Business survival rests on 'business as usual' remote working

The message from the Government is “the finish line in the race against Covid is in sight”, but the reality is very different. 

Mass vaccination is being rolled out across the country and with it is a glimmer of hope that some sort of normality will return to our personal and working lives. 

Most of us will admit to having uttered the words “I can’t wait to get back to the office”, but the reality however, is that this is going to take some considerable time.

In the face of continued hardship, businesses need to make sure their financial processes are robust enough to support long term remote working.

Research into the state of accounts payable and purchase order processing across UK businesses has shown that pre-Covid-19, almost a third of finance Directors in the UK (32%) preferred to receive invoices in paper form. This research is being performed again 2021 to understand exactly how (and perhaps more importantly, if) Covid-19 has forced a change in behaviour for business finance processing.

Manual processes are unsustainable 

The manual approach to invoice processing was grossly inefficient even before the outbreak of Covid-19, never mind the increased risk of error, so you would hope that financial decision makers have gone against their instincts and invested in automated solutions that digitise invoice capture and processing procedures. 

For large companies that rely on paper-based processes, a lack of remote capability is most likely contributing to an increase in late payments - something that the Government is cracking down on. 

Many small business owners will no doubt welcome these changes, but it is no surprise that large companies which have failed to properly digitise their invoice processing can get the relevant invoices approved when their staff are working in different locations, and cannot see others outside of their own household.

Whilst the research found that 42% of supplier invoices are received via email, worryingly, the practice pre-Covid-19 was that almost three quarters (32%) sometimes printed out these invoices as part of their accounts payable process. This piece of paper would then be passed around the office for approval - but this is no longer possible unless posted to each individual of course. 

This, in turn, means that the whole process of getting invoices looked at by the right person, signed off for approval and onto the finance system ready for payment would take an inordinate amount of time. It is not surprising then, that large businesses are taking too long to settle their invoices.

It’s time businesses that have manual accounts payable got real, started to plan for long term remote working and automated their invoice processing.

Automate your AP to remain competitive

The benefits to those businesses that do operate an automated accounts payable process is that they will have had minimal disruption to their payments during the pandemic, and productivity would have not taken a nosedive.  

With documents being visible throughout the entire process, without any physical transportation, an automated system controls the workflow so the right person is prompted to complete the next task. Therefore the physical location of the ‘approver’ does not matter and the impact on productivity is close to zero.