Businesses across the UK are facing greater challenges and time pressures than ever before. And their finance departments are sharing the pain. They are often required to deliver on-demand, up-to-the-minute reports on cashflow status, profit margins and other key business indicators. Finance departments can only meet these challenges successfully if the core processes of accounts payable and accounts receivable are executed in ways that are secure, straightforward and that minimise the risk of error.
The biggest issue standing in the way of efficient accounting and financial reporting is outdated, manual paper-based processes. These block a business’s path to agility as costs are recorded too late, approvals take too long, and processing steps are not sufficiently transparent.
Moving away from traditional paper-based finance documents to a new digital solution can seem like a daunting task but it doesn’t need to be disruptive. A reputable Document Management System (DMS) provider will ensure that the transition is smooth and that the implementation of your new DMS is carried out at a pace that suits your business.
Digitisation eliminates reliance on paper-based documents and minimises the need for manual data entry – which translate into time-savings and greatly reduced errors for finance departments. A DMS solution provides intelligent indexing, crowd learning and artificial intelligence capabilities (AI), which combine to greatly reduce the number of tedious and repetitive tasks. And if this isn’t enough, integration with existing applications like email, business apps and financial systems including SAP, Sage and Quickbooks is also available, making traceability efficient and easy.
For a practical example of how a DMS solution removes the burden of manual tasks from financial teams, look no further than the traditional workflow for invoices.
Typically, for every new invoice received, someone has to manually enter numerous details, such as the PO number, invoice number, company name, account number, amount and so on. With a specialised DMS all of this happens automatically. What’s more, approval for payment of invoices is also sought automatically by email notification - thereby speeding up the payment process. No more invoices forgotten at the bottom of someone’s in-tray, holding up the process, and all of the information is stored on the system in a safe and secure way while ensuring that nothing gets lost, thanks to detailed electronic audit trails.
The accounts payable process is also transformed, as the system captures and automatically matches invoices to purchase orders. It uses customisable departmental workflows to manage the approval process and the posting of approved amounts back to the general ledger through pre-built ERP integrations.
The system can even be configured to show overdue invoices or those above a certain value at the touch of a button!
And there may also be savings to be had on your auditing fees. Not only does the system remove the paper mountains that auditors would normally have to wade through but, by giving them electronic access to all finance documents in the centralised document pool, it considerably speeds up the process for them.
A DMS solution is simple and efficient. It reduces accounting workload by digitising and automating financial operations in a secure cloud-based environment. Moreover, it is versatile and can also be utilised in other areas of business to streamline workflows – such as HR employee records and contracts management.
The possibilities are endless.
John Ruda, Process Optimisation Consultant
If you would like to learn more about integrating a DMS into your organisation, Toshiba has a Whitepaper and Webinar available to view. Alternatively, get in touch through the website, or contact John directly.
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