Invoice Processing plays a significant role in handling any business. A mismanaged supervision in invoice processing can cause great harm to the growth and functionality of any organization. This leads to diminished brand recognition. Hence, a firm grip with utmost care is essential when it comes to invoice processing.
What do you mean by invoice processing?
As per the invoice processing definition, it is a process that is performed by the accounts payable department of any company to generate the receipts and payments of the total amount that has to be paid to goods and services vendors, which is frequently updated in the general ledger. This makes invoice processing a must-have procedure for the successful running of any company.
The invoice processing procedure is conducted with the help of automated machines and software, which minimizes the possibility of errors and fastens the entire process.
The importance of invoice processing
The account payable invoice processing is a highly beneficial procedure that is essential to run any business smoothly. This is the reason many people hire other organizations to perform this entire process for their business so that the experts handle the accounts and bills. Hence, there are some companies that prefer outsourcing in invoice processing as the entire process is very time-taking, requires precision, and can eat away the valuable time of a company. This can result in impeded payment dates, which is sure to affect the reputation of any business.
Not only that, conducting invoice processing procedures on time increases the reliability of any business, and the dealers are more likely to indulge in a long-term partnership with your organization. It also ensures timely bill payments, which can help any company from preventing a cash crunch. The involvement of invoice processing services is the need of the hour.
The integration of digital tools in invoice processing not only reduces the rate of miscalculation, but it also saves the expenses by utilization of present resources and keeps you from spending on the training of the employees. This also protects the critical details from breaching. This automated software usually integrates ERP systems, including; Microsoft, Oracle and SAP, etc.
Steps involved in invoice processing
As we have explained that invoice processing plays a major role in seamless management of any business. Thus, an invoice processing company needs to make sure that every essential step is taken care of while performing this crucial task. Let us now look at the steps that are involved in invoice processing.
STEP 1:
- Invoice processing is used for capturing the supporting documents, including purchase order details and delivery receipts. It also involves updating the general ledger code and matching the information of the documents.
STEP 2:
- The next step is to check the invoices and sending them to the authorized approvers to make sure which invoices to approve and which ones have to be rejected.
STEP 3:
- Then comes the authorization and submission of invoices for the processing of payments in the financial system.
STEP 4:
- The common payment methods are then used for processing invoices for payments. This includes check, ACH, and wire transfer.
STEP 5:
- The concluding step is placing the invoices and payment information in the general ledger archives for audit purposes.
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Challenges involved in invoice processing
Often, businesses prefer to outsource invoice processing due to the invoice processing challenges that are sometimes hard to deal with and require skills.
Let us discuss the most common challenges that are there when it comes to invoice processing and how to deal with each of them.
Dealing with the invoice receipts:
- When it comes to preparing an invoice, paper is considered as the most used method. This plays the biggest role in halting the whole process as the paper invoices have to be received, scanned, and verified prior to the beginning of approvals.
- Also, the invoices are received from different sources such as suppliers, buyers or on the e-mails and need to be centralized before processing. Instead, pre-decide which card type, like virtual cards, declining balance cards, etc, is suitable for which payment type.
Data entry in different formats:
- Man-handling of entries during invoice processing makes it a tiresome process. Even if there are e-mailed PDFs of invoices or scanned invoices, these then need to be converted in usable formats which require human assistance.
- Instead, to deal with such invoice processing challenges, it is best to utilize appropriate software that can convert such files into required formats.
Invoice management:
- Invoice handling is performed in various steps that are essential in the invoice processing procedure. It usually requires a timeline of at least two to four days to process and two-three approvals for its processing. It involves invoice entering the system through a way and then proceeding to ERP and then move to AP.
- The next and final step is to send it for approvals and finally for the payments. A long list of procedures can also cause errors.
Benefits of outsourcing of invoice processing
Let us look at the advantages of outsourcing invoice processing.
- Time-saving automated process: The experts who provide outsourcing invoice processing services implement the best ways to analyze and process the business receipts, which saves your time from this mundane task.
- Real-time services: The best part about hiring companies that outsource in invoice processing is that you can get real-time information about all the crucial details that are related to transactions. It provides you an overview, which is helpful while dealing with vendor payments.
- Better focus on core business: Outsourcing comes with many benefits, and the most essential is that you get to focus on the true essence of your business instead of dealing with invoice processing steps. This skyrockets your business growth due to enhanced productivity and minimized chances of error in invoice processing.
- Affordable solution: Every business has to deal with invoice processing challenges. Hiring professionals for this purpose means providing training facilities and infrastructure. Invoice processing services are a much affordable option and also benefit by cost-cutting. These people are professional experts in their field and generate better results.
