Approval workflows are business processes designed to manage and streamline the approval of documents, such as invoices, within an organization.
The Afto team is thrilled to unveil the latest enhancement to its intelligent document processing platform (IDP): invoice approval workflows. Building on our previous advancements for better collaboration, including automated email communication, these new workflows are the opportunity for accounts payable (AP) teams to further increase the speed and accuracy of their invoice processing.
What are invoice approval workflows?
Approval workflows are business processes designed to manage and streamline the approval of documents, such as invoices, within an organization.
For example, when a company purchases a fancy event sponsorship from another company, the accounts payable department will receive an invoice for the event fees, and will need the approval of the field marketing lead before proceeding with the payment.
They are part of a broader invoice process that includes the following steps:
- Invoice receipt and sorting
- Data extraction
- PO matching
- Verification of vendor details
- Invoice approval
- Invoice payment
- Auditing and reporting
What are the benefits of automating your invoice approval workflow?
- Save time & improve efficiency
First and foremost, your invoices will get approved faster. Once the invoice is captured and validated in your system, it will be automatically routed to the right persons or automatically approved or rejected, based on the invoice information (amount to pay, name of vendor, etc.).
This means that your AP team can stop manually processing and chasing invoice approvals around the clock, and focus on more impactful tasks, such as speedier reporting. You will also be able to reduce the risk of duplicate or missed payments, as well as protect your supplier relationships. This might also be a way to identify opportunities, such as early payment discounts.
- Spot any potential bottlenecks
According to a 2021 Levvel Research report, “the top three invoice processing concerns for AP teams are missed discounts (44%), late payments (39%), and duplicate payments (29%).”
“My biggest pain is that invoices get stuck because the process is not finalized. We ask for approvals when we’re not supposed to. We’re missing payments because we’re dependent on an approval – and we’re always chasing approvals.” Chief Accountant at a mid-size company.
With automated invoice workflows, you’ll also have visibility on your entire document pipeline: which invoices have been approved, which approvals are pending, where there might be a bottleneck that needs to be addressed.
- Ensure compliance
Having an automated invoice approval workflow will force your teams to follow the invoice processes you’ve set out, which will help reduce the risk of non-compliance and associated penalties.
- Create an audit trail
By providing a record of all the activities and decisions taken during the approval process, an audit trail can help identify and prevent fraudulent activities, errors, and discrepancies.
Approval workflows in Afto: the advantages of an all-in-one invoice processing platform
As an end-to-end intelligent document processing platform, Rossum goes beyond mere invoice routing.
- Capture any invoice in seconds, no matter the template or language.
- Simplify your application stack where every step of your AP process is connected, from data ingestion to approval and integration into your ERP system.
- Don’t let your decisions happen without context: your approvers, and your AP team will have direct access to relevant information connected to the reviewed invoice (email communications with vendor, purchasing order data, etc.).
However, because each company has specific collaboration and operational needs, Afto’s approval workflows come with unlimited number of steps, assignment rules and approvers, as well as auto-approve and reject options.
Other key features include:
- Automatic assignment based on invoice data and external resources
- Full visibility of approval request assignments and their statuses
- Audit trail to ensure compliance & spot bottlenecks
- Email notifications for easy approval by end users
- Integration into your downstream ERP system
