How Automated Statement Reconciliation Frees Up Your AP Resources

Liberating the AP team to deliver greater value

The nuances and intricacies of reconciling invoice statements are a familiar challenge faced by accounts payable (AP) departments. The laborious manual effort required for this task often consumes valuable time and resources. Thankfully, an innovative solution has emerged: automated statement reconciliation.

The importance of accurate supplier statement reconciliation cannot be overstated. It ensures that financial records align with vendor statements, preventing costly errors and fostering trust in financial transactions.

Here, we outline automated statement reconciliation, its advantages over manual methods, and how it liberates your AP team from repetitive tasks, enabling them to focus on more strategic endeavors that are of greater value to the enterprise.

Benefits of automated statement reconciliation

The benefits of automated statement reconciliation are far-reaching. You really don’t have to dig too deep into the subject to uncover the differences and identify the glaring inefficiencies of manual processing when compared with an automated approach.

• Time and resource efficiency – Automation streamlines the reconciliation process, saving valuable hours that may be used for performing more important tasks.
• Greater precision – Manual errors and discrepancies are drastically reduced, leading to more accurate financial records and minimized financial risk.
• Real-time tracking – Automated systems maintain up-to-date records, allowing discrepancies to be promptly identified and addressed.
• Insights from data analytics – Automation generates data from across the entire system that is analyzed for insights, enabling more informed decision-making, process optimization, and quality management.

Key features of automated statement reconciliation

There is no standardized model for the precise features, navigation, and visual layout of the user interface of an automated statement reconciliation software platform. However, there are some key features and capabilities that any competently designed supplier statement reconciliation system should include:

• Statement and invoice data extraction – Automated systems extract (‘scrape’) and import data from statements and invoices in various digital formats as well as paper, eliminating the need for manual data entry.
• Matching algorithms – Complex algorithms provide the ‘intelligence’ within the system by detecting inconsistencies and discrepancies, flagging potential errors for review by AP team members.
• Identifying exceptions – Exception alerts flag up issues that require manual intervention, notifying AP teams of irregularities and allowing for timely investigation and resolution.
• Robust reporting and audit trails – The data generated by automated supplier statement reconciliation solutions provides the basis for detailed reporting and auditing, ensuring transparency and accountability.

Optimizing workflows and allocating resources

The powerful capabilities of an appropriate automated statement reconciliation solution is truly a game-changer for enterprise accounts payable departments. Automated statement reconciliation reshapes the landscape for AP teams through:

• Minimizing the manual overhead – Automated statement reconciliation systems relieve accounts payable teams from repetitive and time-consuming manual tasks, allowing them to channel their efforts toward more value-added activities.
• Allowing a greater strategic focus – Relieved of mundane and repetitive tasks, your AP team is freed to concentrate on continual improvement to support AP statement matching process optimization as well as strategic initiatives that support the overarching goals of enterprise financial management.

Automated statement reconciliation with APMatching

The effective use of technology is a differentiator that provides a competitive advantage. Consequently, it is a key determinant of continued success. APMatching automated accounts payable software provides enterprises with a sharper, more strategic edge to AP, maximizing efficiency and optimizing operations.

Take a personalised demo with one of our representatives, and we’ll show you how the software eliminates tedious, time-consuming statement matching, manual invoice processing and automates duplicate invoice detection.

If you like what you see, we’ll give you full support so that you can more fully evaluate APMatching with a Proof of Concept (PoC), demonstrating how effective it is by using your own data.