Improve Visibility and Cashflow with Intelligently Automated AP Management
No matter the economic climate, invoice management is a key business function. But, given the current uncertainty about what lies ahead, it is critical that you continue to buy the materials and services that keep your business running while also optimising cashflow. Managing supplier invoices with paper, e-mail, spreadsheets, and disconnected applications has always made the job of your accounts payable team more difficult than it needs to be. But now, with many AP managers and controllers working remotely, those manual processes have become unworkable.
With the right software, you can bring your invoice management into the modern age – empowering your AP team with the visibility, flexibility, and process efficiency to ensure all invoices are processed correctly and on time and you never leave money on the table. For example, does your AP team have the tools it needs to make sure all invoices are accounted for before closing your books? How do they keep track of who has pending invoice approvals? How do you ensure you are taking advantage of early payment discounts, card rewards, and rebates? What is your system for making sure that invoices are never paid before final receipt of goods and services? What is your mechanism for flagging duplicate payments, over payments, and questionable payments? How do you ensure that you never miss a payment deadline? And how does your filing system continue to grow each year?
The reality is that manually-driven invoice processes lead to errors, rework, late fees, and missed savings that eat up your AP team’s day while negatively impacting your bottom line. You know that you need a smart invoice management solution. The question is, which one?
As a global provider of IT market intelligence and advisory services, International Data Corporation (IDC) helps businesses make the right technology decisions. To find out what the Concur Invoice solution has to offer, SAP commissioned IDC* to study our customers – eight organisations across six industry sectors, including education, construction, energy, insurance, manufacturing, and non-profit. The group’s median size was 998 employees, indicating a good variety of small and large enterprises.
IDC found that Concur Invoice enables faster, more efficient, and more accurate supplier invoice processing as well as better management visibility and lower error-related costs. But what may surprise you is that it all adds up to on average £526,000 in annual benefits per organisation – that’s £2,587 per 1,000 invoices.
So, let’s assume your company processes around 500 invoices in a month. The total annual benefits with an automated AP process using Concur Invoice would equate to £15,522 annually.
By automating the entire invoice management process from capture to payment and using AI to analyse key data points over time, Concur Invoice allows you to automate vendor invoice and other financial processing, better manage cashflow, and streamline accounts payable functions.
By automating the entire invoice management process from capture to payment and using AI to analyse key data points over time, Concur Invoice allows you to automate vendor invoice and other financial processing, better manage cashflow, and streamline accounts payable functions. By speeding up invoice approvals and processing and streamlining business-to-finance touchpoints, it makes financial management teams and business users more efficient. In fact, IDC found that companies using Concur Invoice were able to reduce invoice processing time by 75% – resulting in a 45% more efficient accounts payable staff and a 40% more efficient auditing staff. Across all business areas, companies saw an average productivity gain per user of 2.6%, with average of 132.5 users impacted – adding up to a whopping £109,000 in average annual savings.
Companies also saw an average of 13% faster payments and a 42% reduction in delayed payments.
Finally, if you are concerned about making new technology investments at this time, you can rest easier knowing that businesses deploying Concur Invoice realized an average pay-back period of four months, followed by an astonishing 634% three-year ROI.
As an IT company, we know how critical it is that every application give you the flexibility and interoperability you need to run holistic operations. This is why Concur Invoice integrates with most ERP and accounting systems and connects with a wide array of supplier solutions across the procure-to-pay lifecycle. Concur Invoice also integrates with payment providers to create a secure platform that streamlines and optimises payments. Robust reporting and analytics offer a comprehensive view into spending that helps you make better decisions surrounding suppliers, contracts, and cashflow. Plus, when you combine Concur Invoice with Concur Travel and Concur Expense solutions, your finance team can achieve a complete view of business spending overall.
Read the full IDC White Paper to find out how what Concur Invoice can do for you.
*IDC White Paper, sponsored by SAP, SAP Concur Facilitates Automated Management of Financial Operations, May 2020
