Paying Suppliers When AP Staff Work from Home

ARTICLE - Paying suppliers has never been easy for accounts payable (AP) departments.

AP teams have long spent their days bogged down on manual, repetitive tasks such as printing checks and remittance details, chasing down approvals, stuffing envelopes, answering telephone calls and e-mails from suppliers about their payment status, and reconciling bank statements.

But paying suppliers is more challenging these days.

The shift to remote and hybrid work environments disrupted established policies and procedures for paying suppliers. Most AP departments still work remotely, at least in part, the Institute of Finance and Management (IOFM) reports. Many businesses periodically send skeleton crews to print and mail checks into the office. Some rely on trusted employees to print and mail checks from their homes. Others require AP staff to drive paper checks around town to get the necessary approvals.

Many businesses started making more of their outbound payments electronically – typically via the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network – when their staff couldn’t get into the office to make check payments. ACH Network volume grew more than 6 percent (6%) in the fourth quarter of 2021, NACHA reports. While ACH offers compelling benefits over paper checks, paying every supplier via ACH means businesses miss out on the cash-back rebates they could earn from card payments.

Nineteen percent (19%) of AP leaders are “concerned” about how their business is paying suppliers these days, IOFM finds. Seven percent (7%) of AP leaders are feeling “overwhelmed” by it all.

Meantime, AP teams are being asked to do more with less until the economy gets on a firm footing.

With no telling when or if AP teams will be returning to the office full time, businesses must find efficient, effective, and secure ways to pay their suppliers, no matter where their AP staff works.

How to pay suppliers when AP staff work remotely

That’s why more AP departments are deploying cloud-based payment automation platforms that integrate with their legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) application or accounting software.

Cloud-based payment processing platforms are ideal for remote and hybrid work environments.

Simplified payment processes.
Automated payment solutions make it easy to manage and make supplier payments, no matter where staff work. Supplier ACH data is automatically validated with a prenote. AP users can initiate payments directly from within the familiar screens of their ERP with a single file. Rich remittance details are automatically generated and transmitted to suppliers. And employee expense reimbursements are paid electronically.

Payment options.
Automated payment solutions provide a single platform for paying suppliers in their preferred payment format, including card, ACH, Zelle Pay, Wires, EFTs, and check. There’s no need for AP users to log into multiple systems or bank portals to make payments. And companies that do business globally can make supplier payments in any currency to any country.

Seamless integration.
The best payment solutions are natively built into leading ERPs, keeping data in synch and eliminating manual processes. Natively built solutions reconcile payments in real-time, eliminating the need for AP users to manage multiple bank statements. Some solutions also have connectors that allow the funds for supplier payments to be drawn directly from any originating bank account, avoiding the need to pre-fund a separate account.

Visibility.
With payments managed on a single platform, AP users always know the status of pending, in-process, and completed payments. Electronic payments cannot become delayed or lost in the mail. Payment data also is instantly available, making it easy to see where things stand with cash flow and corporate spending. For instance, the visibility provided by an automated payment solution enables a business to forecast its cash more accurately.

And outdated data becomes a thing of the past when data is synchronized in real-time in the ERP.

Optimum data security.
The best payment solutions allow users to develop approval hierarchies, segregate processes, encrypt sensitive data and passwords and URLs, and provide secure bi-directional connectivity between their ERP and third-party servers. Law enforcement officials warn about the rising risk of payment fraud because of the disruption that remote working has caused to established AP processes for paying suppliers.

Remote and hybrid arrangements are the ‘new normal’ in back-office work.

With so much riding on their outbound payments, businesses must make paying suppliers easier, significantly faster, seamless, transparent, and more secure, no matter where their AP staff work.

Let iCloudAuthority show you how easy paying suppliers can be when AP staff work remotely.

Click here to arrange a time to chat with one of our payment automation representatives.