Posted by Todd Calman on Mon, Dec 20, 2010 @ 04:27 PM
Have you noticed the staggering amount of paper that is surrounding you in your office? Does it sometimes feel like you are about to drown under a waterfall of paper? Paper is everywhere. For decades, this has been a rather inefficient system. Invoices get lost, mispalced, torn, or simply disappear when they are grabbed with a sheaf of unrelated papers. Electronic files and automated record keeping methods can solve that problem, with very few drawbacks and many advantages.
The challenge with paper systems is keeping it all straight. Managing accounts receivable, accounts payable, purchase orders, payroll, bills, records, reports, etc. is extremely overwhelming - and if you added up the employee time spent simply handling these papers, not even doing the tasks that need to be done to take care of them, you would be stunned. It is a waste of time and effort just to route and push papers in the directions that they need to go.
Enter invoice automation. While the thought of abandoning the tried and true methods of record keeping and reports that involve actual hard copy papers, with a bit of support and some proof, it is quickly realized that automated systems are the way to go. Imagine if paper didn't exist how many staff hours could be saved?
Automated payment and processing systems allow you to view, route, approve and pay multiple invoices with a single click. You can easily obtain reports to review, based on cost center, vendor, or any other variable that you demand, allowing for easy integration with all of your accounting systems. Automation will help you keep close tabs on spending for all departments. Long gone are the sleepless nights preparing detailed reporting.
Posted by Todd Calman on Mon, Dec 20, 2010 @ 03:40 PM
Managing utility cost can be one of the biggest headaches for companies, both small and large. Being able to institute policies for utility cost management can make a huge difference to any company's bottom line and should be a priority for managers and administration.
Between electricity, telecom, gas, water/sewer, waste and other facility related costs, companies are racking up big bucks every month. Consolidating those costs by using companies that provide a service to manage the billing and record keeping can make sense. When your accounts receivable only gets one bill, and only sends one bill to accounts payable, think of the manpower that is conserved!
One of the biggest ways for companies to begin thinking about utility cost containment is to utilize the services of a company that can help manage each utility bill effectively and efficiently. Instead of receiving 300 individual invoices that must be handled by a staff member, companies could receive only one bill. At any time, reports are available on-demand to review cost and usage trends enterprise-wide. The amount of time and money saved by using this type of method to manage utility bills is astounding.
All businesses should consider cost-cutting measures. For many businesses, utility cost containment is becoming one of those smart, profit-enhancing decisions.
Posted by Todd Calman on Fri, Dec 17, 2010 @ 10:22 AM
Did your boss just ask for this fiscal year's utility budget? Are you dreading the long hours of work that it will take to put together this type of comprehensive report? If you used tools that reduced labor intensive processes, such as those high volume recurring utility expenses, you could significantly reduce the amount of work and aggravation it would take to gather the data. Many tools will allow you to run on-demand reports that provide you all the information you need, on-demand.
More and more often, companies are exploring options to consolidate their utility expenses. Having only one bill, or having bills delivered in a way that allows the invoice data to flow directly into an accounting system, significantly reduces the utility bill lifecycle.
A company can't survive without utility services. And in some cases, the actual cost of paying for these services is more than the actual invoice. Outsourcing utility and telecom expense management is becoming very popular for businesses of all types and sizes. Aggregating billing and payables, performing utility bill validation are all important task in reducing facility expenses. Companies that specialize in utility, telecom and facility expense and dispute management, provide greater opportunities then if you go at this yourself.
Typically, a utility expense management company will consolidate all of a company's utility bills and present only one bill. This paperless bill is delivered in a format that configures to your current financial system. Even if it took an employee 15 minutes to handle the entire lifecycle of an invoice, from opening the bill, to entering it in a system, to having it paid, to filing it away, to finding it for dispute resolution, paying 5-6 utility bills can chew up more than an hour of time. When you consider the cost of paying that same employee wages and benefits, and some time overtime, the cost of paying your utility bills each month can range up to what one of the invoices may be. Consider using a utility expense management system to increase margins, improve efficiency and reduce overhead.
Posted by Todd Calman on Thu, Dec 16, 2010 @ 10:35 AM
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It's not only the large Fortune 500 companies that can benefit from the outsourcing of their utility bill payment processing, small to medium sized business owners in the retail, manufacturing, property management and hospitality industries will find that by eliminating paper in this process will allow them to remain competitive during and after a challenging economy.
Regardless of how many different vendors that you may use for your company's utility services, having an outside service that can receive and process these bills, consolidate them into one payment, and process that payment for you automatically will no doubt save you money. According to an Aberdeen Group study, companies who have not embraced automation and outsourcing spend $16.91 to $36.51 per single invoice. Any money you spend today processing your own utility bills only makes the cost of your utilities even higher. Gain greater control and visibility, have less aggravation and spend less by using a utility bill payment processing service that can take care of all of it for you, at a fraction of the time and cost that you are wasting.
Having aggregated utility billing and payments means never missing an invoice or payment, again. Research studies have uncovered a startling fact - approximately 65% of business have incurred late fees on utility payments. No more discovering after the due date that you just missed a payment - and have now incurred a late charge. For most businesses, late fees total anywhere from 0.5% to 2% of utility expenses. This can be avoided.
Successful businesses are driving paper out of AP, and they are the ones that have accepted automation and outsourcing. Every business will have a need for real people to do real work, but having automation do the work of a small staff will save you a small fortune over the long run, allowing you to operate at your full potential.
Posted by Todd Calman on Thu, Dec 02, 2010 @ 10:40 AM
Do you consider an invoice in pdf format sent via e-mail, an electronic invoice?
I don’t.
All too often I hear, “We already receive most of our invoices electronically” only to later find out what they meant, or what they interpreted as electronic delivery, was that they could download their invoice from the internet or that it’s being sent by e-mail.
It’s very nice of those companies to allow their customers access to their invoices or even e-mail them, but the main goal of having your invoices electronically delivered is to shift the responsibility of data entry from accounts payable to the vendor or a third party procure-to-pay (P2P) provider. When you can start receiving your invoices in a format that can feed right into your accounting system, ready to be routed, approved and paid, you’ll eliminate a laborious and error prone step, while reducing your processing cost substantially.
Think about the last utility invoice you received. Someone at the utility company up on the tenth floor took data from the field and created an invoice on a computer, then prints it out on paper and mails out (using more paper and postage); it’s then received 5-7 days later at your company and then converted BACK into your required electronic format. Did I mention, at some point someone will convert this data BACK to paper and mail out a check, this time to someone on the top floor.
So, do you consider an invoice in pdf format sent via e-mail, an electronic invoice?
Posted by Todd Calman on Mon, Nov 29, 2010 @ 03:27 PM
Have you ever been asked by your boss to immediately provide an invoice, that you just can't seem to put your fingers on?
Recently, Toshiba Business Solutions reported that it costs businesses $120 on average to find a misplaced document.
Holy cow! I can understand while working in an office mired in paper and manual work, it's no surprise that files can get misplaced, lost or coffee spilled on them. The distraction of being taken away from your job hunting for records on a crowded desk, overflowing filing cabinets and offsite storage can be a waste of time, money and space. Has there ever been a study on the cost of FRUSTRATION?
When you consider the $120 “unnecessary” cost is JUST for finding a document, imagine what the overall procure-to-pay (P2P) for utility and facility expenses must be? Is it really possible that the cost to find an electric bill is more than receiving and paying it? Organizations can easily automate these processes and drive down cost by electronically receiving, sharing, storing and paying these utility documents.
So the next time your boss needs a utility bill from you for a report on spend analysis, will you have to walk around the office hunting, begging and praying you can find it or will you have it safely stored for immediate retrieval?