Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love and relationships, but we all know that some relationships just don’t work out.
Your business has needs. And if you’re financial processes aren’t meeting them, it’s time to move on. You deserve better, and so does your team.
Here are five manual processes that it’s time tell, “I’m just not that into you.”
Manual Data Entry
Recent studies suggest that workers lose an estimated 91 business days each year on low-value tasks like data entry. That isn’t just a lot of wasted time, it’s also a major contributing factor in employee burnout and turnover.
As if that weren’t enough, it’s also error prone. A simple keystroke error can lead to overpayments, financial loss, and compliance issues that complicate audits. That’s hardly a reliable relationship.
Compare that with an automated process.
In accounts payable (AP), data from incoming invoices is captured by optical character recognition (OCR) and then scanned by artificial intelligence (AI) with machine learning (ML). Data is captured with 99% accuracy and smart coding features allow you to quickly code your invoices with the single click of a button.
On the accounts receivable (AR) side of things, manual data entry can lead to:
- Transposition errors: swapping numbers like $54 and $45
- Incorrect amounts: listing the wrong numbers, for example entering $10,000 when you mean to write $1,000
- Incorrect customer information: simple typos in customer name, address, or other vital data
- Misapplied payments: accidentally applying a payment to the wrong customer or account
These issues can lead to late payments, disputes, and even customer churn, all of which impact your cash flow.
An AR automation solution integrates with the rest of your tech stack, such as your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions. Data is automatically shared between the systems in a centralized, cloud-based location. No more manually keying data from one system to another.
Manual Expense Management
Imagine coming across this profile when searching for finance solutions:
- Messy stacks of receipts and expense forms
- Tedious manual audit and verification
- Highly susceptible to fraud
You’d immediately swipe left, right?
But if you’re in a relationship with manual expense management, that’s exactly what you’re getting. Need proof? A startling 19% of expense reports contain errors, and each error adds about $52 and 18 minutes of rework.
When you consider that simply switching to an electronic expense management process cuts your costs by 58%, the choice seems simple. But the good news doesn’t stop there.
Using a financial automation solution, every step of expense management is made simple. With mobile access, employees can upload receipts and expense forms from anywhere, at any time. The data is scanned by AI, which flags out of policy claims as well as suspicious transactions, reducing your exposure to potential fraud.
Those are the sorts of features that will make you swipe right.
Manual Approvals
Good relationships depend on good communication, but manual approvals make that almost impossible.
Imagine this:
Your company receives an invoice. It’s printed out by an AP representative, who then takes it to the appropriate approver’ s desk to drop it off, where it promptly lands in a pile of other documents. If you’re lucky, it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle, but there’s no guarantee. Then, the waiting game begins. Reps are caught chasing after approvers, sending repeated emails or stopping by their desk to try and get the needed signature. In fact, AP teams are estimated to spend 20% of their time chasing approvals alone. That adds up to one day every week!
With financial automation software, invoices are received and immediately routed to the appropriate approver. Custom workflows can be created for scenarios such as requiring multiple signatures on an invoice over a certain amount. You can even separate approval routes for invoices based on location, department, project, vendor, and more. Digital reminders are automatically delivered to the approver until the invoice is signed off, meaning nothing gets lost or forgotten about.
Those clear lines of communication lead to faster approvals, better cash flow, and happier vendors.
Manual Cash Application
Do you enjoy matching remittance advice to invoices? Hunting down records between various systems? What about ballooning DSO? Or keeping leadership in the dark about the organization’s financial situation?
Of course not. Any one of those things alone should be a deal breaker, but manual cash application gives you all of them. It’s time to send it packing.
Now look at what an automated FA solution help you:
- Auto-allocate based on remittance data by electronically extracting data from customer remittance and matching the customer and invoice data
- AI and ML which will consider data such as the type of payment, the amount, and any remittance data to provide a suggested customer when payment is provided without customer information
- Cash automatically applied back to your ERP, providing you with saved time and happier customers
Take our advice, and tell manual cash app, “Sorry. It’s not me. It’s you.”
Dispute Management
In every relationship, disputes are inevitable. What separates the good from the bad is how those disputes are handled.
Disputes have to be analyzed, logged, and researched. Frequently, additional information must be requested before approval can be given and a credit issued.
Manually managing these processes can lead to:
- High Operational Costs & Inefficiency: Emails and phone calls are slow and labor-intensive, driving up your Days Sales Outstanding (DSO).
- Lack of Visibility and Traceability: Because the process isn’t centralized, it’s difficult to monitor the progress of disputes or maintain a reliable audit trail.
- Poor Customer Experience: Slow resolution and inconsistent communication lead to customer frustration and potential churn.
- Information Silos: Lack of centralized processes and data make it difficult to collaborate, with limited visibility into information shared across departments.
Yikes! That’s a lot of baggage to handle.
With an automated system, customers can raise a dispute through a customer self-service portal. AI then analyzes the dispute. If it can be handled without human intervention, so as a request for an invoice copy, the system will handle the problem immediately. If it requires human intervention, the system will prioritize it based on severity and then flag it for review.
Because financial automation systems integrate with your other systems, information is quickly shared between departments, claims can be quickly analyzed, and a solution promptly offered. This not only keeps your customer happy, but ensures that you get paid quickly.
Thank You, Next
Manual processes may have worked once, but these days they just don’t cut it. Your finances and your team deserve better. It’s time to tell them goodbye, and move onto something better.
This Valentine’s Day, embrace finance automation. To see what it can for you, book a demo with one of our AP or AR specialists.
