AP & AR Automation
The Accounts Payable (AP) and Accounts Receivable (AR) sections of any business are among the most important and difficult aspects to manage. The accounts payable department is designed to focus on money owed by external entities. However, the fund’s receivable department deals with money that’s owed to external entities. When you consider that most businesses and organizations have to deal with pending payments, you’ll understand the importance of these departments.
Many experts consider the AP and AR to be vastly different aspects of a business. However, they both share similarities in the bottlenecks, manual errors, and other problems that arise in accounting for these concepts. You see, AP and AR experience many similar issues which can be solved through the use of automation software. The manual processes of AP and AR cost a lot of time. There’s also a risk of fraud and compliance risks. But the right tools will ensure that these departments run smoothly.
Why Should Manual Processes Be Avoided?
Manual bottlenecks in Accounts Receivables can lead to several data entry errors. These errors will result in further problems, such as delayed or missed payments, and may result in payment disputes too. According to a 2020 study by American Express, manual accounting for accounts receivables usually leads to a 30% longer Day Sales Outstanding Average. The workload of manually accounting for Accounts Receivables will prevent them from dedicating their attention to more important things. They may be unable to reach out to customers with overdue payments and struggle at upselling and cross-selling.
In the same vein, Accounts Payable teams spend plenty of time going through accounting records and documents. The lack of visibility ensures that these teams spend bout 50% of their work day looking through invoices to identify outstanding payments. The occurrence of the pandemic led to further bottlenecks in the entire process. There’s usually no time to attend to other activities. Most AP teams are subject to stressful work environments and have to deal with immense pressure to deliver. This usually leads to manual errors and more reasons for frustration.
What Does AP & AR Automation Offer?
The truth is that automated AR reduces manual input in the data collection and analysis process. The visibility of an AR team is improved using real-time reporting and bi-directional integration. Customers will be given more control over their payments and how they disclose information using a simple payment portal. Using automation solutions, AR teams can focus on reducing the delays caused by manual processing and how to use cross-selling and upselling to grow your business. In addition, AR automation will also help you secure your payment processing and payment recovery processes. Instead of visiting a customer to get your payment from them physically, you can enjoy a more streamlined process that is handled online. This way, you can rest assured that your AR team will meet PCI Compliance and Security measures.
In the case of AP automation, the entire process, including invoice capture and payment processing, will be handled using software and tools. The invoice will be received digitally, and the data that is stored on it will be extracted smoothly. Next, the approval routing and transactions are processed automatically. When AP processes are automated, the business can focus on other activities. It also ensures that there’s more visibility in the process, and you’ll find it easier to identify anything that’s gone wrong. They can access workflow, payment history, etc., in a single interface.
Furthermore, AP automation will increase the productivity of employees. Your staff will no longer have to spend their time searching through documents to identify payment defaulters. Instead, their attention will be focused on how to grow the business along with other essential metrics.
Overall, AP and AR automation ensure that your business can enjoy better time management, adherence to compliance risks, and so on. Undoubtedly, a well-functioning AP and AR department will benefit the industry extensively. At Growq
Biz, the health and performance of your business are our topmost priority. Therefore, we’ll do our best to ensure that all your processes are automated and optimized, including Accounts Payables and Receivables. We have the expertise to take your AP and AR departments to the next level and reduce the amount of human involvement that these processes require. In the long run, we’ll ensure that your business eliminates any bottlenecks and manual errors.
So how will sales gain from marketing automation? Well, it’s all related to how they can easily lock onto prospects. Marketing automation will provide the business with appropriate, well-nurtured leads. Using web tracking and analytics tools, your sales team will stay informed of the web activity of prospective clients. It will provide valuable insight into customer needs, interests, and inclinations. Your sales rep will know customer preferences before kicking off their sales process.
Through campaign construction and analysis tools, your sales team can create and analyze the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. You’ll find out who engages with your business and what they are interested in getting from you. Finally, Lead scoring resources will help to differentiate high-quality leads from those who are less likely to follow up on their purchase decision. These tools ensure that your sales efforts are more direct and effective.