The Reasons to Automate Accounts Payable Outweigh Those That Don’t

Automated Accounts Payable enhances your bottom line

Day-to-day accounting can be a time suck which, in turn, diminishes the opportunities for you and your team to add value elsewhere. Think about the effect you could have on your organization if you were able to allocate your time to the areas where you could be most impactful. Or the places where skilled staff can be proactive in contributing to the bottom line.

Take bookkeeping. With all of the other obligations you have as an owner, bookkeeping is a tedious task that drains your valuable time. When it comes to your business, how many hours a month are spent doing menial and/or repetitive tasks? Consider, specifically, accounts payable (AP). Do you know how many invoices you pay a month? How many hours are spent processing bills? And if you’re fortunate enough to have (an) accounting personnel, do you know how many hours they spend performing this repetitive function?

Outsourced Accounting and Bookkeeping Can Improve Performance

Manual tasks are incredibly time consuming and labor intensive. They provide a larger margin for error and more opportunity for fraud. Automated systems, on the other hand, are more dependable and keep information organized, updated, and secure. Which is why we offer MAXIS® by Freed Maxick, to provide support to small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) seeking to remain competitive, efficient, and profitable.

MAXIS is a high-tech outsourced accounting solution that automates processes, like AP, to reduce unnecessary costs, meet deadlines, and free human capital. It simplifies payments by integrating an accounts payable automation tool with your existing accounting software. Because it’s cloud-based, it has better reliability, timeliness, and security. MAXIS accounts payable automation provides a 60% reduction in processing costs, and positively impacts your bottom line.

The Case for Accounting Automation

Three of the biggest advantages to automating accounting that improve efficiencies:

1. Accounting Automation Saves Money: Companies with manual AP processes have higher overhead costs. Some estimates suggest that it costs nearly five times more to process a single invoice. CPA Practice Advisor reported that “Seven in ten finance teams (72%) spend up to 10 people-hours per week, or 520 hours per year on AP-related tasks that could be automated, such as invoice processing, supplier inquiries, supplier payments execution, PO matching, new supplier registration, and payment reconciliation.” And other studies conclude that the average cost to an organization is anywhere from $12 to $30 — per invoice! Not to mention the cost of all paper and postage.

2. Accounting Automation Reduces Risks: The likelihood that errors and/or fraud are occurring remain significantly higher with manual processing. Automating protects the organization by monitoring transactions and providing process KPIs in custom dashboards that alert you when something is amiss. Cloud-based tools have better reliability, timeliness, accessibility, and security. The technology is updated frequently to ensure seamless continuity of business with faster data recovery.

3. Accounting Automation Increases Productivity: Manual tasks put a strain on resources, like time, and takes time away from higher-value tasks. For example, liberating and reallocating accounting personnels’ time to projects like pulling, analyzing, and reporting data and benchmarks can elevate their contributions, provide more proactive input, and add measurable value to the organization. (With staffing challenges, doesn’t it make sense that you use them wisely?) Automating also ensures more timely activity, preventing possibility of delays in processing or payment.

Automating simplifies the process, eliminates costly mistakes, and provides more flexibility for your organization. The technology is customized and scalable for individual company needs — as you grow, it grows.

People Still Need People

Contrary to what some believe, automation won’t replace skilled workers. Humans are still relevant and necessary according to a Harvard Business Review study that stresses “…even sophisticated data and digital analytics don’t ensure good decisions. For it to be valuable, leaders need the skills to make good decisions from complex data.”

Automating provides ample opportunity to reassign professionals from menial tasks to proactive and profitable roles. “While technology will reshape the future of work, organizations will be unable to leverage it without the right talent. It is only through the partnership of people and technology that the full potential of both can be realized. To secure their future, companies must look to address the talent crunch now” (Korn Ferry: Future of Work: The Global Talent Crunch).

Making a Change: Consider Outsourced Accounting and Accounting Automation

MAXIS technology is user-friendly and the professionals at Freed Maxick support your journey every step of the way. With MAXIS, the hours wasted AP processing are over. Wondering how you can make MAXIS work for you? Schedule a complimentary discussion to determine how MAXIS can help. Please contact Alexis Becker directly at 716-332-2667 or alexis.becker@freedmaxick.com.