The food and beverage industry is notoriously demanding and filled with upswings and downturns. Seasonal demands create a regular waxing and waning of both customers and income, and it’s important to stay on top of these fluctuations to process your invoices efficiently.
Streamlining your invoice processing systems helps to ensure that you can keep your guests satisfied while effectively managing your restaurant’s finances. When demand surges during busier times, your payables may increase in both size and number alongside it. As more guests arrive at your restaurant, you will also need to process more invoices.
Establishing an automated invoice processing system will drastically reduce the time you need to spend manually managing invoice processes. This will leave you with more time to serve your guests and craft tailored marketing strategies that grow your customer base.
Here’s how automated invoice processing can save you time and energy and help you put your guests first.
Understanding Automated Invoice Processing
What is an automated invoice processing system? Essentially, they’re digital systems that automatically manage to transcribe, digitize, and send invoices through the accounting and approval departments.
These systems rely on automation technology to streamline their processes. In contrast, manual invoice processing requires significant manpower and plenty of time to complete successfully. When you handle invoice processing manually, you will need to send paper invoices from person to person, while entering data line by line into your accounting system. This can take a whole team hours to handle each week. Plus, human error is bound to occur at some stage, further complicating the process.
Incorrect entry of data can cause a snowball effect that can negatively impact your restaurant’s finances to varying degrees. According to a Bloomberg study, as many as 28% of businesses make accounting and tax errors during manual data entry processes. Automating your invoice processing will simplify all the steps involved, enabling the software to run smoothly while minimizing errors and the time it takes to process important invoices.
Invoice processing automation reduces the amount of paper and inks your business uses. This can benefit both your budget and the environment.
The Benefits of Invoice Processing Automation
1. Save Yourself Time and Energy
With hospitality being one of the world’s busiest industries, you need to spend your time carefully on the aspects of your business that best promote its growth.
Automating your invoice processing system will reduce the time you spend manually entering invoice data, waiting on approvals, printing and sending out proof of payment, and filing your invoices for tax and reference purposes.
2. Reduce Expenditure and Save Money
Your profit margin dictates the success of your restaurant. It’s therefore important to save money wherever you can to maximize these profits. Automated invoice processing systems require fewer team members and fewer office supplies, like paper and ink. This means that you’ll end up spending less money paying your team overtime to handle manual invoice responsibilities.
Handling your invoices more efficiently may also enable you to approach your suppliers for early payment discounts!
h3>3. Optimize Your Cash Flow
There are few better ways to improve the efficiency of your business than to automate as many processes as possible. Digitizing your invoice processing allows you to assess which invoices have been approved. This keeps you informed and gives you ultimate control over the payment of your invoices.
You will have more control over your restaurant’s cash flow, freeing up more resources for the most crucial aspects of your operations.
4. Streamlined Compliance
Compliance and accounting go hand in hand. Storing and referring back to documents is so much easier once you’ve automated your invoice processing. Automation makes tax documentation instantly available and allows you to effortlessly find invoices during audits.
The IRS requires you to retain all tax-related records for at least 7 years. Automated systems can achieve this without requiring physical space to store documentation.
5. Fewer Costly Errors
The aspect of human error in manual invoice processing is undeniable. The more people involved in your processes, the slower and more prone to mistakes they’ll be.
Automated systems maximize your efficiency and reduce the possibility of human error to streamline and simplify your workflow.
Tips for Implementing Automated Invoice Processing
Assess Your Current Processes
Assessing each area of your current processing habits, including the drawing up of invoice templates, data capture, invoice approval, payment, and archiving processes, will allow you to identify what needs improving.
Centralize the Way You Manage Invoices
Centralizing invoice management combines all of your invoice processes from different areas and allows you to manage them from a single place. This makes it easy to identify and address inefficiencies that occur across different systems.
Let Automation Do the Work
Automating your systems is the key to maintaining the smooth running and profitability of your business. Choosing the right automation software for your needs will allow you to enhance your invoice system. In doing so, you’ll ensure that your clients and suppliers are paid on time, every time.
Choosing the Right Software
There are a few different elements to consider when choosing the best invoice processing automation software for your restaurant.
First, your software should offer good customer service and reviews, and the company should have experience in helping restaurants to streamline their invoice processes.
The right accounting software should boast accurate data capture, invoice approval, and accounts payable tracking modules to enable effortless financial management. It should also be able to integrate seamlessly with your accounting system and enable you to automate your electronic payments to your primary suppliers.
Taking Advantage Of Technology
Automated invoice processing systems are a great choice for any restaurant wanting to use technology to its advantage to enhance efficiency and foster future growth. Automating your invoice processing can save you time and effort and free up your team to focus on more pressing tasks. It also ensures that your documentation is stored securely on the cloud to help you remain compliant at all times.
Over To You
Choosing the right software will help you seamlessly automate your invoice processing and set up your restaurant for profitability and success. You’ll have better control over your cash flow and an even greater opportunity to maximize your profits.
The hotel industry is always changing, especially during a time of crisis. Make sure to future-proof your business and continue attracting new guests by investing in these solutions.
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Related article: Some Restaurant Accounting Advice to Help You Manage Your Earnings
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About Are Morch
Are Morch is a digital transformation coach helping hotels open their digital gateways, reimagine their processes and culture, and transform experiences in a fast-paced world while earning more direct bookings without competing with the OTA!
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