For accounts payable groups, the bill approval course of is commonly rife with inefficiency, errors, and lack of visibility. When carried out manually, the approval course of workflow entails a number of handoffs, chasing down reviewers for approvals, and heavy administrative overhead.
It’s a time-consuming, pricey course of vulnerable to slowdowns and errors.
By automating the bill approval workflow via fashionable AP automation options, organizations can speed up processing instances, enhance accuracy, and achieve full transparency into the place invoices are always. Accounts payable groups spend much less time on handbook duties and extra time on strategic priorities.
Able to streamline bill processing at your group? Observe these three easy steps to automate the approval course of workflow:
Step 1: Consider Your Present Course of
Earlier than automating any course of, it’s essential map out and analyze your present bill approval workflow. Doc every step from when an bill is acquired to last approval and cost posting.
This course of analysis ought to establish:
- All handoffs, touchpoints, and approval layers
- Bottlenecks and delays inflicting slowdowns
- Handbook duties vulnerable to errors like knowledge entry, matching, and so forth.
- Lack of visibility into bill standing
- Compliance dangers or audit issues
In case your present course of entails bodily invoices being routed and accredited manually, there are alternatives for automation. However even for corporations already utilizing some bill processing automation, there could also be methods to additional streamline the approval workflow.
As you map out the method, be sure you collect enter from all stakeholders concerned – AP workers, approvers in numerous departments or discipline places, reviewers, accounting group members, and another events. Their firsthand insights will inform the best way to optimally design your automated workflow.
Step 2: Configure Approval Guidelines and Routing
With a transparent image of your present state, now you can leverage the ability of a sophisticated bill processing automation answer to configure smarter approval routing guidelines and speed up cycle instances.
Some key steps embody:
Allow Clever Bill Seize and Knowledge Extraction
Quite than manually keying bill knowledge and even utilizing primary optical character recognition (OCR), search for options that leverage AI and machine studying for extremely correct bill knowledge extraction. This eliminates probably the most time-consuming duties whereas bettering accuracy.
Outline Multi-Tiered Approval Hierarchies
Configure guidelines for automated approval workflows and escalations primarily based on standards like bill quantity, vendor, buying class, location, and so forth. For instance:
- Invoices underneath $5,000 routed to the supervisor for approval
- Invoices $5,000-$25,000 path to director approval after supervisor
- Invoices over $25,000 require VP and/or CFO approval
This ensures the proper monetary controls whereas enabling parallel approvals for sooner processing.
Automate coding, matching, and PO/receipt dealing with
Remove different time-consuming duties by routinely dealing with coding primarily based on guidelines, performing 2-way or 3-way PO and receipt matches, and flagging exceptions for evaluate. This reduces administrative efforts throughout AP, buying, and accounting groups.
Combine Seamlessly Throughout Programs
A contemporary AP automation answer ought to combine immediately together with your ERP, accounting software program, buying methods, and extra. This creates a seamless, end-to-end course of circulation whereas stopping duplicate knowledge entry and errors.
Step 3: Monitor, Measure and Optimize
Even after implementing automated bill approval workflows, the method optimization journey doesn’t cease there. Main AP automation options present highly effective reporting, analytics, and monitoring capabilities to repeatedly measure and improve processes over time.
Monitor Cycle Instances and Measure Productiveness Positive aspects
By monitoring key metrics like common approval cycle instances or invoices processed per worker, you may quantify the productiveness features from automation. Most options allow customized stories for monitoring KPIs that matter.
Establish Remaining Bottlenecks
Analytics instruments also can pinpoint particular areas of the automated course of which can be nonetheless inflicting delays or challenges. Perhaps a sure approval step or escalation rule wants adjustment. Or particular geographics or bill sorts are flowing otherwise than anticipated. With data-driven insights, you may hold fine-tuning the workflows.
Monitor Approval Workloads and Reassign
Complete options present visibility into approval workloads and volumes throughout the group. If sure approvers have gotten overloaded, chances are you’ll have to reassign approval hierarchies primarily based on precise volumes versus job titles or roles. Monitoring instruments allow proactive changes.
Guarantee Compliance and Scale back Exceptions
AP groups also can use reporting and monitoring capabilities to establish and resolve situations of non-compliant invoices, and implement insurance policies round bill approvals, accrual caps, segregation of duties, and extra. Over time, this minimizes exceptions and enhances compliance.
Embracing a “steady enchancment” mindset via monitoring, evaluation, and refinement ensures your automated AP approval processes hold getting higher over time. It permits you to validate and improve your return on funding from automaton.
By following these three steps – analyzing your present course of, leveraging automation to streamline bill approvals, and regularly optimizing primarily based on insights – your accounting group can obtain world-class effectivity, management, and productiveness. The time and value financial savings assist you to reallocate assets in the direction of extra strategic finance priorities whereas gaining higher monetary visibility throughout the group.