How to automate AP invoice approval workflow?

The AP approval process is the workflow for obtaining authorization to pay supplier invoices (with credit payment terms) that are included in accounts payable before they are paid. Automating the accounts payable approval process in your company is essential because it saves a lot of time, reduces costs, improves cash flow management, strengthens internal controlsand improves supplier satisfaction.

Benefits of Optimizing Your AP Invoice Approval Workflow

Your company will experience time and cost savings and avoid problems and frustrations when you implement a streamlined electronic accounts payable approval system to authorize invoice payments on accounts payable instead of using a manual accounts payable approval process.

Save time and costs by streamlining your accounts payable invoice approval workflow

When your company streamlines the AP invoice approval workflow, you avoid the excessive costs, time loss, and frustrations of a manual AP invoice approval process due to:

• Additional Time-consuming Steps in the Accounts Payable Invoice Approval Workflow
• Bottleneck
• Misplaced and misplaced paper documents
• Repetitive follow-up with approvers
• Respond to many incoming calls and emails from vendors regarding payment status when invoices are not approved in time for payment.

Streamlining your AP invoice approval workflow starts with understanding the inefficient manual approval process that currently exists versus using the productivity of AP automation software, with its automated steps, rules, routing and other built-in efficiencies. Unlike the manual accounts payable approval process for supplier invoices, accounts payable automation software provides simplified electronic accounts payable approval.

Inefficient Workflows in a Manual Accounts Payable Approval Process

In a manual payment approval process, your accounts payable staff can send paper documents, including matching invoices, purchase orders, and receiving documents, to each applicable invoice approver. However, these AP invoice approval process documents do not come from the same source nor are they created at the same time.

The AP invoice manual approval workflow may mean using temporary file folders in filing cabinets to accumulate paper documents into a set that is stapled to the invoice and manually checked for line item matching. (The documents are first verified and collated manually by the Bill Payment Departmentcoded for accounting and entered into the accounting or ERP system for recording before invoices are sent to approvers in the AP approval process).

If this is your company’s legacy paper system for the AP invoice approval process, you will have additional business costs for warehouse storage to archive paper records. Add time to find the invoice you’re looking for in boxes of stored records when it comes time for your income tax audit in later years. And I hope that by then the necessary invoice has not been lost. (If your company uses a scanning service to scan paper invoices for your digital file, add that type of cost.)

Problems with a manual supplier invoice approval process

A manual supplier invoice approval process for accounts payable has inherent problems that take time and cost money to resolve:

1. Who is the approver of this particular invoice? Will additional approval from a second authorized person be required in the payment approval process for invoices that exceed a specific amount?
2. Is this approver physically available in the office to approve invoices supported by other paper documents?
3. Will the approver immediately approve invoices or will AP staff waste time manually sending reminders as part of the invoice approval process?
4. Will paper invoices and matching documents be lost during this AP approval process?
5. The accounts payable department will need to contact the supplier when invoices are missing. This issue delays invoice processing, including the AP invoice approval process.
6. Will a supplier continue to ship products to your company on time when your payments are significantly delayed due to a delay in the invoice approval process?
7. Will your business incur expensive late payment fees from the supplier or miss out on the early payment discounts offered by the supplier in their 2/10, net 30 invoice payment terms?

How to automate the accounts payable approval process

With AP automation software, including automated digital invoice capture and invoice processing with electronic AP approval, your business streamlines your AP invoice approval workflow and saves time and money. money by avoiding the problems of a slow and error-prone manual invoice approval system.

To understand how to automate the accounts payable approval process, consider how to use accounts payable automation software to streamline your company’s accounts payable approval. trade creditors. Then, experience an overview of your entire accounts payable workflow in Flow (by Nanonets), an AP automation software.

Using AP Automation Software to Streamline AP Approvals

AP automation software includes processes for AP approval. With Flow from Nanonet, an AP automation software product, your business can gain efficiency to save at least eight hours per week on your AP approval processusing ai (artificial intelligence) and robotic process automation (RPA) technology. Your company will not need to constantly prepare follow-up emails or use accounts payable staff to communicate with approvers during the accounts payable approval process.

For AP approval, Flow allows you to add specific approvers for accounts payable invoices or use automated, rule-based, ai-powered approvals. Automated expense and accounts payable software is fully customizable to perform company approvals in your AP invoice approval workflow. Company policy is built into the system with these automated rules for AP approval routing to authorized approvers and built-in approver notifications.

Nanonets, a cloud-based system with digital technology bill capture, enables electronic AP approval via email, Slack, or online software. For the payment approval process, approvers can quickly approve vendor invoices and employee receipts from anywhere.

Overview of Accounts Payable Workflow in AP Automation Software

Flow AP automation software by Nanonets allows your company to optimize your accounts payable workflow processes and improve efficiency. Flow software uses a panel menu to:

• Bills
• Income
• Sellers
• Equipment
• Approvals
• Integrations
• Analytics

Flow automation software used for accounts payable management willpower:

1. Automatically receive, electronically read and capture invoice data by item with ai
2. Process invoices quickly to pay on time
3. Create and use automated rules to enable the electronic payment approval process for invoices, add an approver, and automate routing to designated approvers to complete your invoice approvals.
4. Automatically sync approved and coded invoices with your accounting software
5. Allows you to pay an approved supplier invoice (using an integrated payment partner)

To import invoices into the Flow AP automation system, suppliers can automatically import invoices via email or shared drives or upload invoices directly to Flow via Add an Invoice. Flow reads invoices using ai Automation technology and capture invoice data by line item to supplier invoice managementreview, approval, registration and payment.

Invoice processing for accounts payable includes the following steps:

• Invoice Receipt
• Invoice verification
• 3 way match of invoices with purchase orders and receipt documents
• Invoice payment approval in the accounts payable approval process
• Bill payment.

Consider invoice processing as a set of workflow steps for the entire invoice-to-payment process in accounts payable. Invoice processing improves internal controls to detect and flag error exceptions and enforces separation of duties for invoice processing and approval. In this article, we focus on the AP approval step of invoice processing.

Conclusion

With AP automation software, including automated digital invoice capture and invoice processing with electronic AP approval, your business streamlines your AP invoice approval workflow and saves time and money. money by avoiding the problems of a slow and error-prone manual invoice approval system. To start improving your company’s AP approval workflow, take a product tour or view a demo of the AP automation solution. Flow by nanonetworks.