Laserfiche^® & Accounts Payable (AP) Invoice Processing

Laserfiche & Accounts Payable (AP) Invoice Processing

Your Laserfiche ECM is able to automate processing of your invoices. AP Invoice Automation facilitates shorter approval times, increased processing speed, reduced errors and reduced manual labor hours.

Accounts Payable processing is a basic component in every organization. It is a core work task. All agencies and companies, of every type and size, have traditionally relied on manual processes to pay their bills. These processes are time-intensive and tend toward costly errors, late payments, extra fees and long hours.

Improvements in machine learning and business process automation facilitate automation in this routine and repetitive task. Imagine freeing up valuable employee time, and using that time on more intricate tasks that require a human touch. Recent research indicates the base cost to process an invoice manually is $15 per invoice. The cost of processing the same invoice with an automated cloud-based tool is $2.36. This improvement lowers overhead and reduces operating expense by 85%!

Laserfiche offers several tools to support automated AP invoice processing. This article reviews the benefits of these tools that are received by organizations who achieve this automation.

Laserfiche Smart Invoice Capture Using Laserfiche Quick Fields

Laserfiche offers multiple options to bring an invoice into the repository. Depending on the source, Laserfiche Scanning can scan the paper invoice directly into Laserfiche, and the Laserfiche Snapshot printer can be used to import digital files as images into Laserfiche. Laserfiche also offers several additional tools to facilitate processing a high volume of invoices. This article describes how to use Laserfiche Smart Invoice Capture, part of Laserfiche Quick Fields software suite.

After importing the invoice into the Laserfiche system, the data is extracted automatically. The Laserfiche Smart Invoice Capture Profile eliminates need for manual data entry by automatically extracting key information from the invoice, such as Invoice Numbers and Vendor Names. The Smart Invoice Capture Profile uses machine learning to recognize and extract these pieces of information. These are stored as metadata tokens and are attached to the document for further process automation.

By using artificial intelligence to extract key metadata, Laserfiche reduces the amount of manual data entry. This can prevent typos and other issues associated with manual data entry. It also greatly reduces the time it takes to process the invoice. Added together, more accurate processing of invoices for payment reduces late fees, preserves the corporate image, and can even add to the bottom line by taking advantage of early pay discounts.

Laserfiche Workflow and Laserfiche Forms for Approval and Routing

With the invoice imported into Laserfiche and all data extracted, workflow routes the invoice through any approvals. Any number of rules can be assigned such as filtering by the Vendor Name, Invoice Amount or GL code. Routing documents through a workflow speeds processing. It prompts a user that there is work to be done. It also removes the chance of getting lost, misfiled or forgotten.

This is where Laserfiche Workflow and Laserfiche Forms add great value. Users of Laserfiche ECM can rest easy knowing there are prebuilt Workflows and Business Processes, included with their Laserfiche licensing, which can be customized to fit individual needs and existing procedures.

Laserfiche Integrations Marketplace and Laserfiche Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to Integrate with Standard Accounting (ERP) Systems

Further increasing the impact of automated AP processing, Laserfiche offers prebuilt integrations with a number of popular ERP systems, including Workday, SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft and more. All integrations are available through the Laserfiche Integrations Marketplace. Each third-party integration offers custom functionality for preexisting systems to integrate with Laserfiche and take advantage of the work already completed by Smart Invoice Capture, Quick Fields and Workflow.

Laserfiche also offers its own RPA module. This module enables organizations using Laserfiche to create their own integrations with their existing systems (including ERP systems) using a ‘no-code’, drag-and-drop interface similar to Laserfiche Workflow.

By integrating existing systems with Laserfiche, organizations avoid having to manually transfer data from one system to another, which is often time consuming and prone to error.

Automating Your Accounts Payable

FreeDoc is a Laserfiche Platinum Certified Solution Provider with twenty-two years of experience implementing client solutions within the electronic records management and automation industry. We work with organizations to customize Laserfiche to their specific needs and processes.

Interested in how Laserfiche can automate your organization’s work processes? Let us know using the form below. We’d be happy to show you a demonstration.