Firstly, what’s wrong with manual invoice processing?
Well, like many human-led processes, it is time-consuming, costly, hard to oversee and prone to error. On the other hand, automated invoice processing is: fast, increases productivity improves accuracy and most importantly, helps you to reduce costs.
These days there is a lot of fear that robots are going to take all the human jobs and wipe us out of existence. Indeed, if you walk into a factory you may be surprised at the number of robots that are working on the assembly line. Or if you go to a McDonald’s, you might be met with a tablet rather than a human when it comes to placing your order.
The reality is that in most cases, robots are augmenting rather than replacing humans in the workforce. In many cases, they are doing the menial, laborious or backbreaking tasks that most of us would rather not do, or they are assisting us to make our lives easier.
While there are many aspects of accounting that still require the “human touch” or the “soft” skills required for certain types of decision-making, there are some accounting tasks that robots excel at and that they should be entrusted with.
Using the right software solution, accounting departments can go paperless and automate mundane processes such as routing and approvals.
At first, you might think of automated accounting as something that is complex or scary, but in reality, it can be quite simple. Here’s how it works;
Step One: Capture
Our DocuWare solution uses intelligent optical character recognition (OCR) to automate data entry. OCR allows you to quickly and easily capture information from invoices and ensures those documents are instantly available to everyone involved by uploading the document to a central repository. DocuWare can be integrated with most other popular office software solutions so that the capturing process is greatly simplified and it allows you to ensure compliance by matching purchase orders with received goods and services.
Step Two: Index
As your invoices are captured, all of the accompanying structured and unstructured data is sent to a centralised and secure repository. Then, DocuWare’s document management system indexes them, allowing you to search, manage and modify documents with ease. DocuWare also allows you to make sure each version of the invoice is the latest version, eliminating unnecessary duplicate files.
Step Three: Approve
After an invoice has been captured and indexed, DocuWare’s workflow automation allows you to define how the approval process is executed. You can establish automatic approvals based on invoice amounts, vendor or any other criteria, or set up an automated workflow to route invoices to the key decision-makers. Compliance and productivity are improved thanks to the transparency of the process and as a result, you’ll save money and foster stronger relationships with your customers.
Want to learn more?
Automated invoice processing is just one of the many ways Docuworx helps companies and organisations across Asia Pacific with their digital journeys. Docuworx can show you how to remove huge amounts of work from your accounting team by digitising every invoice and implementing intelligent indexing for secure storage and instant retrieval. We can also help you design preconfigured workflows for approval routing or setup straight-through processing to help speed up the payment process and keep your business on the path to success.
For our next luncheon presentation to find out more about how workflow automation can improve your business.
Or For more info on automated invoice processing and workflows,
