In many business processes speed is a huge factor in measuring efficiency. One of the most important processes in a company that is usually relatively slow is invoice processing. Companies are often almost drowning in all the invoices that have to be processed. The number of hours that go into the process is hard to track, mistakes are common and approvals take so much time that invoices are paid too late. The reason for this is that the invoice approval flow in many companies is an age-old process. Luckily there is a solution: digital invoice approval software. The holy grail of saving time and minimize the errors in invoice processing and approval.
Old habits die hard
One of the most difficult things in life and business is change. People accept things as they are because they are familiar with them. They are not willing to change because they are stuck on what they are used to do. The corporate environment is a good example of this because even though the 21st century is sometimes called ‘the era of digitalization, there are still many manual and paper processes in companies. These are usually procedures that follow the exact same pattern as two decades ago. That usually also applies to the finance department and their way of managing and approving invoices.
Let’s give you a simplified example of how invoices usually flows through an organization to get approval:
- The processing of a purchase invoice starts with receiving the invoice somewhere in your organization either on paper or digital.
- In case of paper, it has to be digitized by scanning it.
- Now all the data of the invoice have to be extracted from the document and be passed over to the accounting or ERP system. In many cases, this is done manually.
- The invoice now has to be passed over to the right department to make sure it is correct and should be paid to the supplier. In many cases, the invoice now moves from desk to desk to get signatures from all the relevant managers.
- As soon as all managers have signed, the invoices go back to the finance department. They store the signed invoices as proof and sometimes sign of themself.
- Now the invoice is considered to be approved and is ready for payment.
Now imagine this procedure taking place in a company setting. To make it even more realistic, imagine we are not talking about a single invoice, but hundreds or thousands of invoices moving through multiple levels of your organization. Sounds like an old fashioned and error-prone process right? No wonder the time to invoice payment is usually higher than the invoice payment terms. Luckily this process can be simplified and digitized with invoice approval software.
Benefits of Invoice Approval Software
The aforementioned procedure is not scalable, thus sooner or later you will reach the point of chaos or rapidly increasing cost and realize that digitalization in your organization is required. Luckily we are here to show you what the benefits of digital invoice approval and processing are.
- 24/7 accessibility in the cloud.
- Approving invoices on desktop and mobile.
- Automated reminders to speed up approval time.
- User rights to determine what approvals can be done by what employees.
- Dynamic workflow pattern (authorization flows) that can be customized to your organization’s needs.
- Business rules for automated approvals and assigning workflows. For example invoices from cost center Amsterdam has to be approved by George, the regional manager, unless they are over 5000 euro, then also the CEO has to approve.
- 1 click approval. Anywhere and Anytime.
- Faster, fewer errors and cheaper.
Our Invoice Approval Software
Our passion at Klippa is to make the most user-friendly and reliable software for Invoice Approvals. Over the years we analyzed many invoice processing procedures in companies, spoke to hundreds of finance managers and CFO’s. This resulted in a great list of features that we implemented into our Invoice Processing module. We realize that processing invoices are not your core business, but it has to be done fast and accurately. Have a look at the Video below to get a quick overview of how our software works:
Want to learn more about our solution and how it can approve your invoice processing flow? Schedule yourself an online demonstration below and we will show you all the ins and outs.
