A Recent Industry Study of Accounts Payables Management Reveals that Manual Paper Processing is Among the Most Frustrating Aspects of AP.
Orange County, CA (1888PressRelease) June 15, 2016 - iPayables, a leading provider of electronic invoicing and AP Automation, recently completed an industry survey sent out to over 30,000 CFO's, AP managers, controllers and other financial professionals asking them to name their biggest frustration working in or with Accounts Payable. Survey participants were also asked to describe how they would solve their biggest complaints about AP if given the opportunity.
According to the results, the top frustration among accounts payable workers was the long and tedious invoice approval and payment process (21%). Other frustrations prevalently mentioned were manual paper processing (19%), followed by vendor issues, inquiries or complaints (14%), lack of workflow rules, deadlines and enforcement (10%), lost or missing invoices / payments (7%), inadequate AP staff / staff overworked (7%), other issues (7%), purchase order problems (6%), invoice errors (6%), and no transparency / lack of communication (3%).
"I hate it when invoices do not make it to AP for payment, then getting blamed when vendors get angry for non-payment," said one AP Manager. Other survey participants said they were frustrated with "vendors sending AP invoices by email to employees outside of Accounts Payable department," or the "Lack of knowledge of the system from other departments." One controller even mentioned that "I'm really tired of chasing approvals for services provided and with our excessive use of paper."
The fact that efficiency, visibility and control issues represented 74% of frustration responses, leaves little surprise that 58% of suggested solutions were directly related to Automation/e-invoicing. One of the participants, said their biggest frustration with AP lies in manual data entry and the tediousness of processing paper invoices. In their words, the solution would be to utilize "EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) with our big vendors and an E-invoicing option with everyone else."
Many of the resolutions proposed by the those who took the survey were technology based including: Accounts Payable Automation (19%), Electronic Invoicing (10%), a general upgrade in technology (9%), an AP Workflow system (4%), or the use of a vendor portal (4%). Of the non-technology related answers, having more organizational structure and discipline registered the highest with 18 percent of the survey responses. The results of the study can be found in a white paper and can be accessed by clicking here. (http://pages.ipayables.com/Top-Frustration-WP-Form.html)
About iPayables
iPayables is the leading provider of Accounts Payable Automation and Electronic Invoicing. By using our advanced internet invoicing system (InvoiceWorks®), companies can process invoices electronically, make changes, and can track payments all while eliminating phone inquiries, data entry, filing and the scanning of documents.
The world's largest airline, largest grocer, largest restaurant chain and other Fortune 100 companies use iPayables InvoiceWorks® because of its functionality, flexibility, and unmatched value. iPayables provides supplier tools for invoice web-entry, file upload, EDI, PO flip and paper invoice capture, which integrate seamlessly with our robust and dynamic workflow, purchase order matching, dispute resolution, payment and dynamic discounting capabilities. To learn more about iPayables log on to http://www.ipayables.com
A Recent Industry Study of Accounts Payables Management Reveals that Manual Paper Processing is Among the Most Frustrating Aspects of AP. 
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