Why Ad Agencies Must Automate their Media Payables End-to-End

Do not underestimate the importance of digitizing media payables end-to-end. Learn why advertising agencies must automate their accounts payable process.

Poorly integrated systems and processes across the invoice-to-pay lifecycle remain challenging for many advertising agencies and media buying companies. This challenge creates a barrier to digital transformation.

For example, at some advertising agencies digital invoice processing solutions feed a manual process. Still other agencies must switch between several systems to process the invoices they receive from suppliers.

Processing invoices and supplier payments cohesively and seamlessly helps advertising agencies and marketing companies address several key issues. One of the most important is the ability to transfer invoice data without requiring manual data entry or human operator intervention. Yet another is the ability to track invoices from the time they are received from suppliers. In cases where invoices don’t match the orders in the media buying system (often caused by incorrect or missing data) or when business rules call for operator review, integration of end-to-end media payables workflows provides quick approvals with full control and complete transparency.

A new breed of cloud-based media payables solutions addresses this issue by providing an end-to-end platform. The platform integrates invoice processing with upstream and downstream systems and processes. It’s easy now to directly connect invoice data capture and workflow approvals at every step of the process. Better connections of digital invoice processing with media buying systems, ERPs, and payment processing solutions improve efficiency and agility. It also accelerates the approval of invoices. Agility is critical as campaigns are ever-changing, and the ability to process any paper or electronic invoice delivered through any channel is a significant process improvement.

 

How to automate media payables

End-to-end integration automates and simplifies typical manual and time-consuming tasks. These tasks span the entire invoice-to-pay lifecycle (from invoice receipt through supplier payment).

This integrated functionality also improves the user experience across the invoice-to-pay lifecycle.

• Buyer-seller experience
• Seller invoice experience
• Invoice-to-ERP integration experience
• Reconciliation on the ERP experience
• Payment experience
• Vendor master data management experience

In many cases, an end-to-end media payables solution will provide the pre-built integrations and digital workflows that improve “time to approval” metrics and reduce costly manual tasks. Only the most experienced providers of cloud-based media payables solutions take things a step further and guarantee the time in which they will deliver invoice data and the accuracy of the invoice data that they capture. The best solutions use its integrated technology to proactively identify and resolve invoice defects. End-to-end integration also improves collaboration among all stakeholders, making it easy for buyers to know where things stand in the process.

Tasks that benefit from end-to-end integration include:

• Invoice posting
• Exceptions resolution
• Payments
• Reporting

Best-in-class media payables solutions digitally transform the media invoice-to-pay lifecycle.

 

The benefits of payables automation for media

Results from advertising agencies and media buying companies that have automated their invoice-to-pay lifecycle end-to-end are compelling. By managing all invoices in a single system and eliminating the need to manually transfer data, advertising agencies alleviate a tremendous amount of work. As a result, it allows the agency to lower its costs and free up staff for higher-value activities.

Agency managers can see the benefits described above. For advertising agencies and media buying companies that want to automate their media payables end-to-end, integration is critical. Without the right technology platform, processing media payables is still a mostly manual and time-consuming activity, no matter how good the upstream and downstream systems and processes around it.

 

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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.