Spend less time chasing purchase invoice approvals

Could you improve your invoice management?

Invoice management is not something that the business community particularly excels at. From time that is wasted looking for company information that has been stored in the wrong place, to the 3.6% of manually entered invoices that contain errors, there are time and resource costs to businesses that aren’t properly managing invoice processes. There can also be implications for the wider business – 56% of people who were contacted for one study, for example, said that they’d had issues with business forecasting as a result of gaps in invoice data. So, how do you improve your invoice management and spend less time chasing purchase invoice approvals? Below are five reasons why going digital with a financial management system could be the answer.

Automated workflows

Manual processes slow everything down, particularly when it comes to purchase invoice approvals. Using a financial management system implements automated workflows that are designed to ensure that information and invoices get to those who need to see them with greater speed and efficiency. Automated workflows are also trackable so you’ll always be able to find the invoice and also trace its history.

Compiling data

When invoices are digitised it’s far easier to extract and compile all the data that is held within them. Once you have invoice data in a central location then you can begin to analyse and use it for the broader business, whether that’s to improve invoicing processes or to feed into projections and predictions.

Data storage

Invoices that are processed within a financial management system are carefully stored and easily accessible. So they can be found by those who need to get eyes on them with minimum fuss and time spent. Whether that’s to sort out a dispute over invoices, or to see the history of a client’s payments, it’s much easier to get perspective when invoices are logically archived within a financial management system.

Data integration

The right financial management system will enable integration with existing infrastructure so that financial information can be used to benefit the broader business. There is a great deal of useful information stored in invoice fields and when invoices are being manually stored or entered into a system the benefit of this big data can be lost to a business. A financial management system enables the data to be shared via integrated systems to speed up internal information flows, as well as those with external parties such as clients.

Facilitating reporting

Not every business will benefit from the ability to compile real time reports that incorporate up to the minute financial data – but many will. A financial management system enables invoice data to be used in reporting that can provide clarity on key issues and insights into business practices and history that can be used to identify patterns and make key decisions.

Contact us to find out more about how a financial management system can deliver benefits to the way that you manage invoices and how much more efficient your business could be with this kind of digital support.