Author: Kris Subramanian

Is your business treating invoice processing as an unavoidable cost of doing business (pun intended!)? You don’t have to when you use accounting process automation!

When seemingly mundane activities are not optimized using intelligent invoice processing automation, you could be leaking significant dollars without even realizing it. Interestingly, it is such tasks that can be transformed to be not only effortless but also provide deep insights into your fund management.

Any opportunity to improve business processes and create bandwidth for other critical activities – especially during the current economic conditions – is valuable and worth pursuing. Manual effort spent on repetitive administrative tasks like managing invoices results in a significant waste of time, effort and money. Studies show that Accounts Payable automation software can reduce invoice processing costs by 90 percent. ¹

It is common for large enterprises to interact with thousands of vendors and pay thousands of invoices per year. Most organizations still require a great deal of manual intervention to manage various aspects of invoice processing even after implementing RPA to automate the process.

How Do Businesses Currently Capture Invoice Data?

Large enterprises receive thousands of invoices every month from numerous vendors, each in a different format. Many suppliers still present their invoices via paper or as a PDF attachment in an email. These delivery methods require a great deal of manual processing, including scanning, data verification, and exception management. The goal of every organization is to get to a point where their Accounts Payable teams can perform end-to-end touchless invoice processing.

An invoice goes through several stages of scrutiny before it gets paid by the account payables department. The dedicated teams that handle invoice processing manually feed the data into enterprise workflow tools like SAP and similar ERP applications to ease the orchestration of invoice processing, including routing the data for multiple scrutiny checks, approval and validation for payment.

Potential Invoice Processing Concerns in Today’s Scenario

A majority of the invoices today are electronically processed where a vendor uploads the invoice on a supplier portal of the organization. Internal systems like SAP have integrated automated invoice processing solutions to manage the invoice data electronically. However, many vendors don’t adhere to the submission process through a supplier portal and end up sending the invoices directly via email. Even invoices submitted electronically are not standard and the same vendor may regularly change formats and fields.

Larger enterprises have teams to manually sort all the invoices, create the invoices in the system, validate the details across the ERP and GRN (Goods Receipt Number) systems and transfer the entries into the SAP system for further processing and approval.

The to-and-fro communication between the business and the finance team for validation and the overhead efforts to perform a match between a number of invoices and associated business units included in the delivery of goods makes it difficult in many cases to validate a one-one match between the purchase order to a goods receipt.

For delivery of services, there is no concept of a GRN. In such cases, the invoice process goes through additional approval. It requires human intervention to route the invoices for the required approval, which further increases manual input.

Manual processing can result in high processing costs, increased risk, process and accounting errors, duplicate and late payments. According to AQPCs 2018 survey² of 1,480 organizations reporting data on the cost to process an invoice, the bottom 25% are spending $10 or more per invoice processed. The median cost to process an invoice was $5.83.

The Challenges of using RPA for Invoice Processing in Accounts Payable Automation

• With the advent of RPA, automation of invoice processing was done based on fixed invoice templates or rules. With the number of vendors increasing, it was difficult to train the automation tasks to handle frequent changes in invoice templates.
• As organizations added new vendors and invoice formats, the RPA system failed to handle the process due to a lack of cognitive ability or flexibility to understand different formats, and an inability to adapt to new features.
• RPA solutions were also weak in ensuring the accuracy of data validation owing to the inability to perform 3-way match in the invoice validation and business rule enforcement throughout the invoice process.
• RPA solutions were not able to handle exception cues or provide many analytic insights of invoice status, improving cashflow or reducing processing costs.

Every touch to an invoice increases costs associated with processing the invoice and accuracy in handling and payments.

Accounting Process Automation for Touchless Invoice Processing

Our Automated Invoice Processing HyperApp with integrated Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities can exercise full control over Supplier Portal customizations to ease supplier onboarding and invoice management. It has the built-in cognitive ability to handle complex invoice formats and create templates for new invoices.

Equipped with a powerful validation engine, the validation process is dealt with ahead of ERP processes to avoid downstream updates in the ERP system minimizing errors. The accounting process automation platform allows faster implementation of configurable workflows for new suppliers, product lines or invoices. The potential to provide powerful data analytic features gives the competitive edge for Accounts Payable automation.

JIFFY.ai’s Automated Invoice Processing HyperApp is truly touchless in every sense. Our customers reported significant improvement in straight-through invoice processing, 90% improvement in invoice processing turnaround times and more than 85% efficiency improvement after implementation.

Accelerate your automation journey with JIFFY.ai’s low-code platform.

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References

¹https://www.industryweek.com/finance/article/22010161/the-cost-of-paperbased-invoicing

²https://www.apqc.org/system/files/K07216_Cost%20to%20process%20accounts%20payable%20updated%202_26_18.pdf

Whether you’ve already implemented accounts payable automation technology in your enterprise or you’ve not yet implemented a solution, it’s important to understand exactly what you’re buying – and what you’re NOT buying – when you choose a vendor. 

There are quite a few automated invoice processing solutions in the market that with varying levels of automation sophistication can facilitate the elimination of human errors, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. Choosing the right vendor is critical to your company’s ability to manage cash flow and properly process invoices and payments.

But when choosing an automated invoice processing software, the question is not whether these vendors can do what they claim. The real questions to ask are: How much does the comprehensive solution for AP automation cost and, once you sign on, are all the necessary elements bundled in a single, transparent price tag? Will the solution be flexible and efficient in the long run? And will it require many external resources to manage it well into the future?

“Real” Total Invoicing Processing Costs for Accounts Payable Automation

We’ve put together some guidelines that can help you to select the right innovative automation solution while delivering a low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Here are some things to consider before selecting an accounts payable automation technology solution for invoice processing:

• Does the solution provide a unified platform that supports your end-to-end invoicing process at every step?
• Can the solution be easily implemented and adapt to your existing technology infrastructure?
• Is the solution scalable with built-in functionality for expansion of your invoice management process?
• Does the solution provide analytics on real-time data to help you see the current status of your cash flow and invoices, as well as provide visibility into improvements that can be made to the process itself?
• When your business processes change in response to market demand, will you need an army of consultants or additional resources to implement and manage the changes to the automation solution?
• Does the solution have built-in cognitive capabilities to handle complex invoices as well as automatically create templates for new invoices?

Invoice processing costs can also be hidden. For instance, some solutions will still require an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine for the conversion of images to text. Transparency around these additional costs is crucial and, typically, such additional requirements aren’t identified until you’re in the middle of implementation.

JIFFY.ai’s Automated Invoice Processing Software HyperApp for Reduced TCO

The JIFFY.ai Automated Invoice Processing HyperApp combines the power of Artificial Intelligence with the efficiency of RPA to give you an all-in-one, ready-to-install automated invoice processing software Accounts Payable automation solution. We help your organization to maintain high-quality invoice data with improved processing times, zero errors and absolutely no hidden costs.

Here’s what our HyperApp offers:

• Supports Cloud-based Saas or on-premise/private cloud solutions
• Pricing based on volume of invoices processed per year – not a licensing fee
• Zero additional or hidden technology/implementation costs
• Best-in-class guarantee of cost for invoices processed
• Scalable solution for the long run
• Easy to configure workflows for adding new suppliers, processing rules, or adjusting the process overall
• Integrated cognitive workflow with Machine Learning, making automated cognitive decision-making a reality 

Our customers have reported reduced invoice processing costs, errors, and time spent on the invoicing process. Higher levels of automation with the cognitive learning ability in JIFFY.ai’s HyperApp has helped reduce transaction and implementation costs, as well as TCO.

Bring Home Lower TCO with JIFFY.ai’s Automated Invoice Processing Software

Automated invoice processing software solutions are available to help companies optimize and expedite the invoicing process. However, hidden costs in implementation can derail the savings and improvements quickly.

Therefore, it is essential to have clarity regarding optimizing the “real” TCO of the Accounts Payable automation solution. It should be one that doesn’t have any hidden costs and pricing based on the number of invoices processed per year, not on the number of procured licenses. JIFFY.ai’s Invoice Processing HyperApp can optimize your invoicing process with advanced intelligence and lowered TCO for your organization. Contact us to request your demo today.

What is automation in a modern enterprise environment?

In a nutshell, automation can be defined as a collection of technologies (bots, business rules, sensors, programming scripts, etc.) that can complete a task with little to no human intervention.

Investment in automation has increased in response to the pandemic, and digital automation platforms have proved to help organizations get more ROI, faster. Deloitte’s 2020-2021 survey found that 68% of business leaders leveraged automation to respond to COVID-19 impacts. 1 in 3 have accelerated their cloud-hosted automation spends, which indicates a growing demand for digital automation platforms hosted on the cloud.

So, what is a digital automation platform?

A digital automation platform refers to a software application that lets you automate iterative processes like employee onboarding, documents management, and invoice processing through the use of digital tools, cognitive technologies like AI, and integrations with existing enterprise systems.

This is a significant departure from traditional robotic process automation (RPA) which is more siloed and targets only standalone jobs or tasks in an enterprise. To understand this further, let us look at the defining traits of a digital automation platform.

Key Features of a Digital Automation Platform

A platform, by definition, is a foundational technology that acts as a base to integrate additional systems, extend processes, and drive interoperability so you can connect your enterprise seamlessly. A digital automation platform lets you deploy enterprise automation in a turnkey yet extensible manner. Its key features include:

• Extensibility – The platform integrates with your existing systems like enterprise resource planning (ERP), human resource management systems (HRMS), customer relationship management (CRM), configure-price-quote (CPQ), etc., typically via the cloud. It can exchange data and react to events happening on other platforms.

• Cognitive technology readiness – A next-gen digital automation platform must incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), which is among its biggest differentiators when compared to RPA. AI allows the automation platform to handle exceptions, understand diverse kinds of data, and perform other human-like activities.

• Ease of use – Digital automation platforms must be easy to implement without compromising on flexibility for customization. Typically, they provide a graphical user interface (GUI) experience, as opposed to RPA, which is usually script-based. Business users and technical experts alike can use these platforms to automate the processes they need.

What Are the Benefits of a Digital Automation Platform?

A platform that helps to automate tasks and entire processes end-to-end offers a host of benefits in the short-, mid-, and long-terms.

In the short term, it helps to improve the work experience of employees stuck with mundane and repetitive tasks like filling in forms for employee onboarding, making data entries for processing an invoice, or manually converting information from a PDF document to a machine-readable format. In short, it helps to unlock significant time and effort savings for the enterprise.

In the mid-term, the process landscape becomes more clarified because the digital automation platform powers interconnectivity between processes. For instance, invoice submission to payment disbursal can happen in a single workflow without data, time or effort lost in the gaps of process silos.

In the long term, the enterprise achieves greater digital maturity and transformation in work culture, and is able to focus more on value generation than rules-based task completion.

Digital Automation Platform at Work

One of the most perceivable examples of how an automation platform can be implemented to drive significant ROI is a process that involves significant volume of document processing. Whether it is for employee onboarding, invoice automation, or supply and procurement, workflows that require to process massive numbers of documents every day require a more sophisticated platform approach. A digital automation platform can accept document submissions, extract information using machine learning (ML) and optical character recognition (OCR), fill out forms, raise exceptions if any, and notify the stakeholders using a variety of integrated automation technologies seamlessly.

The future of digital automation platforms is poised to push beyond complex process automation. Providing organizations with the ability to assemble enterprise-wide applications that natively integrate automation into workflows, streamlining front-to-back-end data flows and deploying data analytics are also critical elements to achieving efficiencies and advancing digital transformation. Such integrated, intelligent automation platforms will usher in more opportunities for organizations to transition to cloud-native, API-driven systems, and will also help business leaders radically rethink product design and unlock the full benefits of digital modernization.

To learn more about how the JIFFY.ai AUTOMATE integrated intelligent automation platform can help your business rethink digital transformation, email us at marketing@jiffy.ai.

Robotic process automation is a crucial technology for digital transformation. According to Deloitte, 72% of companies would have already begun their RPA journeys by the end of last year. Within the next three years, RPA will become near-universal due to its beneficial impacts – cost and effort reduction, simplification of processes, scalability, and a better work experience. To understand how you could achieve these benefits, let us explore the concept of robotic process automation in detail.

What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

Robotic process automation is a technology that eliminates manual processes by using software robots (i.e., bots) to perform the job, configuring bots in a manner that they can detect, respond to and act on events occurring across the enterprise.

RPA has several component technologies that allow it to emulate human labor:

• Automation scripts – These scripts define the workflow that the bot will follow.
• Application programming interfaces (APIs) – RPA uses APIs to connect with various enterprise systems and fetch data. APIs make it possible to detect events in different systems.
• Sensors and triggers – These are the data sources that inform an RPA bot whenever an action is needed. Typically, sensors reside in enterprise systems like CRM or ERP, and communicate with RPA via APIs.
• Bots – Software bots are programs that use automation scripts and APIs to detect an event and automatically perform a workflow.
• Graphical user interface (GUI) – This is an optional component that allows business users to configure the bot without having to write code.
• Artificial intelligence – Another optional component, AI allows bots to learn from past workflows and process unstructured data.

The last two components are characteristic of the next step in the evolution of RPA, which is intelligent automation.

How Does Robotic Process Automation Work? Key Functionalities Explained

RPA mainly applies to repetitive tasks that are not quite complex in nature. They involve fewer steps, which make them easier to automate. And because of their repetitive nature, you can implement RPA in bulk and automate a high volume of processes for maximum returns. For example, there are myriad use cases for robotic process automation in banking because banks have a large volume of repetitive, low-complexity processes for which accuracy is highly critical. These include application processing, reviewing and confirming know your customer (KYC) documentation, answering customers’ FAQs, data entry, and checking and confirming financial transaction validity.

Here is a step-by-step breakdown of how robotic process automation works:

Step 1 – The organization sets up the RPA software system by identifying the task to be automated, configuring the bot accordingly, and integrating with the necessary systems. For example, a financial services organization can set up a bot that monitors a stock price online and updates the stakeholders if it crosses a threshold.

Step 2 – The organization ensures that RPA is properly configured and integrated. In our financial services example, the bot mentioned above must be connected to social media, financial service information feeds, and online publications to fetch stock price data. It must connect to a notification system like a collaboration platform or email to send updates to the appropriate user(s).

Step 3 – Users are trained on RPA, so they can rely on these automated processes to improve productivity and outcomes. In our example, employees of the financial services organization must get trained to know which notifications to watch for and how to act on them for the appropriate stakeholders.

The Benefits of RPA Face the Challenge to Scale

Most early adopters are already vouching for RPA’s ability to boost process efficiency which has helped them save costs and effort. According to Deloitte, RPA has helped to improve compliance (92%), productivity (86%), and quality/accuracy (90%) in organizations.

For example, the HR team of a global professional services firm not only reduced onboarding time from three hours to 17 minutes but also removed manual intervention permanently so that its onboarding processes run automatically 24/7. 

However, organizations that have deployed only RPA for automating their tasks are facing the challenges of scale and technical debt the bots brought in: 

• RPA may not be integrated with your end-to-end enterprise stack, leading to lost opportunities. 
• Traditional RPA does not come with cognitive (AI) capabilities, which means it cannot handle process exceptions or unstructured data. 
• RPA requires complex code-based configuration, and you might need to rope in IT every time your workflow or process changes. 

Such limitations are pushing organizations to look beyond only RPA when embracing end-to-end digital transformation.

An intelligent automation platform, though, powered by natively integrated AI, ML, OCR, intelligent document processing, and a configurable low-code interface multiplies the benefits of robotic process automation and makes it sustainable for the long term.

To learn more about the benefits of enterprise automation and the JIFFY.ai AUTOMATE intelligent automation platform, contact us at marketing@jiffy.ai.

As we navigate a time different from the one we would have liked or wanted, we’re bringing to you a series of blogs, writeups, and LinkedIn resources that we call New Now. In today’s New Now blog, we talk about how businesses can begin to recover and mitigate some of the significant disruption with help from automation.

One McKinsey & Company report suggested, well before the pandemic, that over 30% of manual jobs currently could be automated by 2030. The same report also says that this change could actually bring in more jobs into the economy and that people would need to skill themselves accordingly.

But automation isn’t just a good-to-have feature anymore. For their own well-being and those of the people around them, companies and individuals alike will actively look to automate as many processes as possible, thus reducing the need for manual intervention and the close calls that might involve.

We also need to bear in mind that as all-consuming as it seems right now, the pandemic in its current state will change and subside. What this radical shift really does for businesses is it helps them see what costs they can cut, and where they can better utilize their workforces.

For the fiscal quarters that follow, many industries will continue to focus only on the costs they can cut. Three main solutions can help, and the use of technology and automation can make these processes faster and easier.

1.Analytics for real-time information: Everyone in the retail industry is feeling the heat, but the fashion and apparel industry is feeling it the most. In the business of clothing manufacturing, what is essentially a nice-to-have product in a thriving economy likely will not be purchased in current circumstances. The industry is looking at steep reductions in demand, as well as a restricted ability to predict future trends.

The only fallback, then, is real-time analysis. Fashion and apparel retailers have a tremendous opportunity here – to use real-time analytics and data to predict what they should stock up on, and how much. This could be a big welcome breath for brands that continue to struggle with too much inventory and a severely fragmented supply chain.

Another example is the airline industry. Using real-time data on infection rates and noticing which sectors open up first, they can plan their flight rosters and figure out which staff they need to bring back, and in what time frame. By linking powerful analytics with automated flight rosters, complex, data-driven decisions that now need to be made can be made that much faster.

2.Preserving brand value and customer satisfaction: Much has been said about marketing in the current scenario. For some time now, most businesses have been riding the wave of a thriving economy. For about a year, though, we have heard predictions of a possible recession but certainly not on the scale we see now.

Companies around the globe have to rethink not just what they say, but how well they can walk the talk. Consumers of both B2B and B2C brands are navigating some very sensitive times and simply do not take kindly to an undelivered or under-delivered promise.

The next logical step for brands is ensuring that they can deliver on all the promises they make. We are heading into a territory where every individual is trying to find a new job or hold onto the one they have, and to save money while they can. Something as simple as getting a timely refund can put everyone at ease.

Serving multiple stakeholders in a shorter time window can be achieved using intelligent automation. For instance, Jiffy.ai has been able to help clients in the airline space accomplish improved turnaround times of 300% on ticket cancellations and refunds, while also significantly reducing errors.

Suggested Reading: Beyond the Pandemic: Give Wings to Your Digital Transformation Goals with Intelligent Automation

3.Preparing for the future: Companies today face a twofold challenge – delivering on an authentic customer experience and managing their cash flows to ride out the storm, and regroup for the next phase.

Generating demand is crucial for the cash registers to start ringing again. Unfortunately, demand forecasting will be a real struggle for many industries in the post-pandemic world. Consumer habits have changed, in some cases forcibly, and  wallets have tightened in a tough economy.

AI solutions can problem-solve in real-time when demand forecasting may seem like a mirage. Inventory management can be integrated with AI, helping retailers sync demand and inventory better. AI can also hook new and returning customers with a personalized experience along with identifying gaps in the offerings. This would certainly help businesses bounce back faster.

Looking ahead and planning for the future

Here are some other ways to optimize costs while also maintaining efficiency:

• Adapt to the new virtual culture such that all non-operations staff continue to work remotely, ensuring their continued safety and well-being
• Use automated cleaning and QC tools for spaces where people are needed physically
• Automate complex processes using intelligent automation to help cut costs and improve efficiency

The fact remains that people need to buy things and consume services. The growth will first be visible across essential and semi-essential commodities. Several businesses will have to display tremendous resilience as the demand curve slowly rises. Investing in intelligent automation now can create a path to more efficient processes being run at lower costs, setting the tone for overcoming the current challenges and a viable recovery.