Accounts payable automation is an easy way of adapting some elements of the finance function. It takes your current purchasing and payable processes and digitises them, meaning that vendor invoice activities are streamlined and enhanced. It’s a change that leads to safer, more efficient, and cost-effective AP operations. Automation in this one area can have a profound knock-on-effect on the accounting workflow (and entire business!).
Here are 5 signs which indicate that accounts payable automation could be an opportunity for you to give your process a not-so-little lift.
1. You're drowning in paperwork
Are you swimming in a sea of paperwork, battling the tide of lost AP documents or feeling overwhelmed by filing cabinets? Too much paper can be a challenge, especially when the time comes for audit or remote work means that paperwork is literally out of reach. If your purchasing or AP processes are paper-based, you may find that things go missing, get delayed, or that you lack visibility on spend. Add in multiple entities and these issues are multiplied.
Automated invoice processing can help you gain control over your AP processes, leaving you on the front foot when it comes to doing your work in Sage 50 or Sage 200.
2. Manual processes are taking their toll
As the business grows, so does the number of invoices and the volume of manual tasks facing the finance function skyrockets. Hours spent inputting invoice data into Sage 50/200, individually coding line items, reconciling statements, and generating reports again and again can feel like an endless cycle. Does month-end feel like it will never end? To cope with the volume of manual labour, you might be feeling pressure to grow the finance team which is costly and energy zapping. By automating manual tasks like invoice processing, you can free up your finance team to work smarter and use their skills for higher value tasks.
A high quality AP automation software will automate data capture with 100% accuracy and take the burden off staff, whilst reducing the need to hire more heads to do tedious work.
3. The perils of staff turnover
When experienced employees depart, you may lose their specific knowledge, access to historical data, and inherent understanding of business processes... they always knew exactly what to do with that particularly tricky invoice from that one random supplier.
According to the Spotlight Global Trends Advisory Report, hiring and retaining talent remains the number one challenge for finance teams in 23/24. If this resonates with you, rather than trying to squeeze the gold out of your leaving employees so you can get new staff up to speed, why not fix the root cause instead?
Implementing an intelligent AP solution allows you to train the software to understand your niche processes, creating a scalable and sustainable way of working.
4. Reporting blind spots
Another sign you may notice is that while reporting in Sage 50 and Sage 200 is great, it's not without blind spots, particularly when it comes to everyday financials and the finer details. With consistent supplier price increases and a multitude of socio-economic factors that impact profit and loss, getting into the weeds can help identify areas where costs can be saved and budgets maximised. By leveraging accounts payable automation for Sage, you can eliminate errors and rework, and extract line item details to drill into the numbers you need to make smarter decisions.
“My organisation wanted to scale rapidly, so I saw this as a chance to embrace something new and smarter for the business.” - Barry Casey, Head of Finance at Healthcare Ireland Group
5. You're thinking "there must be a better way"
And finally… a culmination of all these issues, or just a strong dose of one has you thinking that this simply can't be the most efficient way of working. You might even see other businesses and wondering how they are staying afloat so effortlessly. The truth is, they're employing the right mix of software to take the weight off.
“Most businesses feel the pains of manual AP tasks but do not realise the costs of it. Time-consuming tasks such as manual entry, approvals and error handling do not appear in a Profit and Loss statement, but the cost is there, buried in rows and affecting the bottom line." - Chris Gregg, Founder & CEO of Lightyear
In Conclusion
Improving your processes doesn't have to mean a complete overhaul of your workflows. By implementing the right AP software alongside Sage 50 / Sage 200, you can provide new benefits for your finance team and business as a whole. AP automation isn't just about saving time and cutting costs—it's about enhancing the user experience and maximising the potential of your core accountancy software.
See how AP Automation could enhance your current processes
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