductive as it slows down the process and makes your employees involved dull.
As per the research done by Insider Intelligence, 44% of the companies are opting to integrate automation in their account payable processes. To know why? Keep on reading…
Top 10 benefits of invoice automation
The benefits of invoice automation are many. Automation of invoice processing with RPA depreciates cost, reduces fraudulence, ameliorates efficiency, and ensures audit trail.
Below is a list of 10 benefits of automating invoice processing:
Time-Saving:
According to surveys, automating invoice processing curtails invoice processing time. By abridging three steps simultaneously (data extraction, data entry automation, and data validation), invoice automation indubitably is time-saving. Manual processing consumes days and weeks whereas, automated invoice processing will complete it in scant hours.
Cost-saving:
As per the reports, a small company, on average, spends $15 on a single invoice. Further, the report states that expenses of a single invoice in mega-companies can reach as much higher as $40. Based on these data, calculating the annual cost of invoice processing for small enterprises for 30,000 invoices is $450,000. For mega-companies, the price for 30,000 invoices per year at the rate of $40 per invoice is $1,200,000.
Whereas, through invoice automation, the cost drops to $1 per invoice. This considerable amount of saving on invoice processing will help businesses to be more profitable centric.
Eliminating human error:
Believe it or not, manual invoice processing is prone to human error. Regardless that human employees try not to make any errors, but the mundaneness of the work makes the human brain dull, creating high possibilities of making an error.
Howbeit, software bots, like virtual employees, can work 24×7 and 365 days without becoming tired or asking for leaves. Invoice automation saves your employees from performing redundant tasks and enabling them to focus more on cognitive and creative works. With the elimination of human error, the accuracy level in invoice processing increases by 95%.
Increased security:
Invoice automation disables any possibility of a bad actor forging documents. Not all employees are loyal. Some with a twisted mind can play the role of a sinister actor and counterfeit the signatures of an authoritative person to manipulate profit.
Conversely, the virtual employee remains loyal. It does not demand profitability but, as a faithful employee, performs all the tasks.
Improved buyer and supplier relations:
The other significant benefit of invoice automation is that it helps you to bid for early payment discounts. In manual invoice processing, the amount of time taken to complete the process is so huge that buyers lose the opportunity to avail discounts. But not in the case with invoice automation. With invoice automation not only, you can bid for early payment discounts, but it will also build healthy relationships between buyers and suppliers. With suppliers getting paid timely, you become their delightful client, with whom they would want to continue doing business.
Audit trail and governance:
Invoice automation brings clarity and visibility to the documents. It enables easy tracking of records and documents to cross-check for any duplicity or discrepancy. With invoice automation, authorities have easy access to governing the process without getting lost in the piles of files and documents.
Easy customization:
Automation of invoice processing with RPA is easy to get accustomed to as per your business requirements. With the flexibility of the automation technology, you can customize the route and flowchart of the process. Invoice automation also enables you to choose whom to allow access to payable accounts.
Quick ROI:
By saving a large sum of money from manual processing, the business becomes more profitable centric. Invoice automation enables the human workforce to work out creative juices and intelligence and engage in value-driven activities. Cost-saving from many different areas qualifies business for quick ROI realization, which is less than 6-months.
Compliance management:
Invoice automation ensures that business processes comply with business terms and conditions. Tracking, auditing, and matching invoices become easier with automated invoice processing.
Enables remote working:
Lastly, invoice automation makes remote working healthy and accountable. COVID-19 pandemic forced companies and businesses to opt for work from home. For businesses that were heavily ladened with manual processing and paper works faced disruptions. The other setback faced by companies of hybrid working was idle employees.
With remote and hybrid work becoming a norm, automation can help you track the performance and productivity of your employees. Integration of automation in business processes is the future of work.
Apart from these top 10 benefits of invoice automation, other advantages include improved employee morale, recovery of data in case of disaster, compliance with taxes, and many more.
You bring your problems to the table; we bring our RPA solutions
As stated at the beginning of the article, the only way you can cope with these changes is by integrating automating technologies in your business processes.
If automation, RPA, AI, ML are new terminologies to you. Or, you felt the nudge to employ automation in your business processes but is unaware where it can get integrated. Give us a call at +91-8010-369-369 or write your query to us at [email protected]
You bring your problems to the table, and our consultant team at RPATech will bring RPA solutions. CALL US NOW!