• Homepage
  • Our Solutions
    • Records Storage and Document Management
      • Deed Storage
      • Long Term Storage
      • Media Storage Solutions
      • On Demand Storage
      • Onsite Management
      • Secure Vault Storage
    • Invoice Automation Solution
      • Start Your AP Journey
      • Kefron AP Integrations
    • Online Document Solutions
      • Online Document
        Management Software
      • Online Document Storage
    • Scanning and Data Capture
      • Book Scanning
      • Digital Mailroom
      • Document Scanning
      • Scan to Digitise
      • Scan to Process
    • Business Process Services
      • Data Management
      • Data Subject Access Requests
      • Securities and Deeds Management
      • GDPR Services
  • Who We Are
    • About Kefron
    • Who We Are
    • Contact Us
    • Careers
  • News & Events
    • News & Events
    • Articles & Updates
    • Customer Stories
    • Upcoming Events
    • On-demand Events
  • Let’s Talk

How AP Automation Can Enhance Control And Visibility Across Your Business

In the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic, businesses have been forced to face challenges that would not normally have appeared as key challenges. One such area is Control and Visibility, with procedures now largely being operated through remote working. But through AP Automation, these are elements that are already greatly enhanced.

Some of the more cautious businesses have been slow to adopt the benefits of automated accounts payable systems, preferring to stick by tried and trusted manual processes that remain heavily reliant on paper or hardcopy documentation.

These days, systems are stretched to their limits, with skeleton staff manning the normally well-populated office. Travel restrictions and social distancing regulations, introduced to help in the battle against the COVID-19 crisis, make business continuity more complex, with Forbes reporting that 54% of US companies stating that working from home would have a ‘significant impact on their finance team’s ability to process invoices’. But in truth, there have always been hindrances associated with traditional procedural practices.

How AP Automation Boosts Control and Visibility

Simply by ensuring a greater level of visibility and, by consequence, tighter control of procedures and their results.

Visibility

Manual processes fail to deliver the level of invoice visibility necessary to be completely on top of things. What this means it takes time and effort to check the status of any invoice, whether it was received, processed, approved and paid.

And with a physical hardcopy invoice, simply getting your hands on it can depend on such basic factors as filing accuracy and processing efficiency. In fact, according to an AIIM survey, 68% believed that ‘business-at-the-speed-of-paper would be unacceptable in a few years’ and manual data entry practices had a high error rate.

The key hindrances include:

  • Slow multi-stage procedure, from receipt to approval
  • Approval must be granted by on-site reviewer
  • Approval confirmations must be sent and read
  • Invoices mislaid due to human error
  • Approvals miscommunicated or lost

Beyond the simple procedural impediments, the traditional manual procedures cause issues with the accurate tracking of cash flow, with uncertainty sometimes cropping up over the flow of finances in and out of a company.

An Automated AP system, however, includes all of the necessary elements in a single, easy to access platform. Received invoices, both paper and electronic, can be immediately uploaded and captured directly to the system, allowing complete visibility of any invoice at any stage of the process.

And because all relevant data is stored within the secured AP platform, pre-authorised personnel, whether members of the financial department or designated reviewers and approvers have immediate access to all of the relevant information even from the comfort of their own homes.

The key benefits available in the current COVID-19 scenario include:

  • Easy access to unlimited users
  • Simple and immediate document retrieval
  • Immediate document cross-referencing
  • Automated duplicate checking
  • Fast reconciliation of AP records
  • Automated invoice approval
  • Real time up-to-date reports

Control

Having enhanced visibility drives accountability and provides greater control of the AP process. Automated accounts payable systems ensure that every document is easily retrieved, traced through every step and simple to confirm payment of or not.

With a greater degree of control over the process, from start to end, comes more effective document oversight and management. But of course, there are other reasons why maintaining excellent control is so important. There are a host of other responsibilities companies are obliged to meet. Not least amongst them are:

  • National legislation
  • Sector regulations
  • Company policies
  • Best practices
  • Good Governance standards

These elements can be inputted into a system too when adopting AP automation, ensuring that each is applied to procedures automatically. This further negates the risk of human error and provides benefits such as:

  • Improved regulation compliance
  • Detailed segregation of duties
  • Incorporation of multiple approvers (if necessary)
  • Effective fraud prevention

 

To find out more about Accounts Payable Automation click here.

BlogInvoice Automation

Related articles

How Do You Measure the Success of Your Finance Team? KPI Trends in 2022

BlogInvoice Automation

Without a doubt, accounts payable (AP) is one of the most critical functions in every modern enterprise. After all, each firm must pay its bills. Thus, improving your AP represents a core avenue for your business growth. Although change is rarely ea...

Read more

How a motor manufacturer reaches 90% touch-free invoice processing

Customer StoriesInvoice Automation

While Heritage Parts Centre continues to expand, now offering customers online channels to purchase parts and communicate with the company, its accounts payable process remained relatively unchanged, with the finance team manually processing the inco...

Read more

How a shared services company facilitates growth while reducing costs

Customer StoriesInvoice Automation

The team at CVS Group were spending a lot of time transferring data manually from invoices into the ERP system. As the company continues to grow, CVS Group needed a standardised AP process that would increase invoice processing efficiency and improve...

Read more

Kefron AP & Netsuite – Non-PO Matching

Read time: 6 minutes

VideoInvoice Automation

As a “Built for NetSuite” partner, Kefron AP enables fast, automated processing of accounts payable invoices so only clean, validated data passes to NetSuite for payment processing. Watch this video to find out how Kefron AP simplify the Non-PO M...

Read more

Kefron AP & Netsuite – PO Matching

Read time: 6 minutes

VideoInvoice Automation

Maximise your NetSuite investment with our powerful Built for NetSuite certified API integration that enables fast, automated processing of accounts payable invoices so that only clean, validated data is passed to your NetSuite system for payment pro...

Read more

Supplier Statement Reconciliation – First Look

Read time: 6 minutes

VideoInvoice Automation

Kefron AP has introduced an add-on purpose built for Supplier Statement Reconciliation that automates the reconciliation of invoices received and invoices the supplier claims to have sent. Find out how by automating Supplier Statement Reconciliation ...

Read more

How a school moves away from manual invoice processing

Customer StoriesInvoice Automation

For a busy school like Mill Hill managing the accounts payable process manually can be a real challenge. So achieving a paperless accounts payable process for ease of processing, approval and record-keeping became a priority.

Read more

How a retail company eliminates mundane tasks from the AP process

Customer StoriesInvoice Automation

Emma Bridgewater saw an opportunity to automate the scanning of invoices and the day-to-day tasks as they realised the AP processes employed by the AP team were largely outdated and many of the tasks were mundane.

Read more

How a growing manufacturing company turned to AP technology

Customer StoriesInvoice Automation

As a global leader in tool manufacturing, Technicut processes thousands of invoices per month through three separate businesses across the UK and Ireland. Managing the accounts payable process manually had become a real challenge and as a result, Tec...

Read more

How a roadside retailer reimagined its multisite invoice challenge

Customer StoriesInvoice Automation

Applegreen experienced exponential growth across Ireland, UK and US.  The Accounts Payable (AP) process team struggled to keep up with new sites, complex or complete lack of invoice coding and the increased volumes of invoices.

Read more

Get in touch

United Kingdom
63-66 Hatton Garden
London, EC1N 8LE
T: +44 (0)118 997 7380

Ireland
53 Park West Road
Dublin 12, D12 F8RK
T: +353 (0)1 438 0200

Connect with us

twitteryoutubeinstagramlinkedinfacebookvimeo

  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Sitemap

© Copyright 2022 Kefron. All Rights Reserved

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie SettingsAccept All
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT