• 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 Facilitates Business Productivity Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic

There is no doubt that the past 15 months have been a difficult time for businesses in all sectors. The global pandemic has caused immense upset to normal working practices. Automated Accounts Payable systems allow Financial Departments to adapt to the new way of working, protecting the bottom line and maintaining productivity.

At first glance, the challenge of keeping productivity levels up may seem practically impossible. After all, access to the office facilities has been seriously curtailed with significant numbers of employees working from home. So, during the crisis, the practicalities of meeting existing commitments, never mind developing and introducing new businesses services, was a far tougher task.

Ardent Research shows a quarter of businesses suffered a ‘High Impact’ due to the pandemic, with overall business operations seriously restricted.

A major area of that operation, however, is the Finance Department, and the ability to process Accounts Payable quickly and effectively plays a critical role in keeping everything running as smoothly as possible. AP automation has been able to help guide companies through the maze more effectively.

In fact, there are several ways in which an automated AP system helps businesses to overcome the challenge.

1. Access is Unhindered

With teams unable to come together and the normal office facilities not close to hand to those remote working, even straightforward tasks become near-impossible in an AP process still based on manual practices. Documents cannot be accessed, so checks are hard to do and approvals even harder.

However, because automated AP systems scan and electronically store all invoices received, these documents can be accessed from anywhere – even from a kitchen table. Specific employees are given prior permission to access the system, ensuring security, but the key consequence is that the invoices of your valuable suppliers can be processed and approved swiftly and smoothly.

2. Greater Productivity

Because AP automation means the digital storing of invoices, employee workloads are reduced dramatically with some research revealing as much as 70% of managers’ time is freed up. In a previous post, we revealed that Kefron AP, our own automated AP system, helped our customers save significant time on a range of typical procedural areas.

What we discovered is that an automated system allows PO Matching to be completed in a 65% faster time, with Approvals also completed 65% quicker, Document Retrieval 95% faster and the time spent dealing with Duplicates reduced by 100%.

3. Digital File Sharing

Of course, distributing and sharing documents is an important part of achieving greater efficiency and, as a consequence, productivity. Once again, with colleagues separated in their homes and little access to paperwork stored in the office, traditional manual processes wouldn’t offer a solution to the new challenge.

However, because all documents are stored digitally with an automated AP system, the documents that need to be shared between team members, or officially approved, can be done so in one central location. So, no need to email 15 others and hope the attachments are ‘attached’.

4. Technology Strengths Suppliers Relations

The traditional invoice processing method includes a litany of time-demanding procedures designed to ensure accuracy. Checking and double-checking figures can slow down the overall AP process, costing valuable time as well as money.

But through the existence of a Supplier Portal, automated AP solutions become a centralised location where accredited suppliers can access their own invoices to learn the status of their invoices. So, the number of requests, reminders and queries are reduced, freeing up time for your AP team to work on other areas.

5. Gain Insights Into Trends

With AP automation gathering and storing documents electronically, the ability to garner detailed insights from the archived data becomes simpler. Reporting can be done in real time, so any insight is as up-to-date and relevant as they can be, allowing the key factors that affect productivity and performance to be identified quickly. Action can then be taken to either improve or maintain those figures.

6. Continued High Productivity Post-Pandemic

It may seem like an overly optimistic prediction, but data is showing that even in the post-pandemic world, high productivity levels can be enjoyed. Research has already shown that, in general, employees are reacting very well to working from home. In fact, 88% of participants in a recent FlexJobs survey stated their productivity increased or stayed the same while remote working. And some 65% wanted to work permanently from home, and 33% have a hybrid working model after the Covid-19 pandemic is over. With AP automation, either of these scenarios can be facilitated with no upset to the overall operation.

If you would like to talk to a Kefron’s team member about an invoice automation solution that is highly adaptable to business processes and rules, 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