When a company invests in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, it usually means that the business has growth aspirations, and is investing in tools to support that growth. Smart move! If you are in a fast-growing company that has just implemented its first ERP system (or has upgraded its existing ERP system), you’re probably looking for ways to make the most of your investment.
We recommend you consider investing in an accounts payable (AP) Automation solution as the next step. Here’s why -- these two systems attain optimum efficiency when they work together.
Any business operation is the sum total of a variety of processes, including human resource management, procurement, accounting, customer service, and so on. When you have both ERP and AP automation systems working in harmony, both systems complement each other in capturing, storing, managing, and analyzing data to support the diverse business processes of your company. This, in turn, helps streamline the overall operation.
ERP systems can generally handle some very basic electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) and requisitioning tasks. However, there are many aspects of accounts payable process that ERP cannot handle at all. These include contracts and sourcing, among others. This limitation becomes even more important when the company starts to grow rapidly and managing finances becomes increasingly more complicated. One way to mitigate this issue is to use an ERP system that can address the company’s core financial processes. However, again it will be a big mistake to expect your ERP to do everything for you.
As your business keeps growing, there comes a point when you may want your ERP system to automate completely. This is the time when you may want to upgrade your ERP system. This is also the time to embrace an AP automation solution. Implementing both systems together may take a bit more time and planning, but having both will help you reap more profits in the long-term, and help you address loopholes in core financial processes. On the other hand, if you implement your ERP solution and AP automation systems separately, it could result in repetition and duplication of work. As a growing business, you certainly don’t want that!
AP automation helps boost the functionality of your ERP system by supplying it with good clean data right from the start. The pairing of the two systems facilitates the most efficient automated handling of your company’s business processes.
The result is fewer manual processes (like data entry and matching with purchase orders) and the errors they can cause.
Looking to boost your business operations? Integrate AP automation software to your ERP system to eliminate costly errors and time. For more information about integrating your ERP system with an automated AP process, contact us or learn more here.