How to Generate Revenue in AP

AP departments have enough to do without processing invoices manually. Yet so many companies are still routing and processing paper invoices and cutting paper checks. If you’ve watched our webinar, Getting Started with AP Automation, you know that our experts can create a solution for your business that captures documents automatically, routes them through business processes, and integrates the data across your systems. That’s a super cool benefit to Webdocs for AP.

But did you know that the automation extends to the payment process?

It does. With a little help from our friends at Commerce Bank.

Changing the Tune in Accounts Payable

The typical cost of manually processing a paper invoice and cutting a paper check is between $8-12. And long processing times often mean you can’t take advantage of early payment discount offers.

This makes AP a cost center. It’s not the people’s fault. They’re doing their best. They need Webdocs for AP to help them keep costs down. Automated processes help AP to come out even.

Let’s take that a step further.

What would it look like if AP not only had automated processes but also turned into a profit center while making payment processing way easier?

It sounds too good to be true, but it’s not.

Paperless Payment (Plus Profit!)

With a partner like Commerce Bank, collecting payments can make you more money than your invoice charges by making payments electronic. Commerce Bank runs a program where you can earn monthly revenue by replacing paper checks with electronic payments through card networks. You can even use your revenue share to offset the cost of your document management system.

How it works:

Your document management system keeps track of receipts, invoices, and advices, whether that means they’re scanned into the system or captured by email or FTP monitoring. Maybe they come in through online purchase orders. Whatever way the information gets there, your AP department can easily see where your company needs to make payments.

In your ERP system, vendors enrolled in Commerce Bank’s payment program are flagged so you know you can pay those with a card.

You generate a payment file within the system and send it off to Commerce Bank.

That’s where AP’s responsibility ends.

From there, Commerce Bank loads funds to a virtual card and sends email remittance with payment details to the appropriate vendors enrolled in the program.

Once the payment is complete, a reconciliation report is sent back to you.

And every month, you’ll see a percentage come back to you in revenue share.

So not only does AP save the company money while paying bills electronically, but they can also make money to invest in tech that helps further streamline processes.