How automated is your AP department?
September 18, 2009 by Jared BilskiPosted in: Benchmarking, Efficiency, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest news & views, Management issues, Technology
Almost all AP departments have some degree of automation but, for many, there’s plenty of room for more.
Fewer than one in five AP departments say they are at a “high” level of automation, according to the initial findings of IOMA’s AP benchmarking study.
The study characterized a high level of automation as significant use of functions such as invoice imaging/scanning, electronic invoicing, some invoice data extraction, automated work-flow, almost paperless processing of employee expense reports for T&E, corporate credit cards, ACH payments, as well as other related technologies.
A medium level of automation, which the majority of companies say they’re at, includes the use of one or more of the technologies mentioned in high automation.
The study described low automation as a mainly manual, paper-based AP department.
Check out the chart below for a breakdown of companies’ automation levels:
If your firm is looking to beef up its automation, here are a few things to consider.
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Tags: ACH payments, AP Automation, Benchmarking study, Electronic invoicing, IOMA
September 24th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Too many companies have tried and failed to achieve the full benefits of automating the accounts payable process because they’ve followed a conventional approach. What is needed is a systematic, strategic approach that takes paper out of the AP process in order to truly automate it.
October 14th, 2009 at 8:26 am
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