Published 21 August 2022

It is crucial to code, approve, and pay invoices, and this processing sequence may take a long time. To scale, many organizations automate the process. Although there are many AP automation service providers, Kilope is the best accounts payable software. With the consent of their managers or HR, your employees can access their weekly or daily wages using Kilope. Employees with access to their earned wages are more productive and financially independent.

What exactly is automated invoice processing?

Invoices are processed automatically using automated invoice processing, which aids in streamlining the accounts payable procedures. To ensure that all records are kept in digital format, it simultaneously updates the data in your ERP system. It attempts to significantly minimize the amount of time required for the manual processing of the invoices and also helps lower the margin for a mistake that human operations present.

How to handle an invoice?

Examine your current system for processing invoices before deciding to automate. Receiving an invoice is the first step in the accounts payable (AP) procedure. To keep correct financial records, you must follow a precise procedure after receiving an invoice.

Due to the complexity of this procedure, a business may decide to automate the system instead of manually processing invoices. Automation can increase a business's invoicing process's visibility, efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness.

The steps for processing invoices are as follows:

1. • document, such as a purchase order or delivery receipt, and general ledger (GL) code it.
2. • Send invoices to those who have the authority to accept or reject them.
3. • Authorize and send invoices to a financial system for payment.
4. • Process invoices for payment using standard payment methods such as a wire transfer, ACH, or cheque.
5. • Keep records of payments and invoices in the GL for future reference and auditing.

Approving transactions:

The accounting division must deliver all supporting materials to the approver as part of the AP invoice procedure. Multiple approvers can be needed for larger dollar orders. It takes time, but it's crucial to send approvers the invoice, shipment receipt information, and the PO (if applicable). (CFOs) examine all cash inputs and outflows to ensure enough working capital to cover operations. All expenditures must be approved before being paid, and all receivables must be collected to maximize cash management. Managers can keep a close eye on invoice approvals and benefit from early payment reductions when AP is automated in businesses.

The value of AP and AR:

Understanding the state of your company's finances is easier by keeping track of your ARs and APs. Maintaining records regularly makes sure that you are aware of whom you owe money and to whom you owe money, giving you complete control over your financial situation. This enables you to be aware of your available funds and the total amount you will need to pay all of your payments.

AR:

As a sign that a company has successfully acquired orders and can anticipate receiving money, AR is crucial. The fact that AR invoices can someday be converted into cash makes them an asset in accounting and balance sheets. Additionally, they are crucial if you are thinking about borrowing money or having investors. Your AR provides information about your business's projected revenue or available cash, which is crucial to how lenders or investors see your company.

For short-term financing. You can bring assured funds to finance your immediate cash flow demands by selling unpaid invoices to third parties for a portion of the original invoice amount. Factoring invoices is the name of this particular procedure. Since AR are assets, they serve as a gauge for the liquidity of a business. Liquidity is the rate at which you can convert your company's financial resources into cash. This makes it possible for you to quickly adjust purchases or sales, such as price modifications, if necessary.

AP:

For your company to avoid any problems brought on by lost or delayed payments, past-due invoices, or late fines. It is essential to manage your accounts payable.

If you make late payments or unpaid bills, your vendor or seller may stop believing in you and your company's capacity to pay for their goods or services. This could imply that your supplier won't provide the necessary items or services on schedule.

Pending AP is reported as a liability on a balance sheet since money is anticipated to leave the company, which is a sign that your company may not be able to pay its debts on time or may not have enough cash flow.

This may also imply that you won't have any money since it will be spent on long-overdue obligations when you need it most.

Making accounting transactions:

Cash is depleted at the time of payment, and an expense is recorded in the accounting program. If expenses are not promptly posted, the net profit calculation will be off.

Processing manual invoices inefficiently increase the likelihood of approval process bottlenecks. This invoice capture method produces more errors and requires time-consuming manual data entry. Vendor payments that are delayed due to manual business processing can happen.

With artificial intelligence (AI) and optical character recognition (OCR), the Kilope AP Automation solution digitizes invoice coding and expedites the invoice clearance process. To handle invoice-related concerns, real-time communication is used by the AP staff and approvers.

A receipt's authenticity

Each good or service Premier purchases from a vendor must be confirmed according to the procedures in place. Items are compared to the invoice and the PO (purchase orders) after being received (if applicable). The shipping receipt (also known as a packing receipt) that a vendor typically sends contains all the information required to validate the shipment. These corporate policies decrease the likelihood of unlawful purchasing.

Invoices for Sales vs. Purchase Orders

• • An invoice for sales Is frequently mistaken for an order for purchases.
• • The buyer issues a purchase order because it demonstrates the Customer's request for a good or service.
• • The selling procedure has already taken place, according to a sales invoice, which is a bill given by the seller. It handles the amount due from the buyer to the seller.

Benefits of Invoice Automated with the help of Kilope

With the help of kilope's intelligent, perceptive, and useful invoice automation software, you may take charge of the processing of invoices. Thanks to the automation solution, you have complete control and single-point visibility over every business expense.

Accounts payable correspondence, supporting documents, business credit cards, and ACH or check payments are all combined during the automated processing of invoices. With communication centred on the invoice itself, thanks to the automation software, AP staff, approvers, and vendors may communicate more quickly and find solutions to problems earlier.

To create electronic invoices, kilope invoice automation technology leverages machine learning capabilities. To simplify GL coding, automate approvals, and detect duplicate invoices, invoice automation learns the distinctive characteristics of each firm. You can access reporting dashboards, and kilope workflow automation connects with various ERP programs. Spend less money managing it and more with kilope.

Why Invest in Automated Invoice Processing?

Traditionally, accounts payable personnel had to physically seek approval from the proper managers, collect paper bills, input data from the invoices into ledgers, make checks, stuff envelopes, and ship payments to suppliers. Processing invoices the old-fashioned way is infamously ineffective and mistake-prone. Fraudsters frequently target accounts payable procedures.

When used effectively, invoice automation can cut processing costs for an invoice by as much as 80% compared to conventional AP processing. Discover More: How much does processing an invoice cost?

Customer invoicing process:

For the delivery of goods or the rendering of services, invoices are produced, either manually or as part of an invoice run, and are then used to bill clients. They are the consequence of antecedent records like sales orders, service orders, and service confirmations. It is also possible to construct manual invoicing documents such as manual invoices, credit memos, and down payment requests without using earlier business transaction records outside customer invoicing.

Order or delivery is often created to make an invoice request, and the data is then automatically passed to the Customer Invoicing process. After the items are gathered, an invoice run transforms the invoice requests into invoice documents at the appointed time, releasing the invoices for delivery to the client. Additionally, the released bills are automatically recorded in financial accounting as receivables, and a new open item is added to the client account. This is monitored up until the associated payment is made. Financial accounting records the payment as a cash receipt.

How Automated Invoice Processing Enhances Invoice Management?

Even if your organization handles only a few monthly invoices, an automated invoice management solution can support future business growth. Here are some ways that kilope invoice approval software can help you optimize the entire accounts payable procedure (without compromising accuracy).

Consolidate automated data entry Inputting data from authorized invoices into an ERP system is a typical step in the AP approval process. This takes time, and there is a greater chance of mistakes like double entries and incorrect computations. According to 51% of businesses, manual data input and ineffective processes are the main drawbacks of a manual AP process. By putting in place an automated mechanism for processing invoices.

This post will discuss automated invoice processing and how it can help you handle your invoices more effectively. We'll also go over how to use the invoice approval software from Kilope to establish a completely automated accounts payable process. To go directly to the section you wish to learn more about, click one of the links below:
Automatically do invoice matching.
To avoid accounts payable fraud, use invoice approval software. The detection of AP fraud can be aided by invoice matching. Incoming invoices must be compared to related purchases to be processed.

For businesses that use manual processes, a clerk would need to spend hours matching each line item on an invoice to a PO they had to look up in a database, or worse, in a file cabinet.

This matching can be done automatically by a workflow for invoice approval that is integrated with your accounting system, and it can even highlight any inconsistencies for more investigation.

Automate the approval of invoices right now. Every firm needs accounts payable to work properly; you must make your payment obligations on time to keep your vendor relationships strong.

As a result of manual invoice processing's inefficiency and error-proneness, your business runs the danger of misplacing invoices, missing payments, and even payment fraud.

The automated procedures that link with your accounting systems can be easily set up using kilope invoice approval software. You can receive enterprise-grade software with enhanced security, support for digital signatures, audit trails, and more at a reasonable price.

Start a free 30-day trial today to discover how simple it is to develop automated invoice processing procedures for your business.

How to do invoice reconciliation?

Invoice reconciliation is comparing transactions you've put into your accounting software with the invoice or statement you get from your vendor to ensure the numbers match and your company isn't overpaying, underpaying, or even paying for something it didn't receive.

It can appear like reconciling invoices is a pointless step in your accounting procedure. In actuality, it's among the most crucial things you can perform to keep your company profitable. Your vendor invoices should be reconciled for two very significant reasons.

Conclusion: Your business's internal controls are only as strong as the checks and balances you have to guarantee that your invoice reconciliation procedure is creating them.

The same worker should ideally not be involved in more than one procedure stage. Suppose this isn't possible, which is frequently the case in small businesses. In that case, you must try your best to ensure that there are "interruptions" in the process to stop any employee from taking advantage of flaws in the setup for their benefit. To assist you in keeping effective checks and balances, you can also hire an outside accountant or bookkeeper.