Financial managers are expected to have greater control and visibility over the entire procure-to-pay processes. As the P2P process is one complex business process, businesses need to take an integrated approach to free up working capital and create more agile finance operations.
This can be achieved by making e-procurement and accounts payable work together from the way the product is ordered through all the way the invoice is paid. Automated procurement and accounts payable solutions have broken the barriers by eliminating the inefficiencies, excess costs, and inevitable errors caused by manual and paper-based procedures.
E-procurement Benefits
Most often, companies ignore the adverse effects that result from a lack of visibility. Timely access to comprehensive and accurate spend data gives invaluable intelligence to spending patterns, compliance, and performance. An automated solution provides a real-time view of transactions, contracting pricing terms, and payment processes. This visibility reduces invoice disputes and potential loss of early payments, which can cost you more. Along with the transparency, you can achieve greater efficiency when processes are executed digitally. With an automated accounts payable solution, invoices that match both the PO and receipts will be moved directly to the payment, eliminating the need for the AP department to work with paper documents and manual processes.
Gaining Control is Never Easy
Implementing accounts payable software requires you to divide the responsibilities between purchase department and finance. However, it is hard to get visibility over all the spend processes, which is why balancing spend against revenue is a good practice for effective management. The invoice and procurement solutions give finance executives greater control and accuracy than they ever had before. This would allow the finance department to manage cash flow and capital in a better way, ultimately resulting in greater growth and revenue.
