How to Improve Control Over Invoice Processing

When it comes to invoice processing, there are three challenging facts that are probably familiar to most accounts payable leaders:

• “You can’t control your suppliers.”
• “You can’t control internal stakeholders.”
• “You can’t justify large capital investments in accounts payable.”

When you want to improve the efficiency of accounts payable and invoice processing, those are hard facts to swallow.

 

The hardships of AP automation

But the truth is that you can’t control what vendors send you (unless you’re one of the world’s largest retailers). For example, you might receive paper invoices in multiple layouts, e-mail invoices, or attachments to e-mail messages. There are also PDF downloads from the Web. Whatever AP automation solution you use, it has to deal with just about any kind of invoice processing requirement.

You also can’t dictate to other departments in the organization. For example, you can’t tell IT that your AP automation project deserves higher priority than whatever’s at the top of CFO’s list. You have to stand in line with everybody else in the organization.

And if your AP automation solution requires a large capital investment, it’s probably stuck at the starting line. Organizations are squeezing their capital budgets hard these days, and a gain in invoice processing efficiency is probably not on anybody’s list but your own.

 

What’s an AP professional with vision to do?

The advice I offer is simple: instead of worrying about what you don’t control, focus on what you can control.

Focus on your current processes, and your current budget for AP automation.

With the right invoice processing software, you can quickly and cost-effectively automate your accounts payable and turn a paper-based process, prone to errors and lost invoices, into a secure, all-digital process that can handle whatever a supplier throws at you.

Ready to automate accounts payable?  Let’s chat!

 

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Edenred Pay, an Edenred Company, is the global leader in invoice-to-pay automation. Our integrated platform connects businesses with suppliers, ERPs, banks, FinTechs, and payment rails to automate, optimize, and monetize the entire B2B payments lifecycle – from invoice receipt through payment reconciliation. Edenred Pay’s efficient, integrated solutions create a frictionless process and help deliver value to the enterprise by enhancing visibility and monetizing AP.

Visit www.edenredpay.com or contact us to learn more.