Accounts payable and accounts receivable are two of the most crucial finance and accounting processes that must be carried out by all businesses and organizations. Comparing an accurate estimation of the company’s current liabilities against the expected revenue is the very first and most important step in cash flow management.
Apart from being critical to everyday operations, these tasks are also quite labour-intensive not to mention repetitive and time-consuming. These tasks further represent an additional burden on your in-house accounting team, resulting in an increased incidence of errors and delays in approval. Inefficiency in your accounts payable or accounts receivable processing can further result in delayed and drawn-out payment cycles, unnecessary bottlenecks, and complaints.
As you find yourself looking for ways to improve your financial and accounting processes without driving up your costs or compromising on quality, consider the benefits of delegating these essential financial processes to a trusted outsourcing partner.
Outsourcing invoice processing and checks received can reduce both your processing costs and approval times drastically while providing flexible and scalable solutions for fluctuating volumes.
Let’s explore this further and see why outsourcing your accounts payable and accounts receivable is a smart move for your business:
Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable Services
Customized AP Solutions
ARDEM has improved and automated thousands of invoice processes for companies across many sectors including finance and accounting, retail, manufacturing, utilities and energy among others. We have also successfully worked with entertainment and theater companies to tackle their in-house invoice processing challenges. Our extensive experience not only provides an in-depth understanding of accounts payable processing but also the knowledge of how to optimize and manage the different industry requirements.
The key to optimizing the accounts payable processes lies in adapting and transforming proven processes to adapt easily with your current processes. Here is how it works; we study your current process and break it down into individual steps. Each step is improved and optimized for efficiency and then implemented for an efficient workstream. The workstream is further modified after evaluation and we further engage in a process of continuous improvement as we employ the latest technology upgrades and upgraded industry practices.
Accurate Data Entry and Capture
Accounts payable, just like other financial processes, runs on accurate data. While in-house data entry can be filled with manual errors, an experienced data entry partner delivers a higher quality of data by identifying and correcting errors or incomplete information.
The best data entry practices use a combination of manual data entry and automated data capture to extract and enter accounts payable from multiple sources including physical documents, scans and digital files. While data is captured from scanned documents using OCR technology. The accumulated data is verified using double-key-entry and a series of in-house validation checks to produce high-quality data. This data is further aggregated and organized to produce files that can be easily ingested into your existing databases.
When it comes to numbers, ARDEM enters and processes data while achieving up to 99.97% accuracy.
ERP Integration
While ARDEM helps you improve your accounts payable and invoice processing, it does not disrupt your existing systems or team. Think of us as an extension of your accounting team rather than a disruption.
While improving your accounting processes, we also utilize the full benefits of your existing ERP and integrate with your current team. We work to eliminate redundancies in your processes, check for duplicate or incomplete invoices and standardize multiple vendor formats for faster approval.
We do all of this as a part of your team, using your existing tools and combining it with our qualified FTEs, robust processes and advanced automation to deliver a successful solution.
AP Automation
Automation can be seen as a transformative force in finance and accounting as RPA or robotic process automation streamlines the way we collect, process and report data. Machine learning and artificial intelligence transform the way data is entered and validated for extensive quality assurance.
Automating accounts payable processes doesn’t just result in greater accuracy and shorter payment cycles, it also standardizes everyday processes while ensuring transparency and uniformity at every stage. Automating means that your processes are no longer subject to the constraints of manual data processing. Automation bots carry out your processes in the same manner day after day. Fluctuating volumes of data are further handled by allocating the corresponding number of bots, deploying more resources in an instant without the hassle of training resources from scratch.
ARDEM Invoice Manager (AIM)
Another technology-based tool that offers advanced solutions for accounts payable process is our proprietary collaboration platform. The ARDEM Invoice Manager is a cloud-based BPaaS solution that makes it easy for you to share incoming invoices, follow the flow of work and download output in an instant.
You can upload all invoices received, including varying formats from multiple vendors, to the cloud platform with a simple drag and drop. You can further follow the status of work in real-time as the invoices are corrected and standardized for faster approvals. The dashboards come with customizable views which can be tailored to show the different trends from PO to non-PO invoices received monthly, and even the number of invoices received throughout the entire year.
The final output can be easily downloaded with the click of a button. The output can be further shared in a flat file that can be easily ingested by your existing system, thereby eliminating the need for a large IT overhaul.
Increased Efficiency and Savings
Did you know that businesses with inefficient invoice processing methods can spend up to five times more than businesses that utilize a combination of automation and validation routines? Well, it’s true and makes for another reason why outsourcing and automating your accounts payable processes is a smart move.
At ARDEM, we guarantee you an immediate reduction of 30% in your processing costs and offer further savings as we continue to improve and optimize your processes. Lower processing costs, faster approvals and shorter payment cycles all help build positive business and customer relations while contributing to better cash flow management.
However, just like a coin has two sides, optimum cash flow management requires equally efficient accounts receivable processing.
Accounts Receivable Services
Improving Checks Received for Accounts Receivable
Optimum cash flow management is empowered by collaboration with an experienced outsourcing partner that provides the diligence required for accounts receivables.
Maintaining visibility and proper records of all checks received is an extremely crucial step in the entire accounting process. We offer an extensive range of services while processing your receivables including data entry from checks received, scanning checks received for data capture, and validations of checks.
QuickBooks Accounting Subscriptions
With QuickBooks Accounting transforming the entire enterprise accounting process, outsourcing companies also need to upgrade their services accordingly.
At ARDEM, we offer you the benefit of an experienced team of professionals with prior accounting experiences and knowledge of accounting principles and software.
All you need to do is share the necessary documents including vendor bills, customer orders, and timesheets for service billing. We process everything in QuickBooks. The high-quality output is delivered within the requested timelines.
Auditing and Bank Reconciliation
ARDEM also offers extensive auditing and bank reconciliation services. We reconcile accounts efficiently using various supporting documents such as bank statements and ensure that all the transactions recorded are consistent and accurate.
We further have protocols in place to implement process control and ensure the highest possible accuracy. ARDEM implements a multi-step QC process as a company standard, eliminating errors and quickly reconciling any issues with transactions.
Assured Data Security
We further offer advanced security while processing your sensitive financial data in compliance with our ISO 27001 certification.
Security is addressed at multiple levels, i.e., the employee, physical, and network levels. Furthermore, VPNs, SSLs, and PGP encryptions are combined with a slew of advanced security measures and protocols to secure your data.
Additionally, we provide comprehensive support and monitoring to ensure that your sensitive data is protected and maintain routine troubleshooting support in case of any disruptions.
Enjoy Economies of Scale with Accounts Receivable Processing
As mentioned above, outsourcing finance and accounting processes, like accounts payable and invoice processing, reduces your in-house processing costs. The same principle holds true for accounts receivable processing as well. Your costs drop by an immediate 30% and you enjoy greater efficiency and accuracy in your processing as well. Apart from these benefits, you can also enjoy economies of scale as your costs remain low even as you grow and expand your operations. In-house scaling requires the purchase of additional manual and technological resources that come at a high cost with greater liabilities. However, with outsourced solutions, you simply need to talk to your project manager as the volume of data increases and experience instant scalability with a minimal increase in fee.
Our solutions can be further customized to cover all of your finance and accounting processes or only a specific portion depending on your need to help you streamline these central business functions.
Get in touch with us to discover your finance and accounting solution today!