Benefits of Cloud Storage with AP Automation
When upgrading your accounts payable department with automation, one of the huge benefits is the convenience of having all your invoices stored in one place. In an enterprise business, AP departments typically have a large number of invoices that must be stored over an extended period of time. Luckily, to ease audits and simplify invoice access, enterprise solutions typically offer unlimited cloud storage options. Unlimited cloud storage helps keep a permanent record without taking up space or running the risk of invoices getting lost. Additionally, high-level solutions provide comprehensive searchability that make it simple to pull specific invoices and reports.
Unlimited Storage
When envisioning a completely manual accounts payable department, images like paper invoices and over-stuffed filing cabinets come to mind. With high-level AP automation solutions, imagine an unlimited filing cabinet, where invoices are all electronically stored. This makes for a neat storage system that doesn’t take up any physical space—and invoices can never get lost. Some lower-level solutions may automatically delete your invoices after a certain period of time, which isn’t ideal when it comes to audits, or pulling reports of the department overall during specific time periods. It’s important to find a solution that will offer you options for unlimited cloud storage, so that you can have that infinite file cabinet, where your invoices are permanently stored in case you need them for a rainy day.
Comprehensive Searchability
With an unlimited electronic filing cabinet, what’s the best way to find specific invoices and pull reports? Even if your filing cabinet becomes electronic, won’t your department still have to waste their time looking through all those invoices to find the right one? Luckily, to shorten search time and ease the process of locating invoices, high-level solutions will typically also include comprehensive searchability features. Typically, those filter options will include search guidelines such as:
- Vendor name
- Invoice number
- Invoice type
- Invoice date
- Invoice status
- PO number
- User assigned to invoice
Locating an invoice shouldn’t have to be difficult for your team–and with a solution that streamlines the process for you, it makes that part of AP’s job a breeze.
Your Solution to Audit Season
Thumbing through invoices manually or a limited amount of resources for past invoices can make audits an absolute headache. With unlimited cloud storage and high level searchability, hours of time spent are reduced to just a number of seconds/minutes.