If Accounts Payable Is Knee-Deep In Invoices Isn’t It Time For A New Approach?

Up to your knees in invoice matching and admin

Managing a high volume of invoices can often make an accounts payable (AP) team feel overwhelmed. For many the experience of manual invoice matching is that it seems like they are permanently knee-deep in paperwork. Some are resigned to the fact that it’s an accepted part of how AP operates – it simply goes with the territory.

Dealing with the sheer volume of invoices by using manual processes and established accounts payable methods presents significant challenges for large-scale businesses. Enterprises receive a constant influx of invoices from vendors, suppliers, and service providers and accounts payable departments may find themselves inundated with a staggering number to process, approve, and pay.

For large-scale businesses, this can be of the order of 80,000 to 1.5 million + every year. Manual accounts payable invoice processing methods, which rely on paper-based systems and manual data entry, struggle to keep up with this relentless tide.

Wider and more serious consequences than just creating drag on AP

The consequences of being knee-deep in invoices are far-reaching and may impact and drag on wider aspects of the business. Performing manual invoice matching by accounts payable teams impacts business performance, undermines best practices and erodes the foundations of solid financial management through:

• Longer processing times – this may result in delayed payments and strained relationships with vendors. It may also impact the productivity of the enterprise, and in cases where supplier credit control suspends delivery of goods or services until payments are brought up to date, the ability to meet customer delivery or fulfilment deadlines.
• Increasing the risk of errors – manual invoice matching methods are prone to human errors, such as data entry mistakes, misplacement of documents, and incorrect calculations. These errors can lead to payment discrepancies, duplicate payments, and even compliance issues, causing further delays and financial implications for the organisation.
• Distracting from bigger financial management aims – a manual invoice matching methodology requires significant time and effort, leaving little room for other important AP objectives such as managing GINR, and may distract from higher-level strategic financial management matters, such as prudently managing cash flow and working capital.

In short, the burden of manual invoice matching not only impacts the efficiency of the accounts payable department but also affects the organisation’s overall financial health. Quite simply, in an increasingly fast-paced and technology-driven business environment, the traditional approach to accounts payable is no longer sustainable. However, with automated accounts payable software, it doesn’t have to be like that.

Rapid and accurate invoice matching with APMatching automation

APMatching Invoice-Matching is a cloud-based Managed Service that delivers matched invoices to any Cloud ERP or S2P system via API integration.

The service automatically compares invoices received from vendors to purchase orders (POs) issued from your procurement tools to ensure that they are accurate and that they match the goods or services that were actually received.

The software seamlessly delivers matched invoices to your cloud ERP or S2P platform, eliminating the need for manual intervention by the Accounts Payable team. This enables timely payments to suppliers, minimises query management, and allows the team to focus on value-added tasks.

To ensure compliance with global mandates, our invoice-matching Managed Service handles supplier invoices from various electronic invoicing (einvoicing) networks. Regardless of the format, including email, XML, PDF, or image format or paper hardcopy, we swiftly extract the relevant data.

Through the use of extensive invoice-matching rules, the Invoice-Matching application accurately matches invoices line-by-line to purchase orders. This results in all accurately matched invoices being delivered to your Cloud ERP or S2P platform seamlessly, and without any involvement from the Accounts Payable team.

Any exceptions that cannot be matched and which require human intervention. Are flagged so they can be given the attention they need. Automated exception handling is based on predefined rules so that unmatched invoices can be promptly addressed in line with your specific process requirements.

With the heavy lifting of invoice matching to POs done automatically, AP teams stop feeling like they are knee-deep in paperwork. This gives more time to focus on more important AP functions, as well as better supporting the enterprise finance function’s bigger goal of delivering on strategic financial management objectives.

Take a personalised demo with one of our representatives, and we’ll show you how the software eliminates the tedious, time-consuming manual invoice matching and processing that is widely practised.

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 using your own data.