Posted by Catherine Dahl on Thu, Jul 22, 2010
Has this happened to you or someone you know? Of course if you aren’t an accountant you might not see the humour in there! But then you would also not be reading this either!
Anyway, this kind of thing is more common than you might think. Paper causes problems; they can get lost, burnt, wet, ripped – you name it - paper is easily destructible. And we people make mistakes. So is there a system and a way to reduce that human touch and error? YES! AP Automation is here, and solves much of these issues. And to obvious those embarrassing situations, e-pay is here to help. It all starts with electronic purchase orders.
In the “olden days”, companies had to hand write PO’s in triplicate, send off copies to accounting, the supplier and the receiver. Then the product came in and was received and that information had to be send to accounting with another piece of paper and so on a and so on. In fact this system could cost anywhere from $31 per PO to $88 depending on the organizations size (source The Supplier Enablement Benchmark Report - AberdeenGroup KPIs & Metrics Mar, 2006). Even the “best-in-class” spend $28 to produce and process a PO. So once you had spend $50 ordering the item you then spend between $30 and $60 paying for it, in processing costs of manual AP and printed cheque payment. Invoices arrived, were stamped, routed for signature and coding (some never left the supervisors desk!) and manually entered into the accounting software for payment. Then a check is cut and mailed out, if there were no errors made along the way. The average company takes 10 to 25 days to get through this process and is spending far too much on the process.
Stay tuned for more fun demonstrations of AP hazards, there are so many! And think about automation, the paperless, painless way to make the computer work for you for a change!
Posted by Catherine Dahl on Tue, Apr 20, 2010
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.
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, Sep 10, 2008
This is our very first Blog post. Thought I'd kick it off with why Bean was founded.
Before starting this business I was the CFO of a medium sized business for 5 years. I spent a lot of time dealing first hand with processing bills in accounts payable. Many hours wasted in front of a copy machine and having a hard time finding invoices in filing cabinets that had taken control of our office space. Even worse the pain of pulling them from long term storage. Plus the time we spent doing data entry or fixing mistakes when we could have been doing something more important.
I thought to myself ‘there has to be a better way'. After some research I found that unless your company had a budget of hundreds of thousands and internal IT knowledge there was nothing out there to help automate your AP. Worse there was zero available to help with rebilling or compiling client reimbursables. And our company had tons.
It just seemed with all the technology out there this problem would have been solved by now. But it wasn't. The opportunity was clear as day. Create a system from start to finish that manages the AP process, makes it quicker, easier, add controls with immediate access to records like google. The benefits are obvious and vast. Cost savings being first, especially people's time. Then all the office costs like storage and copies. Then add up all the other benefits like improved accuracy, control, process management and less errors. Combined it all makes a strong value proposition.
Beanbills technology was created to focus on the combined strengths of people and technology. Ultimately, why are we still doing tasks computers can do better? There will always be a place for both so why not make the best of both. Use technology to rid ourselves of all those manual paper based problems, free up our office time for more valuable work.
And why the name Bean Services? There are so many boring systems and companies out there in accounting. We wanted to break the mold with something fresh, fun and friendly. So Bean was born.
