DCA News Blog
New Aberdeen Research Shows AP Automation Pays Off
Posted on 11/16/2010
Accounts Payable is gaining more and more momentum as a strategic function within enterprises. With pressures to increase visibility, compliance and efficiency while cutting costs, many have taken advantage of technology to streamline AP processes.
The Aberdeen Group recently conducted a study of over 150 companies to uncover best practices in Accounts Payable among the top performers. They discovered that the cost to process an invoice for the average enterprise was almost four times the cost of those classified as best-in-class enterprises. Additionally, it took almost four times longer. So what are the best-in-class doing to set themselves apart?
As a starting point, the participants identified a need to evaluate current AP operations to eliminate bottlenecks and standardize a set of best practices for the receipt and workflow of invoices. It is important to quantify the associated time and cost to manually process paper invoices and to reallocate these resources to areas of more strategic value. This upfront effort will lay the groundwork for smoother automation implementation down the line.
Document capture and workflow technologies with automated approval routing have proven a significant ROI by reducing cycle times, lowering transaction processing costs and eliminating manual data entry. This enables AP staff to better manage supplier relationships by eliminating potential errors and providing real time tracking of invoices in the procure-to-pay cycle. Choosing the right technology not only addresses performance goals, it also enables finance managers to monitor organizational performance for financial reporting and budgeting. To complete the solution, it is important to tightly integrate AP processes with existing ERP systems.
For more information on how AP automation solutions can add strategic value to your organization, please contact DCA.
Tags:
accounts payable
workflow
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