Just how much could YOU save by automating your AP processes?

Is your accounts payable (AP) department leaking money? If AP is still largely paper-based then the answer is ‘YES’!

AP is laborious and expensive when done manually. From entering invoice data into the ledger through to printing out and posting remittance advices, it all takes time and it all costs money. In the most labour-intensive AP departments, AP teams can spend the majority of their time on tedious administration meaning there is little time to add value. In fact, labour costs typically consume 62 per cent of total AP costs, according to research firm APQC.

The most unprogressive AP departments will also use up A LOT of paper as every single purchase invoice gets photocopied at least once and sometimes three or four times. When combined with the costs of postage, printer cartridges and document storage, invoice processing can cost a small fortune! It’s perhaps unsurprising that analysts from Gartner report that typical invoice processing costs in the UK can be up to £25 per invoice and in some cases, as high as £50!

It’s not unrealistic to achieve savings of 60-80 per cent by moving from traditional paper-based processing to automated AP*, meaning that you could save 80p out of every £1 spent on AP. Organisations will also typically enjoy a payback period of 0.5 – 1.5 years*. Such huge savings cannot be ignored!

As tried and tested AP technologies now exist which can shave thousands of pounds (if not hundreds of thousands of pounds) off organisations’ AP processing costs, it’s mind-boggling why so many companies still allow themselves to get bogged down with paper-based AP processing. Isn’t it time you gave YOUR AP processes an overhaul?

 

Just how much could YOU save by automating your AP processes? by