In the non-profit sector, employees are driven by dedication and passion. But, this passion can often lead to employee frustration if they begin to feel overwhelmed and overworked due to antiquated workflows and processes.
Many nonprofit employees are bogged down by outdated and ineffective technology which in turn can limit the organization’s ability to effectively work towards its mission and organizational goals. Only 11% of nonprofits view their organizations’ approach to digital transformation as highly effective.
If your organization is facing a heavy workload of invoices, it can be difficult for your accounting team to keep up. Keeping track of hundreds (or thousands) of paper invoices is no easy task. Paper is hard to keep track of and by relying on your employees to complete repetitive tasks like data entry, you’re likely to run into errors. Time wasted on inadequate accounting processes is time that would be better spent in other ways.
Automating Your Organization
Digital automation solutions can refresh your staff’s workflows and free up their schedules so they can spend more time working towards your organization’s goals and completing other important projects. Nonprofits that embrace digital upgrades can ensure their community impact is sustainable now and for the future.
Accounts Payable (AP) Automation is just one of the many ways PiF can help modernize your organization’s current technology infrastructure. In simple terms, AP Automation is digital technology that is used to streamline and automate your accounting processes. This includes:
- Eliminating manual tasks;
- Providing better visibility of invoices and payments;
- Organizing important financial data and;
- Reducing processing time.
“In technical terms, Accounts Payable automation (AP Automation) refers to the technology used to streamline and automate accounts payable processes, removing manual tasks and providing better visibility and control over important financial data. AP Automation isn’t just a piece of software you install on your computer, it’s a set of connected tools that work as one unified solution to simplify your organization’s processes.”
AP Automation software also comes integrated with several helpful tools. The document management system allows the software to automatically match and route purchase orders, invoices, and supporting documents.
As part of an AP Automation solution, you can utilize Artificial Intelligence to extract data and push it into your ERP, without any errors. Storing your documents in a secure, accessible digital system means no more piles of paper to dig through and no more missing documents.
And, in the time of remote and hybrid work schedules, the AP Automation system is Cloud-Based and is accessible anywhere, from any device. In seconds, you can instantly locate any documentation, including previously completed payments.
Save Time, Money, and Space
A good way to determine if your organization is in need of workflow automation is if you are receiving late payment penalties or you are missing out on early payment discounts. Many vendors offer discounts to their clients to ensure they receive payment for their services in a timely manner. If you pay early, you’ll often receive a cut on your bill, but, if you pay late, you will have to pay more in late fees.
Vendors offer these incentives as an opportunity to maintain an efficient working relationship with their clients. By paying your outstanding debts back to vendors early, your organization is provided a financial opportunity to invest back in your organization with the extra money you’ve saved.
If your accounting department is spending weeks processing invoices, this is an easily avoidable problem that can be solved with AP Automation. In turn, this will save your organization a lot of time and money that could be allocated to more important programs and activities.
This also goes hand in hand with not receiving an early payment discount. Many vendors offer financial incentives to their nonprofit clients as well as to all clients who pay before a specified time (i.e. net/30). These financial incentives are great to utilize when possible, but if your accounting team is inundated with work, they may be missing the early payment discounts AND receiving a late penalty on the bill. This is just simply a waste of time and energy and there is a better way.
AP Automation can help expedite approvals for payments to ensure your organization is capturing more early payment discounts and avoiding all late payment penalties. Our intuitive software can be set up to automatically request approval from your CFO before a check is issued to pay the bill. This happens instantaneously when a new invoice arrives in the system.
Or, if you’d prefer, not all payment approvals need to be routed to the CFO. This can be customized based on a specified dollar amount (ex: more or less than $10,000) or if an invoice arrives with a different total cost than what was previously charged to your organization. We can customize everything to fit your needs.
Learning to efficiently manage your cash flow is essential to your nonprofit’s continued success. If you are mistakenly overcharged for a routine payment, our system will notify you. Everything is trackable and traceable to ensure you know where all your processes are at. Our smart accounts payable solutions can save your staff an average of 2 hours a day; equal to about 1 week a month!
It is important to hold on to old invoices, proof of payment slips, purchase orders, and completed payment documentation in case any of your vendors claim your organization never paid their outstanding invoices. But, the times of holding these on-site in file cabinets is over. All documents through the AP life-cycle are easily accessible within seconds on any mobile device.
