Eliminate manual data entry from your AP workflows

Today as always, efficiency is key to success. Organizations are constantly looking for ways to do more, faster, and with less. But when an organization finds itself burdened with manual processes and repetitive, time-consuming tasks, achieving efficiency can feel nearly impossible.

One area where organizations often struggle with efficiency is accounts payable (AP). Often consumed with manual tasks, inefficient AP teams find themselves facing errors, delays, inaccuracies, and increased operational costs.

Thanks to recent advances in technology, companies struggling with this reality now have a viable solution: implementing an AP automation solution and eliminating manual data entry from their AP workflows.

In this blog post, we'll explore why your organization should adopt an AP automation solution and eliminate manual data entry, streamline workflows, and improve your bottom line.

The real cost of manual data entry

Everyone understands that manual data entry is time-consuming, repetitive, and tedious. But what about some of the less obvious costs of manual data entry? Here are three reasons it could be costing you more than you realize:

• Increased likelihood of errors: Manual data entry is prone to mistakes ― whether due to typos, miscalculations, or missed details. These errors can lead to discrepancies in financial records, delayed, missed, or duplicate payments, and strained relationships with vendors.

• Time spent fixing mistakes: Once they occur, mistakes must be corrected manually ― and often double-or-triple checked to ensure you've got it right. This can easily double or triple the time investment in an initial task.

• Lack of strategic focus: The time-intensive nature of manual data entry stops employees from spending their valuable time and effort on more strategic tasks that could contribute to the growth and success of the company.

At a time when every organization is searching for a competitive edge, these types of inefficiencies are more costly than you might realize.

Reaping the rewards with automated AP

AP automation offers a smarter and more streamlined approach. A robust and customizable AP automation solution like Quadient AP can significantly reduce the time and resources spent on manual data entry, allowing AP teams to focus on more strategic tasks while saving money on their day-to-day workflows.

There are four key areas where AP automation can help:

Invoice processing

AP automation streamlines your invoice approvals, empowering your team to process invoices up to 9x faster. Quadient AP provides:

• Accurate, real-time reporting of monthly accruals

• Unlimited digital invoice storage

• Customized approval channels to reduce the risk of fraud

• GL smart coding for one-click invoice coding

"It used to take two dedicated employees two days a week to manually input invoices into our system. We've reduced that to one day per week between all employees." - Lizette Camacho, Project & Training Manager, Super Mix

Expense management

Expenses represent one of the greatest fraud vulnerabilities in the AP workflow. AP automation provides enhanced transparency into expense reports, receipts, approvals, and payments ― helping reduce the risk of fraud and expense abuse. Quadient AP provides:

• Secure receipt upload and storage

• Robust and customizable approval channels

• Fast reimbursement

"Before, everything was on paper. Reconciling expenses now takes 30 seconds" – Robert Cremers, director of finance and administration, Athabasca Catering

Payment automation and management

Your AP team can save time, increase control, and eliminate duplicate payments with payments automation. Quadient AP provides:

• Reliable and transparent approval for vendor payments

• Immediate two-way sync to eliminate errors and duplicate payments

• Accurate one-to-one reconciliation from your accounting system to your bank account

• Instant batch payments

"When it comes down to accounts payable automation, Quadient AP is number one, there's no question in our minds. We don't have another software offering we look at that can compete in terms of implementing a turnkey solution as quickly and efficiently as Quadient AP." - Dan, Ontario Trucking Association.

Purchase order automation

Improve control and oversight into your planned spending. Quadient AP's automated PO process provides:

• Enhanced spending control with customized limits

• Automatic approval and reconciliation with 2- or 3-way matching

• Integrated purchase requisitions

"We now have access to all of our invoices and corresponding payment information with a few clicks of a mouse." - Samantha M, Dynamic Communications

Implementing an AP automation solution

From purchase orders and invoices to digital payments and expense management, Quadient AP automation delivers stress-free, error-free, automated AP workflows.

When you're ready to invest in Quadient AP to automate your AP process, we're here to help. Book a demo today!

Learn more with our "2023 and beyond: a guide for accounts payable professionals" ebook