Is Paperless Invoicing a good decision?

 

Paperless invoicing- Can we do away with paper invoicing? Accounting departments and paper invoices seem to be the best friends when it comes to invoices.

 

Processing paper invoices may have become a way of life and is not harmful. However, organizations must realize the cost and efforts involved in the activity. It becomes more critical in the light of gaining competitive strengths.  Digital accounting solutions create new opportunities to achieve business objectives. Automating accounts payable (AP) can help staff focus on value-add activities. Automation will save time and staff can focus on improved spend management and insightful financial visibility.

Should you switch to a paperless invoicing system?

The best way is to explore the benefits of a paperless invoicing system delivered by today’s latest digital technologies.

Reduce paper invoice processing inefficiencies: There will always be many vendors and suppliers who insist on paper invoices. A sound invoice processing system helps in reducing paper handling efforts. Invoice processing systems today can handle invoices sent by email and other modes. Paper invoices can be scanned and digitized, minimizing data entry efforts. Paper-based processing incurs cost in filing systems. Procuring folders, cabinets, and shelves costs money. Storing them takes effort in hours.  Printers need ink, paper, and maintenance too. Digital archives are cheaper and more secure.

Saving processing costs: Today’s technologies provide the ability to review invoices on systems. One can also map scanned invoices with bank transactions with integration capabilities. Lost and misplaced invoices take a lot of effort to track and process. Valuable person-hours saved can help in staff doing more productive work. Cost per invoice processing decreases, leading to saved costs and increased profits.

Better compliance: As data is available in digital format, it results in greater visibility, accuracy, and faster reports, saving time and efforts. Organizations can take steps to ensure compliance earlier rather than waiting for the compilation of needed data and reports.

Eliminating duplicates: Digital accounting systems perform account payable reconciliations in electronic format, making it easier and faster to correct errors. Invoice management applications can flag issues and send alerts on setting up relevant configurations.

Avoid late fees: Invoice processing applications improve visibility, making it possible to plan payments and receivables efficiently. Data visibility helps in avoiding late fees for delayed payments. Besides, that firms can gain discounts for early payments done. It is all about having data and visibility. Systems can help to schedule alerts and reminders in the invoicing solutions.

Increase sustainability

Paper production is costly to the environment. The paper creation process consumes fossil fuels, water and results in deforestation, air, water pollution, and climate change. Reducing or eliminating paper from your operations decreases the carbon footprint. It increases sustainability.

Going digital

Work with cloud-based automated account payable and digital invoice processing systems. It will help you identify new opportunities to reduce or eliminate paper in the account payables area.

As a start, you can try GetMyInvoices for digitization of paper-based AP processes and later move ahead to paperless processing across your organization.