You Need an Automated Invoice Workflow, Here’s Why

Without an automated invoice workflow in place, businesses are left to manually review each invoice for accuracy and compliance before approving it. This manual process is inefficient and prone to errors that could result in costly delays or disputes with vendors.

An automated invoice workflow eliminates the need for manual reviews, streamlines the invoice approval process, reduces costs associated with late payments, and ensures the accuracy of all invoices approved.

Every growing company needs invoice workflow software.

As a business grows larger and more complex, its approval process for approving invoices becomes increasingly difficult to manage manually.

Implementing invoice workflow software can ensure that the approval process is streamlined, accurate, and significantly decreases human error.

It also helps businesses generate faster payments by streamlining approvals and automatically sending reminders to approvers.

Ultimately, invoice workflow software eliminates manual processes and allows businesses to save time and money.

Let’s Dive into some Drawbacks of Manual Invoice and Some Positive Features of an Invoice Workflow.

Invoice approval is a critical business process that involves verifying the accuracy and legitimacy of invoices before payment. In many organizations, this process is still done manually, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors.

Approving invoices manually can result in

• Delayed payments.
• Lost invoices.
• Inaccuracies in financial records.
• Lack of control and transparency.

However, with the help of an automated invoice approval workflow, businesses can streamline their approval process, eliminate the risk of errors, and enhance efficiency.

In the first part of this article, we will explore some of the drawbacks of manual invoice approvals and some of the positive features of an invoice approval workflow.

The Drawbacks of Invoice Approval Workflows that Don’t Include AP Automation.

Delayed payments.

Delayed payments can have a significant impact on the financial health of your organization. When payments are delayed, it can lead to cash flow issues, which can cause the business to struggle to meet its financial obligations, such as paying bills and salaries.

Lost invoices.

If an invoice is lost, it can cause significant problems for a business. For the supplier, a lost invoice can result in delayed payment, which can lead to cash flow problems and impact the supplier’s ability to meet its financial obligations.

For the buyer, it can cause inaccuracies in financial records, which can make it difficult to track expenses and revenue accurately.

Inaccuracies in financial records.

Inaccuracies in financial records can occur due to various reasons, such as human error, fraud, or ineffective processes. Some of the common inaccuracies that can occur in financial records due to manual invoice processing include:

1. Duplicate payments: When invoices are processed manually, there is a risk of paying the same invoice twice, which can lead to inaccurate financial records and cash flow issues.
2. Inconsistent data entry: Manual data entry can result in errors, such as typos, transposed numbers, or incorrect coding, which can impact financial statements and analysis.
3. Missed discounts: Without an automated system, it can be challenging to identify and capture early payment discounts, which can lead to missed cost-saving opportunities.
4. Incorrect approvals: When invoices are approved manually, there is a risk of approving ones that are not accurate, legitimate, or do not comply with company policies, resulting in errors in financial records.

Lack of Control and Transparency.

With a manual process, it can be challenging to track the status of paper invoices, identify bottlenecks, and enforce approval policies consistently.

This can result in delayed payments, missed discounts, and errors in financial records.

Additionally, manual processes can be susceptible to fraud, as it can be challenging to identify unauthorized changes to invoices or duplicate payments.

Manual invoice approvals can also damage vendor relations.

In summary, these drawbacks can damage relationships with suppliers, which can result in the loss of discounts, reduced credit limits, or even the termination of contracts.

In extreme cases, delayed payments can result in legal action and damage to the reputation of the business. Therefore, it’s crucial for small businesses to streamline their payment processes and ensure that invoices are paid on time.

Positive Features of Automating your Invoice Approval Workflow.

The process of invoice approval can be time-consuming and resource-intensive for many businesses, with manual processing often leading to inaccuracies, delays, and increased operational costs.

However, by automating the invoice approval process, businesses can realize significant benefits, such as increased efficiency, improved accuracy, and greater transparency.

In the rest of this article, we will explore some positive features of automating your invoice approval process.

Three-way invoice matching in your invoice approval workflow process.

Three-way invoice matching can benefit your invoice workflow process in several ways.

1. It helps to eliminate errors and discrepancies between the invoice and the purchase order, which can result in delayed payments, missed discounts, and inaccurate financial records.

2. By verifying that the goods or services have been received, businesses can prevent fraudulent invoices from being paid.

3. Three-way invoice matching can improve the overall efficiency of the invoice approval process, by automating the matching process, businesses can reduce the time and resources required to verify the accuracy of invoices, resulting in a more streamlined process.

Overall, three-way invoice matching is a critical component of an effective invoice approval process, as it ensures that invoices are accurate, legitimate, and comply with company policies.

Duplicate Payments and Fraud Risks.

Here are three ways using an automated invoice approval workflow software can benefit your accounts payable process by catching and preventing duplicate payments and reduce your fraud risk.

1. An invoice management system can automatically detect and flag potential duplicate payments, by matching new invoices against existing invoices in the system. This can prevent invoices from being paid twice, which can cause significant inaccuracies in financial records and result in cash flow issues.
2. An invoice management system can help prevent fraud by detecting irregularities in invoices, such as changes to the invoice amount, vendor name, or payment terms. The system can flag these changes and require additional approval or review, helping to prevent unauthorized payments or changes to invoices.
3. An invoice management system can help to centralize and organize invoice data, making it easier to monitor and track invoices throughout the approval process. This can help identify inconsistencies or irregularities in invoices, such as missing purchase orders or receipts, which can be an indication of fraudulent activity.

Automatically sync the invoice with your accounting system.

Automatically syncing invoices with your accounting system can help businesses streamline their financial processes and improve efficiency.

By using software or tools that automatically sync invoices with the accounting system, businesses can gain complete visibility and eliminate the need for manual data entry, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors.

When an invoice is automatically synced with the accounting system, it is entered into the system with all the necessary data, including the vendor’s name, invoice number, date, and payment terms.

Having this invoice process reduces your need to keep paper invoices laying around and significantly improves your audit trail.

Pay the vendors through your accounting system.

Invoice management software can help businesses streamline their vendor payment process by connecting with their accounting system.

With this integration, businesses can automatically import and process invoices from vendors, reducing the need for manual data entry and the risk of errors.

Once the invoices are imported, the software can match them with purchase orders and receipts, ensuring that payments are accurate and compliant with company policies.