5 minute read:
Digital solutions to replace paper-based finance processes once and for all!
With the shift to remote working due to Covid-19 restrictions are your finance team struggling without being able to access their paper files?
Do your systems rely on manual holiday booking… hand written booking forms? Do you print and sign invoices to approve them?
Why now?
You were thinking of updating to digital processes before Covid-19 was a factor. Perhaps other things got in the way? Perhaps it seemed too disruptive? Perhaps you were met with some residence? We’ve always done it this way…
The idea was parked and the printing, signing and filing continued.
Covid-19
Now… Covid-19 comes around. Your finance team can’t come into the office like they used to. They’re working from home now. The files and papers stacked on the shelves in their office are no longer accessible. With social distancing and a dispersed workforce printing invoices ready for a manager to sign is not a viable way of working.
Things have become disjointed. Your teams are stressed with the disruption. It’s time to move away from all that printing, signing and filing fast! It’s time to revisit those automation apps, systems and processes you looked at before.
The future
By embracing a digital work culture you can respond to the need to have staff working remotely. You can improve the accuracy of the data and reduce the time spent on low level activities.
Ultimately saving you money, boosting your efficiencies. Putting the focus back on the commercial response and strategic planning for your business – with quality and timely financial data from which to make decisions.
Lets take a look at the various digital solutions you can implement now…
Processing purchase invoices
If you are using Xero then a simple solution is to start using Receipt Bank. You can manage invoices and expenses by taking a photo or sending a pdf through to Receipt Bank. There it will be digitally processed and coded. Sending the data through automatically to your accounting system for payment. With Receipt Bank automate the inputting of purchase invoices. Saving hours each month and setting up rules to ensure of correct coding.
You now don’t need to make paper files for invoices – the pdfs are captured within your accounting system. Easily searchable and viewed.
To get the best from Receipt Bank you need put time into configuring the settings and rules so the invoice are processed exactly as they need to be.
Managing Approval Flows
If you need to put your purchase invoice through some levels of approval then rather than a signature on a printout or an email chain. Use something like Approval Max.
You can implement a multilevel, multirole approval matrix. That is simple to use and means where ever your approvers are they can log in and approve at the click of a button.
You have an easy to view audit trail and only approved invoices will get paid.
Managing holiday and time sheets
To move away from a paper based approach to tracking and approving holiday and staff hours take a look at Timetastic for booking holiday.
It makes it simple for employees to request time off, view their holiday allowance and managers get a dashboard over view of what’s going on.
Deputy is ideal for businesses with staff on rotas, shifts and varied schedules. You can manage roosters, see who’s ‘clocked in’, manage attendance. And it’s simple for employees to navigate on a mobile app.
Still posting invoices to customers?
Firstly, if you are still posting invoices to customers, think about emailing them? Other businesses will be experiencing the same difficulties as you are with Covid-19 of accessing post and processing paper invoices. So perhaps it is now time to email the invoices directly.
If for some reason your invoice will only get paid if it is send by Post, then take a look at
Docmail. By using Docmail you can seamlessly send your digital files be that an invoice or other mailshot for printing and posting. The postage charges are supper competitive so you will likely save money and you completely remove the need to handle printing and posting.
Signing Documents
If you usually produce paper packs for signing be that employment contracts , contracts with customers etc. think about using an online contracting signing solutions.
DocuSign is a safe, secure an efficient way to get contracts signed.
But I can’t move away from Sage!
If you are wedded to Sage for some reason (perhaps a parent company requires that you use it?). You can still embrace some of the automation options opened up by using Xero.
Take a look at Paperless for digital invoice scanning. With Paperless Invoice Approval you can also implement an approval process within the system.
Already fully digital and using Xero and its integrated apps?
So you already use Xero and a suite of apps to manage invoices, approvals, holiday, etc. Well done! That’s excellent and you will likely have been better prepared for the shift to remote working and the disruption of Covid-19 for accounting tasks.
You might now want to check out the new integration between TransferWise and Xero. This will manage your bank payments… no more BACS payments! And offers a competitive edge on pricing when making payments in foreign currency vs. the traditional bank.
Hope you enjoyed these suggestions on how to embrace automated finance systems.
Can we help you on your automation journey?
Harriet Formby
Below The Line Finance
Founder and Consultant – Your Part Time FD!
Get in touch today to discuss your needs!
