Posted by Jarrod Levitan on Fri, Jun 25, 2010
Life just got so much easier for anyone who has to deal with ap invoices. Now in Beanbills, you can simple stand at your scanner, load up your invoice, push scan, and bright and early the next day you'll have the invoice image electronically with all its verified data. Ready to push along its workflow.
Even better, give your suppliers a Beanbills email address, and they can email directly into Beanbills, no more scanning!! No more data entry!!
What has been standing in the way of the paperless future is not technology, because that's available. But all the technologies that have to communicate to make it possible. Using email, which everyone knows and trusts, is robust and common, and the simplest way to make getting invoice information into electronic usable data. Without any disruption to the way we work and using the same technologies.
Start getting your suppliers to email their invoices to you. Email bill presentment is a happening trend. It's an obvious time saver for everyone, especially the supplier/vendor. No more printing, wasting paper, stuffing envelopes, mail costs... it's an expensive operation.
One more benefit. Every Beanbills user has an email capture address. You can stand at the copy machine and scan-email an invoice, or forward them if they came via email, to Dave in AP's address. Bang, the next day they're in his Intray all electronic and ready to deal with.
Posted by Francis Hart on Mon, Mar 15, 2010
There is an encouraging sign. The number of times on a monthly basis I've heard prospects and clients that want to improve their AP workflow processes. Of course, when the dialog begins, the main theme is the amount of time and "touches" any person has to make when dealing with paper and accounts payable invoices ... It really can be overwhelming.
From receipt by mail, photocopying, file cabinet storage, interoffice mail for approval & signatures, routing to payables, pulling invoices back out of storage for audit, monthly ends and fiscal year ends ... How many times does one have to repeat this? Well, factor in the number of monthly invoices X, number of people Y and number of unique processes Z and you may have a formula ... for what? that depends on the level of pain each organization goes through on the monthly paper merry go round ... It may not be rocket science but it also doesn't have to be that complicated either ...
The rationalization is, that if one were to implement a scanning automation process, they can "get rid of three processes in a busy day". Of course this entire exercise begins with the common copier printer fax scanner. Of note, a recent blog comment (http://blog.abctechsolutions.com/2009/09/copier-printer-fax-scanner-costs-on-the-rise/) puts into perspective the rising costs of keeping the hard copy use of these machines;
" ... According to the GSA, company's printers, fax machines and copiers cost "on the average $1000 per employee per year or more." According to Xerox, company's copier printer environment costs an average of 3% of a company's TOTAL GROSS revenue ..." Something like EEK!
"Every dollar you save in your copier printer scanner increases your company's profit. Budgets for toner cartridge supplies are growing by 20-40% per year; Dataquest, IDC and CAP Ventures have all concluded that copier printer scanner page volumes are growing at a compound annual growth rate of roughly 8%. Printer cost is increasing not decreasing and the majority of the company's do not have controls in place ..." Or more appropriately YIKES!
So, here's a final thought ... accounting departments have finally grasped that they have to do something about their accounts payable workflow processes ... they are the ones feeling the pain of overwhelming manual and paper processes and the associated "many touch" costs at each step along the way. Many have just starting to use the scanner, either standalone smaller desktop units or the more central photocopier scanner hardware to begin to scan invoices ... all in the direction of accounts payable automation ... so why not use this step to help drive down the hardware cost and printing costs of all this paper?
One caveat, we haven't even started talking about e-invoicing ... Stay tuned!
Posted by Roberta Lee on Thu, Jan 29, 2009
Accounts
payable is not rocket science. However complexities in the process seem to be
common place. Complexities cost mucho
time and effort ultimately taking a big bite out of the bottom-line.
Most
organizations payables processes grow organically or through acquisition along
with the needs of the business. Over time, with added volume and locations,
those processes often become cumbersome and unmanageable. By this time, they review their options and
either turn to a pricey accounting system upgrade or live with the current
setup. It’s up for debate on which
ultimately costs more, however it’s usually the later as resistance to change
is generally the road most travelled.
Let’s take
another look at these home grown complexities. The belief that each company
runs their ap differently “we are unique” is standard fair amongst operations.
Sure there is uniqueness to industries, or how business is conducted. But the
objective and outcomes are always the same, place an order, receive a bill,
code and approve it, and pay it. Really
companies are running the same process in slightly different and mostly manual
ways.
When the
Ford model T was introduced to world through standardized production, it made a
huge amount of sense and continues to be a massive factor in everything we
serve and produce today. Are the
benefits of standardization not available to the ap process? If the objectives
are the same, and the outcome is the same, why are businesses not looking to
standardize and take advantage of the same efficiencies and economies.
Truth is
most are not… yet. Most companies are not in the accounting business, nor
should they be. It’s a necessary evil. They don’t have time to focus in on
process improvement while running their business.
Incorporating
accounting best practices right from company inception is ideal but hardly
realistic, at least not until recently.
Today, there are solutions that expand the functionality of conventional
accounting applications and many of them are web-based and affordable to the
small and medium sized businesses. These
solutions offer built-in best practices to help businesses with compliance and
efficiency to allow them to concentrating on the core competencies of the business
rather than the paperwork involved with running the business.
Creating
efficiencies on your own, without the expertise and tools is impossible.
Standardizing and incorporating best practices right from company inception is
ideal but hardly realistic, at least not until recently. Today, there are
solutions that expand the functionality of conventional accounting
applications. Many of them are web-based and affordable to the small and medium
sized businesses. These solutions offer built-in best practices which help
standardize processing, boost efficiency, and focus businesses on their core
instead of the time consuming paperwork that surrounds their core.
Standardization
is becoming essential to create efficiencies in business process. As my beloved
marketing prof repeatedly broadcasted, "KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid"
in other words don't get caught up in the complex when there are proven simple
ways to process your ap.
Posted by Jarrod Levitan on Wed, Oct 08, 2008
We've just launched the new version of Beanbills (press release). Plus the new website is up! Exciting times!!
Lots of hard work has gone into this latest version and I wanted to thank the entire team for all their over and above contributions.
You're not supposed to hoot your own horn on blog, but we have something to be proud of and wanted to share this moment. So go check it out!
The Bean story continues to grow!