Four Ways Invoice Scanning Saves Staff Time

For most businesses, staff time is by far a company's most valuable resource. Finding ways to liberate that time saves money and enables you to redirect priceless staff energy to other value-added tasks. Business invoice scanning is a top time-saving candidate. Consider the following ways that this tool can make your invoice input, payment, filing, and searching faster than ever. 

Automated input

With the push of a button, business invoice scanning takes the manual labour out of data capture. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software extracts critical document information—like vendor name, date, purchase order, amount due, etc.—and makes it instantly available in digital form. Today’s scanners and related software out-pace even the most efficient human.

Accounts payable integration

Once business invoice information is digitised, it is ready for use in automated accounts payable processes. With rules you establish, your software can match invoices to their related purchase orders and automatically approve and send payment. Only exceptions and mismatches are diverted to a staff member for review and approval, so staff time is only used when human judgment is needed.

Virtual filing

While a hard copy document can only be filed in a single location, with digital you can save an unlimited number of business invoices virtually. Without having to make copies or file by hand, staff time is freed to focus on value-adding work, instead of moving pieces of paper around.

Lightning-fast search

With critical data fields indexed once scanned, finding business invoices is less painful than ever. A simple search by vendor or invoice number is as easy as typing in the name you seek, while advanced search capabilities can filter out similar but unwanted documents to return the exact invoice you need. Narrow your search by date, invoice amount, or any other field you designate.

When it comes to developing strategies to save staff time, the best candidates are processes that are frequent, repetitive, and rule-based. By automating input, integrating with accounts payable, filing digitally, and searching quickly, business invoice scanning fits the bill perfectly. 

Contact us today to implement invoice scanning at your office. Better still, complete our quick Accounts Payable survey to see how digital ready your are, we'll give you $50 eGift card for your time and efforts.