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The business-vendor relationship is an important yet challenging one. After all, it serves as a central nexus between an organization's finances and its ability to operate, but a common problem encountered with vendors is billing issues that result in invoice disputes. Disputes cause costly disruptions to the AP team and can lead to delivery delays and financial losses, among other things.
Invoice discrepancies and duplication are widespread, but unfortunately, many finance teams do not have the resources to manage invoice auditing at scale. A recent financial study determined nearly 10% of all invoices received are duplicates, resulting in millions of dollars in wasted spend for an enterprise if the duplicate billings go undetected. In addition, many vendors cannot ensure the accuracy of all invoices submitted, nor do they have the incentive to change their billing practices. Taking the lack of billing transparency from vendors into consideration, the verification of bills falls mainly on the shoulders of the customer's AP team.
The Importance of Preventing Vendor Disputes
Vendor disputes can be time-consuming and costly to resolve. Without the right tools, disputes require heavy involvement from accounts payable teams, managers, executives, and legal teams. The process can be complex and can even take months to resolve. As a result, many finance teams weigh disputes in terms of time and resources. Unfortunately, some teams pay invoices they know are incorrect to avoid losing more.
Inadequate cash controls and overpayments weaken finance’s ability to fight inflation and drive long-term revenue growth. Discrepancies are inevitable, but paying for invoice discrepancies is entirely avoidable.
Modern finance leaders have found that eliminating wasted spend requires proactive action by ensuring issues are disputed in real-time. AP automation is the only suitable solution for managing invoice auditing at scale. The latest software allows enterprises to keep track of invoices, make timely vendor payments, and quickly resolve discrepancies in real-time.
Identify Invoice Issues Before Payment to Eliminate Costly Disputes
Here are some examples of how real-time AP automation can enable accounting to pursue disputes without sacrificing their most valuable resource, their time.
Actively Monitor Invoices
With AP automation software, businesses can set up rules and notifications to help them keep track of the invoices they receive. For example, they can set up alerts for when invoices are received and discrepancies are identified. Immediate notification of billing issues allows AP teams to be proactive in resolving disputes before payment is due.
Expedite Resolution
The right AP automation technology will audit invoices at the line item level to ensure accuracy down to the penny. The system quickly and easily identifies discrepancies between the invoice and supporting documents. Teams can use the system to generate detailed information about the discrepancy and send it directly to the vendor to support the dispute claim.
Bolster the AP Process
AP automation software can also provide businesses with valuable insights into their Accounts Payable process. For example, the software can track the win and loss rate of disputes and the accuracy of billing by the vendor. Finance leaders and teams can use this information to challenge issues and even negotiate better terms for ongoing contracts.
Decrease Human Intervention
Finally, AP automation software reduces time spent on invoice auditing by automating many of the tasks involved in processing invoices. As a result, the less time accounting teams have to focus on uncovering discrepancies and duplication, the more time they can focus on other aspects of the business, like building relationships with vendors and managing dispute resolution.
Half of the battle is already taken care of when invoice discrepancies are identified with AP automation software. With disputes generated automatically and supporting documentation available at a click, businesses should never have to choose between their team’s time and overpayments again.
Ready to take back the power on invoice dispute management and eliminate wasted spend? Connect with an OpenEnvoy expert today by scheduling a demo, visit https://openenvoy.com/contact-us/.
