Canon Guest Post
Businesses are consistently under intense pressure to reduce operational costs. One way to accomplish this is to reduce the high cost of invoice processing by replacing manual invoice processing with automation technology.
According to IOFM, 39% of businesses pay more than $6 to manually process a single invoice, with many businesses paying more than $25 per invoice.
This high-cost results from the additional time and potential error that comes with manual processing. Manually processing invoices leaves room for costly, error-prone keying of invoice data and creates the potential for lost or misplaced invoices. Not only this, but manual processing has long approval and exception cycles and means businesses will see delays in posting approved invoices to their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system.
This form of invoice processing also creates high paper storage and retrieval costs, time-consuming supplier inquiries, and raises compliance and security risks.
Instead of a manual approach, businesses can look to automation technology to save money and increase efficiency for business processes. Using an automated invoice processing approach can significantly reduce invoice processing costs in five ways:
- Ease of Extraction: This technique extracts data from invoices received in any format, from any location, streamlining the process and decreasing the time it takes to process the invoice compared to a manual technique.
- Ease of Validation: Automated processing validates invoice automation without manual keying, saving costly time and money.
- Ease of Approvals: Automated invoice processing electronically routes invoices based on pre-set rules for approval and exceptions handling, creating a more timely and efficient approval process.
- Ease of Data Entry: Automated processing seamlessly posts data on approved invoices to an ERP system.
- Ease of Data Storage: Automated processing digitally stores invoice images and data for safekeeping and instant retrieval.
As a result, automating invoice processing delivers cost savings of between 60 and 80 percent compared to manual, paper-based processes, per benchmarking data from Billentis.
Using an automated approach can significantly reduce overhead and decrease your invoice processing costs in total. Businesses can achieve even greater cost savings by automating their payments to suppliers and can see a smoother, more efficient workflow.
To learn more about automated invoice processing and how it can reduce costs, contact Canon Digital Imaging Solutions to speak with one of our automation experts.
If you’re thinking about undergoing your own automation transformation, Elire is here to help. Reach out to [email protected] to connect with our experts about undergoing an Automation Assessment.
Read more about our AP Automation Services here.
About Canon:
Our team is here to help! Explore CIIS Virtual Office and speak with our Solutions Consultants about how Canon can assist your organization navigate through the current challenges, to maintain business continuity and manage document processes, while setting the stage for future process transformation across your business functions.
