4 Major Time-Saving Hacks for Accounts Payable

According to many accounts payable (AP) managers, AP processing is among the most cumbersome and time-consuming processes in accounting. With more than 45% of B2B payments still being manually completed with paper checks, one thing is clear; there is a world of opportunity available to save your time at every stage of the AP process.

From the moment you receive an invoice from a supplier to the time needed to send the payment, there are multiple areas where a solution can save you time and money.

Here we present some hacks in order to save valuable time throughout the entire AP process.

1. Streamlining Methods by Establishing a Routine

There are multiple variables to consider before payment is sent to a supplier. While suppliers tend to send their invoices in a variety of ways, the process of how your team handles the entire process of capturing, approving, and sending payments is something you can control.

Planning how to manage each invoice you receive can help you to save lots of time. Establish routine methods, train every employee to follow them, and later stick to the process each time an invoice is received. It will streamline your entire AP process, and allow you and your organization to become more effective.

2. Eradicate Redundancies by Centralizing Invoices

When you are trying to save time, nothing is worse than paying the same invoice again. Not only is the organization’s time wasted, but now we must deal with processing redundant payments. Now, you must dedicate more company hours in order to re-balance the books and reconcile with your supplier to establish credit.

For organizations with multiple invoice processing taking place from various locations, it becomes easier to fall victim to these kinds of errors. Thus, dedicating a single virtual area in order to process and pay each invoice seamlessly can significantly minimize the number of times these costly errors occurring.

3. Automate Invoice-to-Pay Methods

Investing in an automated AP software has saved organizations as much as 60 hours each month. However, a key feature to look for in order to maximize your investment in an automation system is to choose a solution that automates the complete invoice-to-pay process.

4. Automatically Capture Invoices

The more time you spend manually entering data, the more it is prone to errors over time. When supplier invoices trickle in, it is tempting to put off the process of capturing the invoices off till a future point in time when you can knock them out all at once.

This practice, however, will increase the resources required for reconciliation and resolve the number of errors you will find. Capturing every individual invoice automatically will limit these types of mistakes, and the time it takes to resolve them.

Regardless of the size of your company, you can begin managing your AP process more efficiently in order to save your business money, time, and ultimately streamline your AP methods.