In these unrelenting times of austerity, it is SMEs who continue
to suffer and have to make further cuts. However, savings can be made through
improving efficiency of business processes in order to maximise budgets. One
area which presents an opportunity to fine tune such processes is within the
finance department itself.
While the majority of businesses have invested in
implementing Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) over the years, this
technology fails to virtualise and automate all processes – leaving finance
departments with manual paperwork to be completed, often during the “purchase to payment” process.
Nearly 80% of all invoices are still delivered to a
business on paper. And where an electronic method of delivery is implemented,
invoices are still delivered as PDF files, presenting an unstructured document
for the individual that cannot be read by the ERP program.
Few SMEs have the luxury of moving to a full Electronic
Data Interchange (EDI) approach, which is often taken by many enterprises to
standardise documents sent between recipients. In addition to this, with paper
based files and PDFs likely to be maintained for years to come, SMEs need to
consider solutions that will combat these issues and embrace unstructured
documents.
SMEs opting for an invoice process solution that
automates the accounts payable process will eliminate clerical tasks associated
with filing and processing invoices through automation thus, reducing cost and
resource spent. Furthermore, the system increases control and visibility across
the company, and allows immediate and secure access to the data.
A business automation approach based on document capture,
management and workflow can enhance existing business processes and compliment
the investment in existing ERP systems. With costs of new generation document
management and workflow systems, SMEs now have a viable option to transform
their purchase processes that offers a compelling ROI.
Click here to discover how Invu’s Invoice
processing solution can benefit your business.
