At first glance, spending $45 on an invoice doesn’t seem like a major expense. Before coming to any conclusions, consider the sheer quantity of invoices that your business sifts through during any given month. What about a quarter? A year? By doing the math, any savvy business leader can easily recognize the true cost of $45 invoices. At the same time, invoices still need to be processed. When compared to the actual invoice total itself, the processing cost can seem like pennies on the dollar.
If you’re overlooking the processing cost for manually entered invoices, you could be making a major miscalculation. Although automatic invoice software like Listo is proven to reduce invoicing costs by upwards of 60%, businesses that make the switch are saving more than just processing. The true costs of manually inputted invoices involves productivity, rework, and (above all) time. By discounting the importance of these factors, you could be putting your business at a significant competitive dis-advantage when compared to peer competitors. Here’s the need-to-know.
Manually Entering Invoices Dampens Productivity
Consider your core competencies. If you’re a construction company, building exceptional, sturdy, and dependable structures is paramount. For a financial advisory firm, providing top-tier financial advice comes first. For digital marketing agencies, creating exceptional content on a regular basis drives ROI. No matter which industry you’re in, there’s one universal truth: your success depends upon your core business model.
Additionally, great businesses achieve their current reputation from the hardworking employees that drive the day-to-day operations. With years of hands-on experience, academic research, and noteworthy degrees, these critical personnel are the driving force behind any successful business. With the exception of accounting personnel, your key players did not join your organization to process invoices. You are doing them a disservice by shifting their focus toward invoices (as opposed to the activities that drive your bottom line) while simultaneously taking away from the core product or service-based operations that helped you reach your current level.
Implementing an automatic invoicing solution is the optimal way to center your team’s concentration around the activities that matter most. Not only does software like Listo save processing fees, but it keeps your team from doing mundane invoice processing that goes against the grain of your routine operations.
Paper Invoices Take Considerable Time
Oftentimes, business leaders who are resistant to digital transformation place disproportionate focus on the amount of time it will take their teams to learn new systems. As a result, they maintain legacy systems that eat away at would-be productive hours. These same leaders oftentimes focus solely on the amount of time it takes to process a single invoice, neglecting the secondhand impact that invoice processing can have in regard to time.
To illustrate this point, consider inaccuracies. While an automatic invoice processing system greatly reduces inaccurate invoices and mistakes, manual invoices are always prone to human error. In turn, invoices can turn into multi-hour ordeals as employees work to correct issues.
Additionally, many invoices require manual routing to receive signatures, approval, entry, and filing. The invoice routing process alone can take more time than drafting the actual invoice itself. Furthermore, invoices can quickly become backed up as business demand surges. This creates a bottleneck in administrative operations that can quickly inhibit other, more profitable undertakings from flowing smoothly.
An automatic invoice processing system not only corrects each of the issues listed above, but introduces new efficiencies such as instant invoice history, consistent invoice formats, and global invoice access.
The Hidden Disadvantages of Rework
Rework carries with it a heavy negative connotation. Work that you had marked as complete is now required to be revisited, costing time, money, and energy in the process. Although the upfront disadvantages of rework are clear, there are hidden downsides that are not as easy to identify.
For example, consider working with a dependable contractor. Although you may have been partners for years, market shifts can put even the most well-established operations in jeopardy. When it comes to invoices, contractors need to be paid in a timely manner. Invoices can already take upwards of 60 days to process when they are manually entered. If this delay were to happen during a market downturn, the continuity of small contractors could be at risk, as they wouldn’t be able to quickly receive the lifeblood of their operations.
Automated invoice software alleviates the risks associated with rework. Overpaying, underpaying, incorrectly addressing, missing discounts, duplicating payments, and forgetting credits are commonplace for manual data entries, but can be reduced or even eliminated entirely but exceptional invoice processing systems.
Listo is one of the best ways for businesses to quickly partake in digital transformation. With an easy-to-use interface that adjusts to meet the unique needs of your business, Listo is ideal for contractors, designers, and construction companies alike. By participating in a risk free 30-day trial, you can experience the difference that automatic invoice processing can have on your business.
Intelligent Automatic Invoice and AP Solutions
Change requires focus, planning, and attention-to-detail. Without foresight and vision, digital change can leave once-successful operations with more questions than answers. Fortunately, incorporating automatic invoice processing is a relatively painless undertaking that yields major league results. Over the course of a quarter, year, or even decade, automatic invoice processing can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in invoice processing fees alone. When coupled with the time, productivity, and rework efficiencies, automatic invoice and AP software can be the make-or-break between long-term financial health and financial disaster.
Closing Remarks
Consider starting with Listo. As a tech leader for automatic invoice processing, Listo offers businesses with a streamlined way to expedite payment processing. In turn, contractors, business partners, and vendors will receive dependable and on-time payments. By preventing wasted time, rework, and productivity, Listo gives businesses an upper hand when compared to peer-competitors who use manual data entry. Additionally, Listo gives owners unparalleled transparency into the integrity of their payment processing system.
Listo automatically ensures that the right people and entities receive their due payments. As a result, businesses can spend more time focusing on their core competencies and less time worrying about the nuances of administrative paperwork. After all, your employees didn’t sign on to file paperwork. Listo also seamlessly integrates with existing systems and your accounting suite.
Are you a business leader that want’s to make the most out of disruptive digital tech? Even if you aren’t sure, automatic invoice processing is the ideal way to test the waters. By starting with invoices, you will gain a newfound appreciation for the power of automated tech. As a result, you may find yourself with countless additional personnel hours that can be used for marketing, core-competency improvements, and more. Interested in signing up? If so, you can start with a free, 30-day trial that doesn’t require a credit card entry.
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