We help multi-unit businesses with 10 or more locations boost employee productivity by 12x in 1 month or less by automating the accounts payable process.

Trusted by multi-unit operators of

Here’s the truth

  • It’s possible to boost your employee productivity by 12x and measure the ROI within a month by providing your employees with the right tools.

  • Unfortunately, most operators hesitate to invest in technology because of the perception of adding on extra costs, allocating resources for implementation, changing current processes and the need to train staff.

  • We are the only ones dedicated to solving this problem for multi-unit businesses with 10 to 100 locations.

  • We have simplified the process transformation and can onboard your entire organization onto the platform within a week.

  • You will see an immediate increase in productivity, employee satisfaction and measurable ROI all within the first month, or less.

Team
Bradley Bloch, CEO
Sasi Ayyampalayamraja, CTO

Here’s Our Nine-Step Method How to Boost Employee Productivity by 12x

Step 1/9

Digitize The Way You Receive Vendor Invoices

Old Way:

The vendor sends their invoice to either:

  • Head office by email, regular mail, an excel spreadsheet, EDI
  • Directly to the store by email, regular mail, or drops it off at the location.
  • Sometimes, the vendors even send the same invoice to both head office and the store.
  • If the invoices are received by the store, someone from the store will ultimately need to forward the invoice to head office.
  • They do this by forwarding the invoice by email, scanning and email or couriering the original invoice.

Depending on the format you receive the invoices in you may have different manual processes established for each format.

  • It is typical to receive various formats from vendors where EDI info comes in one format, some invoices come in PDF and some invoices come in paper,
  • Complicates the organizational flow of what should be a simple process of receiving an invoice.

 

New Way:

Digitize the way you receive invoices by:

  • Notifying the vendor to CC (carbon copy) a centralized email address when they send an invoice
  • Stores can capture the paper invoice by snapping a picture of the invoice and sending to the centralized email address.
  • This creates a singular way of getting the invoices into the accounts payable process pipeline without having to have various processes for each type of invoice format.

Old Result:

  • It takes time and money to scan, forward and/or courier the invoices to head office and is expensive when using courier services, especially when each store is sending packages of invoices a few times a week.
  • You may have multiple processes depending on the format the invoice is coming creating multiple inefficient processes.

New Result:

  • Reduce invoice preparation time by 90%
  • Eliminate 100% the costs of courier fees and paper costs.
  • Head office will receive the invoices almost instantaneously.

Digitizing the way you receive invoices will save your organization hours and expenses related to couriering and paper costs.

Removing bottlenecks in the accounts payable process such as initially receiving the invoice sets an expedited pace for the entire AP process and saves thousands of dollars. 

Step 2/9

Automate All Data Entry

Old Way:

  • A vendor sends an invoice for their purchased goods or service and expects to get paid within the terms of the agreement.
  • Once your accounts payable (AP) department receives the invoice they will manually enter the necessary information from the invoice into your accounting system.
  • This will be followed by paying the vendor, completing the accounts payable process.

New Way:

  • Automated data extraction where the technology reads the invoice
  • Knows which data is needed to be prepared for the accounting system
  • Eliminates any manual data entry and duplicate invoices.
  • This will be followed by your current process of paying the vendor, completing the accounts payable process.

Old Result:

Manual data entry tasks are:

  • Excruciatingly slow
  • Error-prone
  • Provide low value to the company
  • One of the most unsatisfying jobs
  • Good chance at some point you have double paid a vendor due to duplicate invoices
  • You may have even paid late fees for not paying your vendors on time, both of which have cost the company unnecessary amounts of money.

According to the Institute of Finance and Management’s (IOFM) report, the average cost of processing one invoice no matter what size of business is $12.90. Not surprisingly, 47 percent of controllers believe that minimizing errors is their organization’s biggest accounts payable challenge, IOFM finds.

New Result:

  • Happy, more productive employees can be utilized in other value-added assignments within the company.
  • Eliminates data entry errors and duplicate invoices, saving the company money.
  • Greater likelihood that you will pay your vendors on time eliminating any additional late fees.

Your employees want to work on value-added assignments that make them feel productive and that they are a contributing member of the team.

Using accounts payable automation software saves thousands of dollars in erroneous payments to vendors including duplicate payments and late fees and results in more productive happier employees. 

Step 3/9

Automate The Approval Workflow Process

Old Way:

  • Companies establish policies to determine the different approval levels for employees to approve an invoice based on thresholds by dollar amount, vendor type, expense type, etc.
  • There are multiple levels of approvers depending on the hierarchy of the organization including the store manager, district manager, and executive as examples.
  • The result is an approval process called the approval workflow.
  • Every business has their unique approval workflow process but generally someone from the accounts payable department will request an approval from managers or above store manager levels depending on the dollar amount of the invoice.
  • The AP individual must email, track all outstanding emails and continuously follow up to ensure the invoice gets approved.
  • Further, if there are multiple sign-offs for one invoice the AP individual will receive one level of the approval before sending it off to the next approver.
  • This process follows in a sequential path until all parties have approved the invoice.

New Way:

  • Implementing an accounts payable management system utilizes technology that reads the necessary information from an invoice to know where the invoice needs to get routed for the next stage of getting approved.
  • As the management system is automated it can email all necessary parties simultaneously and handle multiple invoices at the same time.
  • Finally, the system notifies all approvers and sends follow up notification if it isn’t completed within a certain time.

Old Result:

  • When dealing with a high volume of invoices employees become stressed and lethargic spending the whole day emailing different managers for their approval.
  • It is time-consuming to email each manager as this task has to be performed sequentially.
  • Further, the AP individual needs to print out paper to keep track of the outstanding invoices for approval, making it extremely painful to continuously follow up for approvals.
  • As the approvers are performing their duties, their priorities are not administrative work like approving invoices which leads to long time lags with the need for the AP individual to follow up multiple times.
  • Obtaining approvals are extremely important especially around the end of the month when accounting wants to close the books but has to wait for outstanding invoice approvals, usually making them miss the cut off date.

New Result:

  • Completely eliminates this job function within the AP department
  • Makes those employees more productive to work on other assignments.
  • The new way can send the approval requests out simultaneously, not sequentially and continuously notify the approvers for their approval, which expedites the approvals.
  • Now, AP is in a position to close their books within their cut off time.

Technology that completely eliminates tasks is the optimal productivity application.

You don’t have to wait for AP to start the approval process which could take days from the time an invoice is received to the time they get around to requesting an approval. Now, the process kicks off within seconds of the invoice being received, once again saving time and money.

Step 4/9
Simplify The Way Approvers Sign Off On Invoices

Old Way:

  • A typical approval workflow involves the approver needing to print out the invoice for review
  • Signs the invoice
  • Scans the invoice
  • Walks invoice or emails it to accounting

New Way:

  • The approver gets notified via an email with a link to the invoice
  • Approves and communicates within the application
  • There isn’t a need to print out the invoice and they can perform the administrative work within a quick turnaround time and from anywhere.
  • As the system continuously generates the notification, there is a higher probability they see the email and complete the approval which expedites the process.

Old Result:

  • Most managers and executives are busy running the business
  • Dislike annoying administrative work as it is time-consuming, a distraction from whatever they are working on and a waste of paper.
  • They are unaware of the time-sensitivity either to pay the vendor on time or to close the books during month end.
  • Consequently, they procrastinate on approving the invoice creating a very inefficient and long process.

 

New Result:

  • A simplified approval process increases the likelihood to perform the task
  • Managers only need to act when they get notified which saves the approver time
  • They do not need to print any paper to approve the invoice.
  • The system will continuously notify them until they approve the invoice.
  • They can approve from anywhere including on their commute to or from work or sitting on the couch at home watching TV.

Managers should be spending more time on managing without interruption from administrative tasks.

Making the job easier for management makes them happier and more productive which transfers down to their subordinates and improves overall operations.

Step 5/9

Catch Duplicate Invoices

Old Way:

  • The AP individual needs to research through files to catch a duplicate invoice.
  • Most duplicate files slip through the cracks as it is hard to keep track of every invoice when monitoring things manually.

New Way:

  • An automated invoice management system will catch duplicate invoices
  • Notifies AP to disregard the duplicate invoice from the process.

Old Result:

  • There is a high probability that duplicate invoices slip through the cracks
  • Hard to keep track of every invoice
  • Resulting in double-paying vendors
  • Double counting in the financial accounting records.

 

New Result:

  • Businesses save money by not paying vendors twice
  • Ensures accurate financial records within their accounting system.

You will feel relieved knowing you are never paying more to a vendor than the agreed upon cost.

1/3rd of businesses have experienced paying a vendor more than once for the same invoice which is an expense that is 100% preventable but frequently occurs due to human error.

If you have any questions about catching duplicate invoices:

1) How does an automated process know to catch duplicate invoices? The OCR technology extracts various data points like invoice number and vendor. Behind the scenes, the automated system keeps track of all that information and when it appears twice, it flags the duplicate invoice.

Step 6/9

Simplify How You Troubleshoot Exceptions

Old Way:

  • If there is an issue with the invoice, the AP individual needs to speak with the approver to understand why they are rejecting the invoice due to an exception.
  • It is sometimes hard to get in touch with the approvers as they are busy working in a store managing the business.
  • According to the IOFM 17% of invoices result in an exception.
  • Issues that arise are including: wrong price, wrong quantity, missing tax amount, missing tax identification number, no requester name, no contact information, no contract and/or purchase order, missing purchase order number, no shipping notice, incorrect net amount, etc.
  • The AP individual will need to follow up with the vendor to get the issue resolved.

New Way:

  • The approvers communicate directly in the application where they can leave notes with the invoice as to why they are rejecting the invoice.
  • The AP individual doesn’t need to track down the approver and can take a screenshot of the invoice and the notes and email directly to the vendor to get resolved.

Old Result:

  • Exceptions are time-consuming
  • Result in more paper handling and manual keying
  • Delays invoice approvals (which result in late-payment penalties, and missed early-payment discount opportunities).
  • It is typical that there would be a lot of back and forth emails between AP and the approver which significantly delays approval cycles.

 

New Result:

  • A more streamlined process that saves time
  • Saves money
  • Improves communication between the company and the vendor.

Dealing with exceptions sidelines your team from focusing on tasks that move the operation forward.

Dealing with exceptions used to mean it was going to cost you more in late fees or not being able to take advantage of early payment incentives. You work hard for your money and it is better in your pocket than your vendors.

Step 7/9
Go Paperless

Old Way:

  • Both AP and the approvers need to print copies of the invoice to be filed for record keeping or to be reviewed and signed off on.

New Way:

  • An automated invoice management system that is cloud based can store all the invoices
  • Allows easy access to retrieve and view the invoices.

Old Result:

  • Thousands of pages are being wasted annually killing many trees.
  • Further, your staff who want to be environmentally friendly cringe every time they have to print out anything.

New Result:

  • A completely paperless AP process for your entire organization.

Saving forests is the environmentally conscious way of running a business today

Your employees and the environment will thank you.

Step 8/9

Optimize Invoice Searching

Old Way:

  • If someone in the organization needs to find an invoice, they need to look through a filing cabinet for the paper copy.

New Way:

  • A cloud based system that stores all historical invoices
  • Ability to search within the application by vendor name, date range, approver, etc.

Old Result:

  • It is time consuming to search through filing cabinets.
  • If the invoice is stored away it is even harder to retrieve it.

New Result:

  • Anyone within the organization can find any invoice within seconds

Tasks that provide no value to the company is a complete waste of money.

It’s so much easier to search for electronic files by criteria than to sort through filing cabinets.

Step 9/9

Simplify Training For The Accounts Payable Process

Old Way:

  • New store level staff involved with approving invoicing would have to learn the company’s current process of sending invoices to head office and approving the invoices.
  • Within the AP department, it would necessitate a few days of training to walk through all the moving pieces of the AP process.

New Way:

  • Simplifying the processes by using technology eliminates many of the steps resulting in less tasks to complete.
  • Ultimately, creating a simple process makes onboarding quick to understand what they need to do to approve or reject an invoice.

Old Result:

  • It takes time to learn a new process and the more complicated it is, the longer it takes.
  • Further, it is prone to mistakes and may require further training.
  • Due to high turnover in retail businesses, there is a constant need to train new staff at the store level on administrative processes.
  • Further, as AP is dealing with money and financial records it is vital to train these individuals properly as it could be costly to make mistakes.

New Result:

  • As the application is so simple to understand, anyone can be trained within 5 minutes at the store level
  • Within an hour at the AP level
  • Become experts using the technology.

Simple products require less training resulting in a faster onboarding process.

The faster you can get new employees trained, the faster they are going to produce. The easier the task is to learn they will become proficient at it with less mistakes.

So, as you can see, all you need to do is:
  1. Digitize the way you receive vendor invoices
  2. Automate all data entry
  3. Automate the approval workflow process
  4. Simplify the way approvers sign off on invoices
  5. Catch duplicate invoices
  6. Simplify how you troubleshoot exceptions
  7. Go paperless
  8. Optimize invoice searching
  9. Simplify training for the AP process
And you too can boost employee productivity by 12x in 1 month or less.
Figure 2 depicts a slow manual process that takes 15 hours of labor to process invoices for one store in one month vs. a super-efficient automated process that reduces the number of labor hours by 90% to just over an hour to process invoices for one store in one month.

Working with factura.ai

Here’s what is going to happen when you work with us:

You will be up and running with your entire organization within 1 week.

You will boost your employee productivity by 12x within the first month or less.


 You will be able to grow your store count without adding additional accounting human resources.

You will be proud that you invested in technology that your employees love to use.

You can finally get rid of manual tedious tasks like data entry, eliminating data errors, duplicate payments and late fees to vendors.

You can forget about killing trees.

You will never fall behind on closing your monthly accounting books.

You will feel like a captain of industry, because an efficient machine is a profitable machine.

How it works

Before, when you received a vendor invoice, a store manager would have printed, signed, scanned and emailed or couriered the invoice to head office. But now, digitizing the way you receive an invoice, the store manager can simply forward the email or snap a picture of the invoice. This will save thousands of dollars alone on courier fees.
Before, when you wanted to extract data from an invoice and enter it into the accounting system, you would have to manually enter the data. But now, you can use artificial intelligence technology that extracts data autonomously like a self driving car without spending hours typing away. You will save thousands of dollars on time consuming processes, erroneous payments to vendors and late fees.
Before, when you wanted to get an invoice approved, you would have to email the different level of approvers and track the outstanding invoices. But now, the automated approval workflow does all the work to obtain all necessary sign-offs without accounts payable spending hours emailing, following up and monitoring the approval process.
Before, when a store manager or an executive had to sign-off on an invoice they would have had to print out the invoice to review and they would procrastinate to get it done as it was a tedious administrative duty. But now, the approver can view and approve the invoice from their phone anywhere speeding up the approval process.
Before, when AP double counted and paid duplicate invoices it cost your company unnecessary amounts of money. But now, factura.ai catches all duplicate invoices and eliminates duplicate approvals of invoices.
Before, when AP had to troubleshoot an invoice they would have had to track down the approver/rejector to get a better understanding of the issue before discussing with the vendor. But now, the approver can communicate directly in factura.ai and AP can take a screenshot of the notes and the invoice and can forward it to the vendor to get resolved.
Before, you would have to print thousands of paper copies of the invoice for review and ultimately, file it away. But now, you can store all invoices in the cloud to go paperless without killing trees.
Before, you would have spent hours a year searching for invoices from a filing cabinet for review. But now, you can search within seconds by your requested criteria.
Before, you were constantly training new store managers on the complicated accounts payable process. But now, factura.ai has simplified the process and the user experience making training almost self explanatory and easy.

Actual Store Manager Quotes:
“it has been simple and easy”
“It is a wonderful experience”
“Easy and accessible”
“User-friendly”
“Easy to navigate”
“i like how simple it is”
“Its easier to have 1 platform for invoices”

On average, you will save 1/10th per location, a fraction of the cost you are currently paying. We do it by charging a flat monthly fee, like Netflix. Discover which package is right for you based on the number of invoices you process per month.