Go Beyond AP: Elevate and Scale with Financial Processes Automation

To automate or not to automate? That’s no longer the question.

When it comes to financial processes that go beyond accounts payable (AP) like contract management, expense reporting, payroll, order fulfillment, etc.—the question is—why haven’t you automated yet?

You may have given an AP processing solution the green light to save your understandably beleaguered AP team. But optimizing one part of your finance team without boosting support for the rest of your financial processes is like doing a software update for one part of your computer.

Sure it runs efficiently, but how is that effective when everything else lags behind?

Benefits of financial process automation

Before we jump into areas that give your finance team a needed boost, let’s look at three benefits of financial process automation.

Save time

It’s no secret that technology makes our lives easier. So wouldn’t it be great for your finance team? It can help them access documents, spreadsheets, or any additional pertinent information from one integrated solution.

As with your AP team, the rest of your finance team members probably aren’t fans of losing valuable work time combing through files or continuously reaching out to other departments to get what they need.

Automating that incoming information can keep your team focused on important tasks and less time dealing with information-hide-and-seek.

Data consolidation

Centralizing your systems through one solution that seamlessly integrates with NetSuite can help with speed, accuracy, and tracking.

By accessing everything in one place, from vendor bills, contracts, orders, and invoices to spreadsheets, approvals, and communication, your finance team can give you a better 360-look at your business when mulling big decisions.

Improved efficiency

With most finance teams working lengthy hours, two things are bound to happen: inefficiency and human error. It’s a struggle to keep up with the constant incoming flush of information.

And with a workload like that, mistakes may not come up until an audit.

An automated process for your finance team is like the first sentry at the gate, organizing the incoming information and categorizing it for a smooth entry. Plus, with technology, such as PairSoft’s Smart Document Recognition, you have a greater chance of importing clean, accurate data.

Give your finance team a boost by automating these processes

By 2021, your automation solution should go beyond invoice processing. But to give your finance team, and the rest of your departments, a boost in productivity, here are a few areas that could use some automation love:

Vendor Management

Instead of the passive method of receiving vendor bills in whatever form the vendor chooses, why not have vendor info, including bills, reports, and updates, submitted in a way you prefer?

Your finance team can streamline the vendor management process through a vendor-facing portal that automatically organizes the incoming data in the way your business wants to receive it.

Optimizing vendor management offers dual benefits by supporting both your AP team and your vendors.

The AP team can have access to the info they need, in the way they need it, to allow for faster processing. On the other side, the vendor can use the same system to confirm the bill was received and check to see where it stands in processing.

More efficiency for your vendors means less time fielding bill payment status phone calls by the AP team—something they’re bound to appreciate.

Contract Management

Outside of the contract itself, each vendor agreement is bound to have a collection of corresponding documents containing pertinent information such as legal, pricing, and service details. Aside from organizing and managing those details, there’s also the contract implementation itself.

But how does that boost financial automation? Remember what we said about time and efficiency?

Automated contract management helps your managers and implementation specialists, but it also prevents your finance team from spending hours (or worse, whole days) following up on each contract’s financial details and obligations. Not to mention, a sufficient contract management solution greatly reduces the risk of overpayment.

Sales Order Capture

Sales order transactions are key drivers of incoming financial data.

But suppose you’re relying on manual entry or a third-party scanning solution that can’t adjust to updates or a slight change in template. In that case, both your finance and business development team could be negatively affected (not to mention the company-at-large).

A smart solution that can automate data entry efficiently saves both of your teams from that headache. An automated solution that can navigate changes or updates to gather the crucial information your finance team needs provides more transparency, requires less time, and gets your sales orders processed in real-time.

Order Fulfillment

Do you know what your finance team loves more than knowing they’re on top of vendor bills? Having a system in place that tracks order fulfillment, invoicing to the client, and payments received.

Order fulfillment automation helps your finance team follow up on accounts receivable (AR) without tracking documents, forms, or even individuals managing order fulfillment. A better process for accounts receivable means a smoother way of collecting on invoices.

Optimize to scale and save

The life of a finance team member can be unforgiving: long hours, mountains of financial data, and the need to have a map to every piece of it.

As you did with your AP team, get your finance team to love you by optimizing your financial processes through a smart automation solution that gives your business the efficient boost it needs.

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Feel a bit overwhelmed? PairSoft takes the guesswork out of data processing and automation for your finance team. Plus, its seamless integration with NetSuite helps you find everything you need without switching through applications.

Optimize the way your business works by connecting with us today.