Chances are, your accounts payable and accounts receivable (AP/AR) transactions are not typically at the forefront of your college's or university's mind. Consequently, your invoicing processes might be outdated — causing slow turnaround times and inaccuracies that could be costing your institution hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
Our combined solutions and team of experts can help you modernize your AP/AR processes and reduce transaction complexity by using an overall paperless process. The results will help you cut costs associated with labor and meet early payment discounts by speeding turnaround times. We'll also help you decrease inaccuracies in your payments, simplify payment management, tighten payment security and reduce supplier payment inquiries through a digitized and proven automated workflow.
Hear from a Ricoh expert on using digitization and automated workflows to address common admissions, finance and fundraising challenges.
A manual AP/AR workflow can cost your institution hours, days and even weeks in labor to process a single invoice. It often starts with an invoice arriving by mail. The item is then manually sorted and sent to the corresponding department(s) via interoffice mail, where it's then opened and keyed into the AP system. And this is just the beginning. From there the item goes through a series of physical approvals, check-cutting, mailing and archiving.
Other manual processes can involve mailroom staff taking invoices directly to AP. AP then turns around and manually delivers the invoices to the departments. When departments are not located on campus and AP has to open the invoices and scan, email and/or fax them to outlying locations not on campus, it causes even further delays in processing.
We’ll work with you to revise all stages of your AP/AR process, including:
32%
Percentage of large organization respondents who said invoice errors hurt their ability to close the books quickly when asked about experiencing common AP problems.***
Mistakes happen, but when they occur frequently in your AP/AR processes they can cost you. An automated workflow can help decrease:
By partnering together, we can help you to automate workflows and minimize mistakes in processing by reducing the number of times an invoice changes hands, as well as reducing the manual labor associated with each step — including keying in items, handwriting checks and other general paperwork.
Many institutions have not automated key financial processes.
65% agree — My accounts receivable processing is automated and does not require employees to manually enter incoming checks/payments into the financial system.
61% agree — Our accounts payable processing is centralized and does not require employees to manually enter data and route invoices.
28% agree — Our current application process includes automated document workflows, helping to minimize administrative time and processing costs.
47% agree — My institution has concerns about PCI compliance due to our manual processes.
24% agree — Data security is a primary reason my school has considered or would consider outsourcing of account receivable processes.
50% agree — My institution has a clear understanding of the true cost to collect advancement funds.
67% agree — My university is analyzing fundraising data in relationship to accounts receivable to improve the success of future campaigns.
46% agree — My institution leverages seasonal/student labor to meet the demands of fundraising.