Accounts Payable strategies for success

Safeguard your Accounts Payable and remove the paper from your processes with integrated, cloud-based software

Wednesday June 30th, 2021 Add on Products

COVID-19 has forced the rapid adaptation and evolution of the business landscape over the 2020/21 financial year. Some companies were able to keep pace with the industry adjustments, whereas others found themselves hitting the reset button. Regardless of your company’s current position, finance teams need to review their Accounts Payable strategies to better manage their expenses and cash flow. We take you through two crucial steps to help plan for success this new financial year.

Safeguard your Accounts Payable

Globally, companies lose billions of dollars due to fraud and accounting errors. With a heavy reliance on digital platforms, online fraud is at an all-time high. Surprisingly, fraud still occurs in the simplest forms such as through an email or even leaving an important document out on your desk.

There are many methods to safeguarding your Accounts Payable. It starts with increased visibility and building in safety checks such as multiple levels of approval. Having a bird’s eye view of your entire AP workflow allows you to track spend, documents, budgets, and more. Adding further verification steps, and more sets of eyes on any outgoing payments, can limit the opportunity for fraud to occur or go unnoticed. You also need software that can seamlessly manage the approval process and not let it get bogged down at any one stage. Notifications and prompts in real time help keep the verification workflow ongoing, maintaining security without compromising efficiency.

Remove the paper from your processes

Do you find yourself constantly shuffling through invoices, receipts, and other physical documents? Wasting your time and effort following a paper-based process shifts your focus away from the most important aspects of your company – efficiency and sustainability. Paper processes also require physical storage, which contributes to increased administration costs. Make the transition this financial year and remove these cumbersome paper processes.

The solution is to leverage cloud-based AP Automation software. Automation reduces costs by not only saving on your staff’s time, but by speeding up otherwise tedious processes like data entry and filing. Building a completely digitised supplier payment process shifts your focus away from working with physical documents and onto a real-time single source of truth that increases the total visibility of your position and financial movements. An online platform also protects from fraud by storing your data securely in the cloud, removing the chance of a sensitive document being accidentally left accessible to unauthorised users.

The strength of an integrated AP software

ProSpend (formerly expensemanager) is local Australasian software that integrates with your MYOB Enterprise software. This integration gives you absolute visibility over your AP pathway and helps you keep track of documents all the way through to spend. ProSpend also builds in safety checks and multiple levels of approval, giving you direct oversight on all outgoing transactions and potentially fraudulent activity. Additionally, ProSpend also embeds strict, industry-recognised security measures. This includes meeting the Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) as well as extra features such as data encryption and real-time audit logs, protecting your data and tracking all system changes.

Accounts payable is a core component of your organisation. Including these two easy tips in your FY 2021/22 plans will set your cash flow and expense management up for success. Focus on elements that truly improve efficiency and allow you to better use the time you would otherwise spend on slow and tedious tasks. ProSpend is a market-leading expense management tool that offers smart automation for all expenditure. Embrace complete AP Automation with one platform to manage expenses, supplier invoices, purchase orders and travel spend; all with full budget visibility.

ProSpend Accounts Payable Automation eBook

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Learn how finance leaders are embracing the modernisation of finance

Organisations struggle to understand their financial health without clear visibility into where and how funds are being spent across different departments, projects, or locations. This lack of insight can hinder strategic decision-making for CEOs, CFOs, and business owners. Watch our webinar recording for CEOs and CFOs to learn how to automate your organisation’s accounts receivable process to improve spend management and visibility.

Transform your Accounts Payable with Automation

To learn more about how an expense and spend management platform can transform your AP process, watch the full recording of our webinar held with ProSpend, which focused on how you could transform your spend management with AP automation.