Every business has to spend money to make money. Paying the bills also costs not only money but also valuable time in the procure-to-pay cycle. But with the evolution of technology to automate Accounts Payable document processes, it costs some companies more than others.

While enterprise resource planning solutions such as SAP ERP empower businesses with accounts payable functionality and transaction data, manual processing of vendor invoices remains standard procedure - and a barrier to business process improvement and return on investment in enterprise software - for many companies.

Businesses running state-of-the-art ERP solutions still employ conventional paper-driven Accounts Payable processes. As a result, they are limited in their ability not only to minimize per-invoice costs but also to improve productivity, prevent duplicate invoices and take advantage of fast-payment discounts. Financial planning, vendor relationships, employee productivity, inter-enterprise communication and even regulatory compliance efforts may suffer from lack of automation in Accounts Payable. Beyond significant cost savings, organizations using an automated Accounts Payable system can realize efficiencies throughout the process from data entry to archiving.

This paper presents a solution that offers the unique value of a comprehensive platform to streamline virtually any business process that runs on paper documents. It analyzes the challenges faced by companies today who are still using manual paper-driven processes, as well as the outcomes of automating processes - including time, labor and cost savings as well as increased visibility.

Above all, this paper is designed to assist CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, Accounts Payable managers and ERP system administrators in learning, planning and evaluating automation of accounts payable processes to gain added efficiency in today's competitive business environment.