Is your accounts payable function as slick as it could be?
According to SME Web (the website covering the latest trends and challenges for SMEs), 60% of SMEs say they are not currently using financial management software for pay-enabled invoicing in their business.* This means their accounts payable function is prone to error, fraud, delay and costly correction. If this sounds like your business, you are not alone. Set your business on the track to success with payment automation software.
Accounts payable function example
Let’s take you, a typical SME owner, to work through an example.
You run a successful company that you founded three years ago. You have a long list of trusted suppliers. With each delivery of precious receivables comes a paper invoice with payment terms differing from the next supplier’s. You rely on a fluctuating rota of part-time, casual and contract-based labour. Your business has several geographically spread sites.
Scenario one
Every Friday, you spend some five hours running and reconciling payments. In your efforts to multitask, you have been known to accidentally pay Joy Jones twice and Joyce Jone not at all. Or mis-key a digit on an invoice, and your key supplier doesn’t get their dues. Or a decimal point somehow slips to the right between your spreadsheet and your online banking payment, and a bemused recipient finds an unexpectedly golden egg in their account. Plus, you’re behind on your monthly stakeholder report.
Scenario two
Friday is your planning day where you focus on your growth strategy, competitor analysis and market research. You spend a couple of hours designing new products, a couple more turning those speculative enquiries into firm orders and an hour on the shop floor with your managers discussing the latest customer trends.
You do all of that after you spend 20 minutes running and reconciling payments. Your accounting software pulls together, reads, uploads and pays your invoices correctly. It batch-pays all your workers at different premises, having verified their details. It automatically reconciles your payments and you can see everything on a real-time dashboard. It even produces that monthly stakeholder report for you.
Selecting the right solution for your business
There is a bewildering array of software solutions available with differing features, scalability and integration, so how do you know which one is right for you? It can be hard to know where to start.
Our outsourcing team can assess your entire payments process, map all stakeholders and timescales and suggest several recommendations to help you select the best option for your requirements. We also provide full support and training to ensure the smooth implementation of the new system into your business.
Help from the experts
If you are serious about growing your business, Moore Kingston Smith’s outsourcing team can give you the gift the time. Love Fridays.
Contact us for a free no-obligation discussion about whether your accounts payable function is as efficient as it can be.
* SMEs currently owed an average of £27,214 in late payments | SME Web (accessed 7 September 2023)