Orders and invoices are part of every business; they vary only in scale and the amounts of incoming and outgoing transactions. So why do so many companies have needlessly complicated processes for this?
Our guess? Many organizations may not realize that there is a solution that could significantly free up their employees’ time. Did you know that if Goods Receipt (GR) are done correctly and at the right time in the process, it leads to faster invoice payment down the line? If this is not done correctly, the verification can take up to an entire day longer. And in some cases even more?
The larger the company, the more individuals are involved in various aspects of the entire process, from placing orders to paying invoices. This also means that there are significantly more potential bottlenecks in this process. By automating order confirmations and invoice processing, many of these bottlenecks are streamlined into simple flows, which greatly enhance efficiency.
Why fix what isn’t broken?
One reason for the complex processes is that Interdepartmental communication is often spotty at best. Maybe not on a social level, but who wants to talk shop with their co-workers constantly? And if you are a cog in a bigger system, you won’t always have the mandate to facilitate change, so why discuss it with your co-workers. And, if it works, why change it?
Often, when companies reach a certain revenue threshold or the number of people working there, departments seem to become more siloed. This growth process often translates into a decrease in interdepartmental communication, which thereby also leads to additional bottlenecks between departments responsible for different parts of a larger process.
In a purchase-to-pay (P2P) process for example, multiple departments play key roles, and effective communication between them is crucial for smooth operations. Procurement initiates the process by selecting suppliers and creating purchase orders. The finance department manages invoice processing and payments, while the receiving team confirms deliveries and ensures goods meet quality standards.
Additionally, budget owners, IT, and compliance teams often need to approve purchases or verify contract terms. Without clear communication and collaboration, these handoffs can create bottlenecks — for example, delays in invoice approvals, mismatches between purchase orders and deliveries, or payment hold-ups due to incomplete documentation. Each delay not only slows down the process but can also impact supplier relationships and financial forecasting.
And there lies the crux of it all. Manual tasks come with a higher chance of errors, and non-optimal communication between departments slows down the end-to-end process a lot. Your employee may have years of experience and work as fast as lightning, but automation is faster, easier, and more accurate.
Many organizations have acknowledged this, taken action, and implemented a Process Director module, in most cases the Accounts Payable module. Most of those companies don’t even know about the other modules Process Director has to offer, enabling them to further automate the end-to-end process.
Connecting the dots
You can work more efficiently and intelligently by connecting all the dots in your financial and order processes. This might sometimes allow you to reassign an employee from repetitive (and often tedious) tasks to a different role. Or you may finally scale your business to grow as you envision.
For companies that use SAP, Process Director from Tungsten Automation can solve this problem. It’s native to your existing SAP environment, providing a smooth transition after implementation. Its module-based solution offers automation for different stages in your finance automation process, such as accounts payable, order confirmations, delivery notes, sales orders, and more.
Because of this modular set-up, we can guarantee you there is a fit for your company. Our consultants at Dynatos have combined more than 400 years of experience with Process Director, making us a center of excellence, and more than ready to tackle your problem and help you to the best solutions.
Contact us today to see how we can help you with reaching noticeable impact and measurable results.
Download the Process Director datasheet and learn how to automate and streamline your business.
