Who Said Invoice Images Can’t Dance

Good news! In Beanbills you can now rotate, move and delete your images for each invoice. We call it image manipulation for lack of a more creative title. All of it possible from the details view. If an image is in landscape, and you want it portrait. One click and it's portrait. If you need a different page order, select a page, click the arrows up or down until it's in the right place.

You can also delete images. However, as Controllers well know, that's not such a good thing. We thought about this and what appears as delete is really a hide images feature. Select an image, click delete. You're presented with a choice to delete or move the image to scans page or to another transaction. If you delete, a link appears in the view where you can return at any time and add that image back to the invoice.  It's never going to just disappear.

If you move the image to another invoice. Move it back to the scans page. Then go to the intended invoice and click add image, and it directs you to the scans page where you select the image and attach. Obviously this is super handy for images scanned or attached in error, like packaging slips.

This was one of the top feature request list. We listened and we're excited get it out to you. Keep the requests coming.

AP Automation, Why Don’t We Change?

I recently read a great blog post called "4 Obstacles to Starting and Completing Challenging Projects" by Amber Singelton Riviere posted on http://www.webworkerdaily.com

This article relates very much to AP Automation, as going paperless and streamlining your AP is a project. And a change. It involves many people in your organization. However the benefits of the change are so obvious and become ever more glaringly so when you look at the facts. Organizations are saving left, right and centre. The benefits are abundant. So why is everyone not doing it?

Most of us shy away from challenges like taking on a new project. We procrastinate or quite halfway. There are so many obstacles that get in the way, ultimately most of them are self fulfilling if you let them.

Inspired by from Amber's post, where I list her thoughts and include my own below. Here are the 4 obstacles to overcome when initiating an AP Automation project.

Obstacle #1: Fear

Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, fear (of success and failure, of ticking people off, of looking stupid, etc.) is debilitating. A lot of times, it's easier to just keep our heads down, avoid eye contact, and not raise our hands (even when we know the answer). We ask ourselves:

• "What if it doesn't work?"
• "What if it gets me fired?"
• "What if I do this, spend a lot of time/money/energy, and it gets me nowhere?"

Fear is always going to be present, but nine times out of ten, the thing we fear doesn't even eventuate. Yet we still let it hold us back, even though we know it's not likely to occur.

When it comes to AP Automation, we fear changing the way we do things today. Disturbing the peace. Ultimately the way we are doing things today is SO manual and inefficient, and when we look back in 10 years from now, it will be retarded. Our kids will be laughing at us, saying "you used do what with paper?". When making change there are always a few hot coals to walk on. Under the worst case scenario you can always go back to the way you were doing things before.

Obstacle #2: Avoidance

More often than not, we know what we need to do, yet we make excuses about why we can't or haven't made progress. Maybe we need to get that new marketing strategy off the ground, maybe we need to start that new business, or maybe we need to write that e-book. Whatever the case, we don't get it done or don't even get it started and instead say things, like:

• "I would have started it, but I've just been so busy at home."
• "I've been meaning to finish that, but I've been swamped lately."
• "I got sick, then the kids were off a week, then my in-laws came to visit, and I just haven't had the time."

We convince ourselves that our complete avoidance of getting things done is caused by legitimate delays and distractions, because they are legitimate. The question is, how badly do we want to complete that big project/challenge? For example, how much do we really want to get our businesses off the ground, or how much do we really want to see them succeed?

Everyone wants electronic documents. Unless you're a luddite and don't believe in email or computers, the benefits are enormously obvious. So why aren't you doing anything about it? This is often the most common delay with AP Automation, the excuse that something else has to get done. Sure, there are more important things, but to Controllers, CFO's and financial executives out there what's more important than knowing what's going one with every transaction in the business at anytime. Who has it, where its been, where's it going. And who's doing their job and who is not. AP Automation presents that operational visibility where managing your workforce with measured facts is an undeniably powerful administration tool.

Obstacle #3: Motivation (Or Lack of It)

I think a lot of times, we say we want something because maybe we should want it (or think we should want it).  Maybe we say, "I want my business to make more money," but in reality, we're pretty comfortable where we are, and even if we're not completely comfortable, the discomfort is not so overwhelming to make us want to put out the extra effort to effect change in our situation.

If there is no real motivation to do something, we have to admit it, own it, and say, "I don't even want that," and so, it's not necessary to put out all that effort to complete some arbitrary project or challenge. If we can't at least get to the place where we can accept our lack of motivation, then there's this feeling of obligation or guilt that constantly nags at us.

If your organization is happy with traditional paper pushing, documents getting lost, approvals taking forever and lack of transparency, then you have no motivation to change. And we truly wish you all the best with that.

Obstacle #4: No Map

Sometimes we'd do what we needed to do, if only we knew where to start or how to get it done. Especially in business, there are times when we walk around clueless and have to figure things out as we go, and that leads back to the first obstacle. If we don't know what we're doing, how can we get people to believe in us, and how do we avoid looking stupid when people figure out that we don't know what we're doing?

Seth Godin talks about working without a map in his book "Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?", and discusses about how we have to be OK with working without a map and just get used to not knowing our way around. If there was a map, everyone else would be following it, and then the journey and destination would probably not be as worthwhile.

It can be hard to take on big projects and challenges and even harder to actually complete them, but by identifying the root cause of our hesitation or procrastination, we'll be much more likely to tackle those big challenges and get things done.

Every organization is different. Every person is different. Thank goodness for that! The same applies in accounts payable. All organisation process their documents with slight differences. However there are major overriding themes to processesing vendor invoices like:  Most of them arrive on paper. They need to be coded or allocated to an account, job cost or item. They need to be approved and, for better or worse, they need to be paid. By connecting those main themes into a flexible online business process and workflow, that caters to most scenario's, you can find your way around without map.

What are some of your obstacles to automating your AP? What's holding you back from taking steps to go paperless?

Join the Revolution! Reduce Your Invoice Processing Costs

Further to the discussion on Accounts Payable processing costs, we thought you might want to know what gets in the way of automation. Paper AP is the necessary evil in many organizations and change is harder than it seems. 

Some might not trust the digital image concept, others like to "feel it" in their hands and yet others have disbelief around the real costs of their manual system versus automation and the potential savings. It is true that reducing the overall costs from $37 to $4 is quantifiable but are those savings really coming off the bottom line and what needs to happen to achieve that? Yes absolutely, opportunity costs and labour costs are real. 

How can an organization find its way to embrace the future rather than fear it?
 
In the last 35 years, computers changed accounting dramatically, gone was the way of the hand written ledger and its manual posting. If any accountant heard of a company NOT using computerized accounting software today, they would assume their clients were in the dark ages! But how did that change occur? To trust the DOS based systems of those early days, must have been very difficult for many. Nevertheless, they adopted and adapted to the faster easier way. Let machines do the repeated work that is mindless.
 
Mo Kelly, from Rockwall Computers says it well in his blog; http://www.accountingsoftware411.com/Press/PressDocView.aspx?docid=11038

"The big changes in accounting seemed to happen when we changed platforms. Major changes happened when we went from paper to computer. Another major change was from mainframe computers to PC's. Then the next big change was from text based user interfaces to graphic user interfaces. Everyone says that someday we will no longer have software to load on our computers. We will only have browsers and servers. That will be a major platform change.

The motivating factor for changing platforms has been to take advantage of new ways to integrate software. The one concept that is responsible for 90% of the time saved with computers? - Integration.

I honestly believe that we are seeing the final revolution in accounting software. Now accounting packages can grow endlessly and never be obsolete. Object oriented software allows us to reuse software for other applications. Development takes less time. There will never again be a need to create new software because of a platform change. Web based software can be integrated with any process anywhere in the world. How can any new concept compete, especially since it is free?

What does this revolution mean to you? If your company is not ready to get rid of an old, obsolete, client-server, proprietary software package, you may experience similar problems to those in the 80's that claimed they did not need a computer in their business. That is what happens in a revolution."

Well, this holds true for automation of AP workflow too. We have entered a new century with a new way to do this work with much less effort and the mindless tasks and delays that go with paper should be gone. The same things that must have interfered with the adoption of modern accounting software (sadly, I am old enough to say I used the one-write system!) are effecting AP automation adoption today. Innovative thinking controllers will lead the way and then the rest will fall or follow.
 
Accounting went relatively unchanged from the time of the Egyptians until the invention of the computer and its realistic application in the 1970's. Now software applications are moving to the web.

The ability (or inability) to implement change is a company's best asset or worse enemy. Early adopters of technology will be the pack to the pot of gold. This is true for AP automation. Money is wasted every day on the paper way. Organizations need to go back in time to remember what was like before computers, and how much time was wasted on manual systems.

Scan Invoices - The First Step in AP Automation

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!

Bring on the AP Automation for Timberline

We're pleased to announce that beanbills is now fully integrated with Timberline Office. Thanks to our friends at Constructive Solutions who helped implement the solution. Our customers using Timberline can now take advantage of all the benefits of Accounts Payable Automation by exchanging data directly with their Timberline software.

A Green AP: Good for Productivity, Good for the Environment

This is a great piece from Mary Schaefers e-AP newsletter;

Here are a few tactics you can try that are good both for the environment and a more efficient AP function
• 1) Before you hit that print button, ask, "Do I really need a copy?"
• 2) Pay electronically if at all possible.
• 3) Encourage electronic invoicing-it makes AP more efficient.
• 4) Sign up for a service that converts the faxes to e- mail.
• 5) Automate wherever possible.

thanks Mary!!

KISS applies to Accounts Payable

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.