86% of accounts payable teams rely on manual invoice processing¹. This can cause businesses to lose money and human resources that could be used in more strategic areas.

Many organisations still rely on manual, paper-based processes to handle insanely high volumes of documents daily. Having everyone in the same office may make things easier. However, with the rise of remote work, the Accounts Payable (AP) team will have colleagues, vendors, or partners sending invoices from practically anywhere.

Even when a digital document is sent in, without a proper, dedicated solution to process the information, things can quickly spiral out of control. At the end of the day, what you do not want is late payment penalties and a damaged reputation.

So, besides the mountainous volumes of data, what are other pain points associated with manual invoicing that businesses should be aware of?

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You're Losing Money on Manual Invoice Processing! Here's A Solution

Manual invoice processing pain points

Is this your reality?

Your field officer already completed their work, but they didn’t submit the paperwork until a couple of days later.

There are numerous reminders and approval rounds prior to the ultimate decision.

The invoice details are inaccurate, necessitating constant back-and-forth communication to rectify the error.

Late approvals lead to missing early payment discounts or even incurring penalty fees.

Unknown to the business and supplier, invoices mysteriously disappeared.

Just to name a few, but throughout their entire career, an AP Specialist must have encountered not just one but a few of these hiccups.

Manual processes create unwanted bottlenecks that affect many facets of the operations. The more delays the business gets from inefficient invoicing, the more money, time, and resources they are going to lose.

According to Yooz, a leader in cloud-based Purchase-to-Pay automation solutions, the typical cost of a paper invoice can vary from $3.8 to $16.5 per document. This covers upfront expenses for things like paper, ink, and shipping.

Indirect expenses are also included, such as the time required to package paper invoices into an envelope for mailing or the cost of hiring an office administrator to manually enter all the information required to generate an invoice.

Also, check out the following statistics:

Manual invoice processing pain points

Source: Yooz, Why Automate Accounts Payable.

Click here to view the entire infographic.

However, businesses do not just lose money through delayed processes. Manual invoicing can also lead to a more severe risk—fraud.

UK financial professionals² estimated each business in the UK lost over £295,000 (about US $373,000) annually to invoice fraud. Another report revealed that most scam cases occurred through authorised push payments.

Scammers tricked individuals and businesses by impersonating legitimate sources to transfer money. Despite a decline in the number of cases over time, this type of fraud remains one of the most popular tactics, leading to countless victims.

In 2021³, 16.8% of the £77m total came from CEO fraud (the fraudster poses as the CEO or other managerial figure of the victim’s company). The total value of CEO scams grew by 11% from £11.6m in 2021 to £12.9m in 2022.

Scam email

Big corporations are also not exempt from these scams. Two high-profile examples are Meta (Facebook) and Google⁴. Back in 2019, a man pretended to be a hardware supplier to con both businesses using a series of forged invoices, contracts, letters, corporate stamps, and general confusion. The result? Google and Facebook had paid the scammer more than $100 million between the period of 2013 and 2015.

Then there’s the compliance issue!

For AP departments, navigating complicated compliance and regulatory obligations is a constant issue. Careful attention to detail and strict adherence are necessary for managing tax regulations, vendor compliance standards, and internal audit processes.

The last thing you want during an audit is to discover incorrect payments that do not match a legitimate invoice or to be unaware of the whereabouts of an invoice and the accompanying documentation. Your AP team should have excellent governance and internal controls to promote accountability and comply with reporting standards.

The role of compliance is more than crucial; it helps prevent fraud and reduce needless fines in the invoice processing cycle. It is also necessary to maintain transparency in recording and monitoring all actions related to invoice processing. Businesses can prevent fraud, penalties, and losses by being open and compliant.

The AP department must understand its compliance policies, procedures, and the possible consequences of non-compliance for your business. Therefore, a modern invoice management system should integrate the organisation’s audit and compliance needs.

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The solution? Invoice processing automation

Invoice automation essentially means leveraging advanced technologies to streamline, fast-track, and enhance every step—from receipt to payment—in the invoice processing process.

Automation allows AP clerks to minimise errors, reduce risks, and save time while improving their overall efficiency. Moreover, they can also gain more visibility into the status of every invoice and stay compliant with internal policies.

Automation is possible due to the following technologies:

Cloud computing: The platform that hosted the solution, making it accessible practically anytime, anywhere, and via any device. Cloud computing brings flexibility and scalability to businesses without the need for a physical infrastructure or hefty upfront investment.

Artificial intelligence (AI): Capable of automating various aspects of not just Accounts Payable (approval, document matching, data entry, etc.) but the entire procure-to-pay, financial management, operations, collaboration, and many more.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR): The technology enables users to extract text from digital documents or images and automatically input/ fill out forms for the user, thus saving significant time and human errors.

Workflow automation: Establish process parameters and flows to initiate the workflow automatically when an event occurs. For instance, businesses can set up automated workflows for approval or generate payments upon instructions.

How these technologies work together

How invoice automation works

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Success story: Five Guys UK selects Yooz to automate its UK Purchase-to-Pay processes

The UK branch of the American fast-food chain Five Guys has chosen Yooz to automate its Purchase to Pay (P2P) processes.

The financial team at Five Guys is fully automating its AP function by utilising Yooz’s robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

Yooz’s OCR technology reduces the time it takes to process invoices from weeks to a few days by using learning algorithms to “read” and comprehend them.

Yooz’s end-to-end solution, which established automated communication between Yooz and Sage X3, fully satisfied Five Guys’ multisite operations in just two weeks of implementation. Over 90% of Five Guys’ bills are currently automated by our AP automation procedure.

Five Guys Spain and Germany will launch Yooz as part of their future expansion, anticipating a monthly invoice volume of 4,000 documents.

Learn more about Yooz in this on-demand webinar “Procure-to-Pay in 2025 From Cost-Cutting to Value Creation”

“Automating our invoice process with Yooz is guaranteeing total security and traceability of daily operations on all our UK and Spain restaurants. We have been impressed with how quickly Yooz was integrated with Sage X3 and how its advanced and powerful OCR technology has cut our invoice processing time. We are now working with Yooz to roll out the software in Germany.”

Jen KIM

Finance Manager

“We understand the unique requirements of the food and hospitality sector and currently support more than 1,000 restaurants and hotels across the world. Our multi-location management features provide a clear outlook on expenses and cost centres, making it the perfect choice for Five Guys UK.”

Magali MICHEL

Director of Yooz

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Ready to take the next step?

Are you prepared to dive further into the world of automation? TRG International is always ready to help! Share your concerns with us and see how our solutions can aid your challenges. Request a demo today!

Sources:

1. https://www.quadient.com/en/blog/86-accounting-teams-rely-manual-invoice-data-entry

2. https://internationalbanker.com/technology/every-organisation-should-be-aware-of-invoice-scams/

3. https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/uk-finance-report-shows-persisting-risk-invoice-ceo-fraud-businesses

4. https://www.npr.org/2019/03/25/706715377/man-pleads-guilty-to-phishing-scheme-that-fleeced-facebook-google-of-100-million

You’re Losing Money on Manual Invoice Processing! Here’s A Solution

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