subject: 10 Top Tips On Cutting Costs And Improving Efficiency In Your Accounts Payable Department Part Two [print this page] Following on from last weeks blog post, 10 Top Tips on Cutting Costs and Improving Efficiency in your Accounts Payable Department Part One, here are the next 5 ways you can reduce your costs and improve efficiency in your AP department.
6. Document Archiving
Document archiving helps businesses to securely store and retrieve important documents easily. A document archiving solution, such as Documations iRetrieve, has numerous benefits that include reduced physical storage, instant access to documents and audit trails for every document. Read our blog post, The Benefits of Document Archiving, to find out the full set of benefits.
7. Protect Yourself Against Invoice Fraud
Fraud is always a big concern with businesses and according to the 2012 Report to the Nations it is costing $3.5 trillion worldwide! To protect yourself against invoice fraud, make sure you have strong internal controls so that anything suspicious is flagged immediately. Investing in an invoice processing solution, such as Documations IMS, could narrow the opportunity for fraud, as it allows you to enhance security by only allowing people with the right level of security access to certain documents. To find out more about how you can protect yourself from fraud read our blog post: How to Protect Your Business Against Fraud.
8. Using Automation to Effectively Manage Non-PO Invoices
Non-PO invoices can be very problematic for the AP department which could take the team a fair amount of time to manually process. AP may receive non-PO invoices when a supplier has provided products or services to the buyer without receiving a purchase order. Many different challenges can arise when processing non-PO invoices, which may include difficulty indentifying the purchaser and original authoriser making the approval process lengthy. With Documations IMS, the AP team will be able to process non-PO invoices efficiently and effectively.
9. Invoice Coding
Invoice coding has traditionally been a very complex and time consuming process. The process often requires procurers to fill out a General Ledger coding form which then has to be keyed into the finance system by the AP team. This is a costly process for both the procurers and the AP team. However, an invoice coding module, such as Documations iCode, can automate the process which will improve the speed of coding invoices. It will also increase efficiency within both the AP and procurement department and improve the coding integrity; helping to prevent errors and internal business fraud.
10. Invest in Documations Invoice Management Solution (IMS)
Investing in an IMS for your AP department will give your business with all the benefits that have been mentioned in this blog post and last weeks post. Implementing IMS will reduce the amount of money and time associated with manually processing invoices, meaning your AP team can concentrate on more strategic tasks.
