How (Not Why) You Should Automate AP

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[INDUSTRY BLOG] You’ve attended lectures, webinars, educational sessions, and even conferences where everyone was telling you virtually the same thing – stop processing invoices from paper and start using an AP Automation tool! You even know all of the benefits to implementing a system like that: efficiency, repurposing of resources, greater visibility, metrics, and on, and on, and on, and… you get the point.

What is the one thing no one is telling you? How. How do you convince all of the interested parties involved to implement, let alone fund, a project like this?

Do your homework. Instead of listening to the same material regurgitated several different ways, dig into the sources of data and numbers being presented to you. If you heard a presentation that told you the average cost to process a paper invoice is somewhere around $17-$20, get to the source of those numbers. Apply those calculations to your organization to understand if that is the range you are in.

Study, analyze, and weigh the pros and cons of building an application in-house (like IT wants) or outsourcing it to a vendor whose core business is document processing. There are typically huge upfront costs with an in-house system and don’t forget, the costs don’t end there. While outsourcing it using a software and service provider, you’ll get ongoing support, new features, and a more secure system.

Finally, build a business case. Make sure to include all of the efficient gains, early pay discounts, increased visibility, and lower operating and processing costs. Quantify both dollars and time saved processing invoices from both AP and people in the field, if possible. Also, include what the plans are for the freed up resources. In the end, you’ll quickly see (and so will the interested parties involved) that implementing an AP Automation solution like FileBRIDGE® will pay for itself very quickly.


To learn more about AP Automation, view our webinar-on-demand:

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