The Digitization of Invoice Processing: 11 Reasons Why You Should Use an Invoice Cloud

Easily scalable, simple cost control and no additional IT required: there are many reasons why cloud-based programs are becoming increasingly popular among companies. These software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions are today’s answer to the evolving work conditions in the era of New Work. After all, web-based working makes all participants free of spatial and time constraints and functions just as well in the office as it does at home, in a hotel or at the airport.

That’s why it makes sense to think about using a future-proof software solution right away, even when digitalizing invoice processing. In this blog post, you’ll learn about the specific benefits of a cloud-based invoice solution – we call it the Invoice Cloud – for processing incoming invoices and how companies can benefit from the cloud overall.

1. A Holistic Solution

Processing incoming invoices has an impact on many procedures and people. For example, someone has to check and reconcile data, move documents from A to B and issue approvals. All this must happen in accordance with certain rules resulting from compliance, accounting and other applicable regulations. With the Invoice Cloud, you unify the entire invoicing process holistically within a single application.

You can even use the software to control elements of invoice processing in a fine-grained way: from replacement rules and escalation management to a four or six-eye check of the invoice from a certain amount and fully automatic posting. These options also form part of an Invoice Cloud, enabling you to structure the invoice workflow specific to the cloud according to your requirements and even automate it partially or completely with further add-ons.

2. Bid Farewell to Media Disruptions

An invoice processing software solution specifically addresses one of the biggest problems that accounts payable departments in many companies still have to deal with today: heterogeneous invoice formats. After all, even if they as a company have digitalized their accounting in an exemplary manner, this smart process comes to a standstill if a supplier invoice is sent via email as a PDF or on paper by post.

The data must be cumbersomely typed or copy and pasted into the system. This requires time and becomes a stressful source of errors time and again. With the Invoice Cloud, this hassle becomes a thing of the past.

3. All Invoice Types Are Supported

By digitalizing invoice processing, you not only eliminate media discontinuities; you also create the greatest possible compatibility with all invoice formats. In addition to scanning paper-based invoices, the software also reads invoices directly from the email application and converts all relevant information into structured data for the accounting system by using intelligent self-learning algorithms: all relevant PDF formats are supported. It goes without saying that with the Invoice Cloud you’re also well equipped for the future. The software welcomes modern structured e-invoice formats such as XInvoice, ZUGFeRD and the like with open arms. After all, there’s no need to extract the data when reading these invoice formats as they are already machine-readable.

4. Better Overview of Invoice Management

Although processing incoming invoices is not a value-generating activity in and of itself, it is a compulsory task that should be completed with the highest precision and greatest efficiency. The Invoice Cloud supports you here with a tailored user experience in which different views are provided to the parties involved based on their respective roles.

Accordingly, the clerk will see different information than a department head who only has to intervene to approve your team’s invoices, or the managing director who is involved in the approval processes when the invoice amount exceeds a certain limit. By the way, all this works just as well on a company PC as it does on a laptop at home or a smartphone on a business trip.

5. Seamless Connection to Existing Systems

With the Invoice Cloud, you can seamlessly connect digitalized invoice processing to your existing IT infrastructure. This way, master data can be read into a shadow database via web services, scanned and approved documents can be transferred from the workflow into the ERP system, and workflow documents can be processed according to the respective standard logic. In the process, the Invoice Cloud gives you feedback on the progress of all processes and informs you as soon as errors or irregularities are detected.

6. Greater Transparency

The Invoice Cloud not only simplifies collaboration for everyone involved; it also leads to greater transparency. This is because all employees involved have a simple and quick overview of all relevant information in their defined roles, e.g. the status of an invoice, its contents with items and totals, or its processing status within the created workflow. If any questions arise, everyone involved has the same level of knowledge about any issue pertaining to the incoming invoice process.

7. Automated Processes

With the help of the Invoice Cloud, you can automate processes and relieve your clerks of a great deal of work. To make this possible, simply set up the software so that the extracted invoice data is automatically checked for correctness and plausibility. In doing so, the cloud invoice program can also access data from your ERP system via an interface. This means a large proportion of the checks will run automatically in the background: from the individual line items and supplier data to checking the gross amount, the Invoice Cloud carries out many steps itself if desired.

8. Shorter Runtimes

Speaking of efficiency, the advantage of digitalizing invoice processing can also be expressed in concrete figures. While processing an incoming invoice on paper takes almost 27 minutes from receipt to approval of payment, including any necessary checks, e-invoices with a purchase order reference take an average of just 2:20 minutes. The reason? Using this advanced invoice format means only the approval and payment process steps require manual intervention.

9. Precise Mapping of Complete Workflows

By using software, you can digitalize invoice processing to fit your needs exactly. In other words, the Invoice Cloud maps the complete workflow associated with the processing of supplier invoices without carrying any baggage. This is in accordance with the motto: as much as necessary and as little as possible.

You can set up the Invoice Cloud so that it initially records and extracts the incoming invoices, taking into account your ERP system. During subsequent processing, you have the option to enter the invoice data in an invoice ledger and supplement the posting record, e.g. with missing information such as a cost center or a G/L account. The subsequent review and approval process adapts to your existing workflows, allowing you to define various parameters, such as multi-level review processes, value limits or automatic assignment, to specific users. Finally, each incoming invoice can be archived with the associated documents in an audit-proof manner.

10. Optimal Cost Control and Scalability

In the truest sense of the word, an invoice solution from the cloud is also worthwhile for you in terms of cost. This deployment model not only eliminates any follow-up costs for software maintenance; another benefit of cloud software is how easy it is to scale. With a subscription-based licensing model, you only pay when the software is actually used. This applies to both the runtime and the number of users in your company. In other words, you remain flexible at all times and have optimal cost control at the same time.

11. Well Equipped for the Future

Cloud solutions in combination with subscription models are on trend. According to the Bitkom Cloud Monitor [DE], an increasing number of companies are relying on this software model. This is because cloud software providers can adapt their products much more precisely and quickly to customers’ requirements and needs. For example, large providers such as Microsoft provide customers in Europe with cloud services hosted in local data centers in accordance with European law – and we at easy follow exactly the same approach with our cloud solutions such as easy invoice: maximum flexibility, maximum transparency, maximum security.

There are many excellent reasons why you should digitalize incoming invoice processing in your business. Processes are accelerated and costs minimized. Lots of potential error sources are eliminated, the process becomes more transparent and compliance is bolstered. In order to truly reap these benefits, however, your company needs to find the right solution and implement it in a targeted manner together with a solution provider. A requirements specification is paramount for software projects, especially for invoice projects that are somewhat more complex. This is because it provides you and your future solution provider with a detailed overview of the requirements that the incoming invoice project has to meet.

It’s important to emphasize that digitalizing invoice management is not merely a technical project. After all, digitalizing processes has an impact on many established, mostly paper-based work procedures and will change many long-standing habits of your employees. To ensure success in day-to-day business later down the line, it’s crucial that the technical side of the project goes as seamlessly as possible and without problems. This is how you guarantee that the changes are embraced and appreciated by the users in the best possible manner.

free template for download

Requirements Specification – A Crucial Part of Project Management

One of the most vital tasks of project management on the part of the company is creating a detailed requirements specification. In this blog post, you’ll discover why a requirements specification is needed and what it has to include. And best of all, we support you with a professionally prepared template to help you create a customized requirements specification to digitalize incoming invoice processing in your organization.

You’ll have already dealt with many of the details and aspects that appear in a requirements specification by the time you have to draw it up. This is because many of the things that appear in a requirements specification have already played a crucial role for you in selecting a suitable solution for processing incoming invoices. It’s very likely that you have already created lists or plans that contain many of the same things that appear in a requirements specification.

What is a Requirements Specification for Digital Invoice Management?

With a requirements specification, you determine what requirements a solution for digitalizing incoming invoice processing should meet from your company’s perspective. Among other things, this could include aspects such as the technical environment of the ERP solution you use – but also the tasks it should perform in day-to-day operations and the cost implications of the project. Not to mention questions about the software’s licensing and organizational considerations, e.g. the vital question about when the solution would be ready for use in the company.

It’s important that preparing a requirements specification doesn’t require any technical or product know-how, but rather is formulated from the perspective of the company as a client. You write down as precisely as possible all the wishes and tasks that are to be fulfilled or taken over by the software at the end of the project. In doing so, you shouldn’t think from a technical perspective, but rather stay completely focused on your needs and ask for process-related solutions.

What Belongs in a Requirements Specification for Introducing Invoice Processing Software?

As stated earlier, the purpose of a requirements specification is to communicate the expectations of the project to the contractor on the one hand, and to enable the contractor to use the information contained in it to create a functional specification that will steer the project in the right direction on the other. In order for this to work, a requirement specification for the implementation of an invoice processing software, like easy invoice, should cover the following aspects:

• Overall project goals: This could be more generic, such as improving current turnaround times or more concrete, such as having the ability to process electronic invoice formats.
• Framework conditions, such as a predefined schedule with milestones that must be adhered to or a certain budget limit that must not be exceeded.

• Current state: This describes the technical conditions under which incoming invoice processing takes place and how the processes related to invoice management are currently set up.

• A precise target definition: This refers to the concrete requirements that will be placed, e.g. on incoming invoices in the future digital workflow or which interfaces must be integrated into this workflow.

• In our experience, invoice approval should also be included as a separate section in a requirements specification for an invoice management software solution, as it represents a complex process step to which the implemented solution must be very precisely tailored.

The Bottom Line: With a Structured Template, a Requirements Specification Is Very Quick and Easy to Create

At first hearing, the term “requirements specification” sounds like a rather large burden. However, once you understand what a requirements specification is needed for, the task of drafting it immediately becomes a little easier. Since implementing invoice processing software is always relatively similar, this task can be simplified even further. This is why we’ve created a template that serves as a valuable guide and helps you in getting a large part of the preparation work done more quickly. It works for any type of company and can be used for any solution available on the market.