Search
Close this search box.
Search
Close this search box.
Resources   /   Glossary

Electronic Approval of Invoices

Invoices and payments are a part of every business, no matter the size. Keeping invoices organized and tracking them throughout the invoice approval and bill payment processes can be challenging for an accounts payable team. It takes time, money, and manpower to manage billing paperwork, all of which could be more efficiently spent on growing other aspects of your business. Fortunately, there is an easier way to keep track of your accounts payable: AvidInvoice invoice automation software from AvidXchange offers accounts payable (AP) automation to help keep things running smoothly.

Continued below…

Calculate how much you could be saving with AvidXchange.

* Savings based on potential materials and labor cost reductions. Savings estimate is solely a good faith approximation and does not constitute a guarantee or representation of actual savings. Such estimate is based on information provided and based on current market trends.

With this software, you can receive, track, and approve invoices, all in one place. Thanks to a paperless invoice approval system, juggling, filing, and managing flurries of physical paperwork can be problems of the past. Using cutting-edge optical character recognition (OCR) technology, AvidInvoice can automatically input and organize your invoices, thereby reducing human data-entry errors and improving efficiency, so you may improve the efficiency of your current approval workflow. Invoices could be entered and tracked more quickly and accurately than before.

AvidXchange makes it easy to manage the electronic approval of invoices in the office or remotely. With a cloud-based system, you can access and manage all of your invoice information where and when you need to.

It is possible to make a seamless switch to digital AP processing without interrupting the typical flow of your business. AvidXchange has hundreds of software integrations including some of the leading accounting software. When following invoice approval best practices, it can be useful to take advantage of software to adhere to internal controls.

AvidInvoice keeps you in touch with your AP team by increasing visibility of the end-to-end process. Real-time tracking and reporting on accounts, growth, and performance can help keep everyone in-the-loop.

Digital Invoice Approval

With AvidXchange’s accounts payable processing system, you may take care of all of your invoices using digital invoice approval. Using AvidXchange, you can build a workflow according to your current business practices. You can design your custom workflow on AvidXchange to support your current AP systems and your existing accounting tech stack. Accounts payable software should help automate the AP cycle, and it should work alongside other accounting software.

With invoice approval software, it is possible to transition to completely paperless invoice approval and bill payments. Invoice scanning and approval software can scan paper invoices or PDF files to input invoice data into your software system. AvidXchange can scan invoices using OCR technology to make the accounts payable process paperless. AvidXchange can serve as the central repository for all of your paper invoices, eliminating the need to open, file, or manually enter anything of the sort. You will have access to all of your invoices and records in one easy, streamlined, and searchable system for optimal access to your own records.

Using purchase invoice approval software with AvidXchange can eliminate the need to approve similar or identical recurring requests, and this can save time and effort with every billing cycle. This can all be managed quickly and easily from anywhere since AvidXchange is a cloud-based platform.

Invoice Approvals

Different vendors and accounts take payment via different methods: credit card, bank transfer, paper check, and more are all common methods by which your company’s vendors may prefer payment. Payment preferences can be automatically applied to vendors in the AvidPay network, and you can control payment preferences for any of your other vendors who enroll. With AvidXchange invoice approvals, you can spend less time managing multiple different vendor payment methods.

After transitioning to a digital invoice approval system, you may find yourself wondering, “how is an invoice approved for payment?” Software solutions can automate the invoice approval process and save you time. Simply select payments that need to be made from the invoice approval platform, and select them to pay. Payments can then be transmitted via e-payment software, or, depending on your company’s approval process, can be routed to another approver before being sent to vendors.

Your company’s accounting system will still ultimately be your system of record, but will no longer have to keep track of paper files for these transactions. The automated payment information will be sent digitally for easy record-keeping of your business-to-business transactions.

Electronic Invoice Approval Process

Consider how you could vastly improve and streamline your current invoice approval process by building automated, electronic workflows for invoice and payment reviews. An electronic invoice approval process is not only faster, but significantly more secure and efficient than any normal, manually-based workflow.

There is also no need to worry about this process drastically altering your records or the way you do business. You may configure an automation platform that aligns with your current system for an easy transition. Additionally, an electronic invoice approval process simplifies and streamlines the invoice review and approval process. A software system could automatically route any invoices requiring approval to your queue, as well as send notifications and reminders to help you stay on top of all payment approval tasks.

In addition to streamlining and giving you easier access to making approvals, the system will also improve team visibility of the approval process. Your team will be able to check the stage of an invoice within the approval process, as well as what stage it will need to move to next. Visibility and accelerated communication between your AP team members will allow workflow to move faster, easier, and more consistently.

Invoice Approval Email

Invoice approval emails within your company, as well as business-to-business correspondences such as those exchanged with vendors regarding payments, can quickly clog up and clutter your inbox. Moreover, when automatic email sorting systems flag receipts or records of financial exchanges with payment systems as spam, it can be time consuming as well as frustrating to sift through previous messages in search of crucial records. Approval for payment emails, invoice approval request emails, and more from your team can, and will overwhelm even the most organized inbox over time.

Fortunately, AvidXchange can help eliminate the invoice approval email clutter. All of your invoice approvals, payment receipts, and more will be filed automatically within the software program so that you can eliminate the tiresome back-and-forth exchange of receipts, requests and confirmations with vendors and within your team.

If you have gotten used to using invoice approval email templates, then consider the time you could save with automated invoice approval. Requests for payment approval will be handled through the AvidXchange system, allowing you to approve or find more information on requests all in one organized platform. Instead of delegating approval tasks via email, your team can track invoices in the approval stage by viewing them on the AvidXchange platform. By utilizing AvidXchange, companies can streamline their financial communications system and keep better track of accounts paid-related exchanges.

Invoice Approval Software

How can AvidXchange work with your current system? AvidXchange supports over 210 ERP and accounting systems, so you may be able to seamlessly fit AvidXchange into your current accounting tech stack. AvidXchange integrates directly with your existing Quickbooks system, and you can approve payments directly on the AvidXchange platform. Businesses could cut processing costs by reducing inefficient manual tasks, such as data entry and manual calculations. With AvidXchange, you can keep track of your payments in one place.

AvidXchange is a powerful automated invoice and payment solution for middle-market businesses. Using advanced invoice approval software, software integrations, and other tools, many accounts payable systems can be improved with AvidXchange and its automation features. AvidXchange supports a touchless process with 2- and 3-way PO matching for easy, customizable approval workflows and optimal control.

Invoice approval software allows you to enforce your existing business rules and permissions, while also granting you organized, comprehensive access to a complete audit trail from purchase order to payment. With AvidXchange, the accounts payable platform can help you manage relevant documents and records. For example, when a bill payment is automatically completed, there will be a record of that bill payment automatically created and filed digitally.

Invoice Approval Process Flowchart

What do you do with your invoice approval process flowchart once you decide to make the switch to automated invoice processing software? Your invoice approval workflow can become more efficient with software automation, but that does not necessarily mean the workflow changes. Besides eliminating paper from the invoice approval process, invoice approval software may be able to accommodate your existing workflow.

Instead, your software can automatically send electronic invoices to the correct team member as part of your standard invoice approval workflow. With AvidInvoice, you can automate the end-to-end invoice processing workflow, from the initial data entry to the final bill payment. After completing document approval workflow, invoices are directed into your bill payment system for payment processing. The entire process can be completed by your team, between multiple offices or working remotely.

When planning for the invoice approval process, it is important to also consider the entire accounts payable process. AvidXchange has built a platform to help automate the entire accounts payable process. You can find solutions with AvidXchange whether it is invoice automation, bill payment automation, or purchase order automation.

We use cookies to improve your experience, personalize content and analyze our website’s performance. For more information on how we collect and use this information, please review our privacy policy.