With Ocerra AP, you should experience all the benefits that we discuss below in this article. Read to learn more.
Automation of routine administrative tasks is not a luxury; it is a necessity. It adds more value than you think. In this article, we'll explain how your organisation and people benefit with AP automation in more detail.
The high-level purpose of automation is reducing the costs and increasing efficiency. A smart business leader will always look for ways to automate as many processes as possible.
If your business is mature it is time to implement accounts payable automation. It will provide numerous benefits to the people, and people are the business.
Here are five key benefits that your business will enjoy with an AP automation solution like Ocerra.
1. Save time for everyone in the business.
Manually keying supplier invoices and handling approval on paper is time-consuming.
To avoid fraud and keep control of the spend, you will need to carefully review each invoice and then enter it precisely into your system. The validation process of each invoice is routine but necessary work that needs to be done. Therefore, even a small amount of supplier bills will eat a significant chunk of time at the end of the month.
A business that implements AP automation saves up to 80% of the time previously associated with invoice processing, including approval. Thus, giving the time for more meaningful work, like growing your business. A person responsible for the AP can now work on more strategic tasks too.
2. Upskill your employees.
Automation tools will keep emerging and becoming a must-have for modern businesses. When employees are learning new automation software, they are upskilling themselves. It is beneficial for a company and an employee at the same time.
Upskilling is an excellent method to improve productivity and efficiency, as well as boosts morale and increase employee retention.
At Ocerra, we follow the newest development standards. Therefore, it is likely that another automaton solution will be easier to adopt .
3. Save on labour costs.
This is not about making employees redundant. Labour cost savings might be complex to quantify, but they show up in different areas. For example:
Hiring and training costs – if your business is growing, you will most likely need new staff to manage accounts payable. Hiring, training, and managing a new employee is an expensive process. An automated AP process doesn’t require hiring extra staff to manage admin work.
Management costs – AP automation software creates a process that guides employees without the need to be managed. This is the most underestimated labour cost-saving and requires looking at the management priorities more carefully.
Accounting costs – similar to the management costs, if you have an accountant managing supplier invoices, or an accounting firm, it is a waste of resources and the budget. When someone hired to do a high-level job with a relevant salary ends up doing admin tasks, it is unreasonable.
Ocerra AP automation allows saving hiring, management and accounting costs.
4. Avoid the cost of errors.
Errors cost time and if gone unnoticed, cost money to the business.
Ocerra prompts if something doesn’t match on the invoice. The integration with MYOB Advanced, for example, does not allow posting incorrect data. If it recalculates the numbers for any reason (e.g. rounding settings), Ocerra will let you know. So, you are always in control and can rely on the system.
With AP software, it is less likely to slip in error, and even if it occurs, it is much easier to catch it and correct mistakes as opposed to manually going through papers files.
5. Increase accuracy.
Humans are not robots, and we all make mistakes, especially with routine, repetitive tasks. However, with AP automation, it is a rare event. A machine is programmed to repeat tasks endlessly in the same manner. It is not getting tired or stressed.
It just follows the same rules in the same way unless there is human intervention.
Another benefit is that the automation process brings standardisation and predictability. This, in turn, increases accuracy. For example, it can code invoices the same way it is instructed or use Purchase Order matching to add all the necessary information.
Other benefits that require your attention.
AP automation reduces the risk of fraud because everything is transparent and allows an effortless audit trail.
AP automation unlocks valuable insights because your data is now processed in real-time. With Ocerra, it can be analysed using your favourite BI tools such as Power BI or Excel.
AP automation enables fast retrieval of records because everything is in digital format.
AP software allows working from anywhere and managing supplier documents in a more organised way.
AP software offers secure file storage as everything is in the cloud. Hint: It is much safer to keep documents in the cloud than on your personal computer or local server.
In Ocerra, we use AWS cloud servers that offer the most secure hosting available on the market. For additional security, we also provide 2-factor authentication.
Consider using an automated invoice approval in Ocerra. Read about the invoice automation benefits here.
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