Why Integrate an AP Invoice Automation Solution with Your ERP

You have a lot invested in your enterprise resource planning (ERP) application.

And rightfully so.

You count on your ERP to manage your payment terms, supplier data, policies and financial data.

That is why it is so important to deploy an AP invoice automation solution that integrates with your ERP.

Poorly integrated AP invoice automation and ERP solutions result in:

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2. 1.  Processing inefficiencies:

1. The level of integration between invoice automation and ERP systems impacts the effectiveness of processes such as two-way and three-way matching, invoice approval, exceptions resolution, and duplicate invoice detection. Poor integration limits the percentage of invoices that can be posted straight-through, without human operator intervention. Staff waste a lot of time searching for information. And organizations are more vulnerable to compliance and security risks. What is more, auditing in an environment with poor integration between invoice automation and ERP systems requires departments to manually consolidate data from multiple systems, which is time-consuming and error prone.
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2. 2.  The same volume of back and forth e-mail, faxes and paper shuffling:

1. Poorly integrated invoice automation and ERP systems make it hard to track the status of invoices and other payables documents, and to ensure that the appropriate individuals have approved documents in a timely manner. Paper invoices can sit for days on an individual’s desk, or get stuck in inter-office mail, awaiting approval. Poor integration also makes it difficult for managers to measure the effectiveness of their systems, processes and staff, or to make quick adjustments.
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1. 3.  Manual re-keying of data into the ERP:

2. Manual keying or legacy OCR are major contributors to the high cost of invoice processing. Poorly integrated invoice automation and ERP systems require staff to re-key data on approved invoices into the ERP, resulting in higher costs, more errors, slower posting of invoice information, and less staff time for value-added activities.
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4. 4.  Delayed, incorrect or incomplete data in your ERP:

5. Real-time data is an essential benefit of seamlessly integrated invoice automation and ERP systems. In an environment with poor integration, supplier and transaction data can be inaccessible by the ERP. Meantime, demand for real-time visibility into the accounts payable information has increased over the past two years for most businesses, per the Institute of Finance and Management (IOFM).
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