The procure-to-pay (P2P) cycle is a fundamental business activity that can hugely benefit from the automation a well-integrated ERP can deliver. There are numerous bottlenecks and manual inefficiencies that can crop up throughout the P2P process, and any one of them can become a liability that impacts every other department in your business.
However, while automation is an effective solution that can deliver huge competitive benefits for NetSuite users, properly leveraging it isn’t always as straightforward as it might seem. Here’s our complete guide to understanding the P2P process and a look at how Zone & Co tools like ZoneReconcile, ZoneCapture and ZoneApprovals can help your company enjoy the advantages of P2P automation every step of the way.
What is procure-to-pay?
The P2P process describes all the actions companies take while acquiring necessary goods and services. An end-to-end procure-to-pay process includes the following steps:
- Procurement. At the start of the P2P process, businesses select vendors and create formal purchase orders for products and services.
- Approvals. From there, companies review purchase requests to ensure they meet their needs and deliver them to suppliers.
- Reconciliation. Once they’ve placed an order with a vendor and received a shipment, businesses must process and verify their invoices.
- Payment. Finally, companies approve and send payments to their suppliers (and keep documents on hand for record-keeping purposes).
It’s important to recognize that procure-to-pay has a limited scope relative to the source-to-pay (S2P) process. When NetSuite users are analyzing their P2P process for inefficiencies that could benefit from automation, they are not necessarily considering how these investments impact S2P activities.
That being said, automation investments in the P2P cycle often have larger business implications that overlap with multiple departments. Businesses exploring P2P automation should be ready to examine ERP-based workflows across the business as they consider these solutions.
Challenges in traditional P2P processes
When businesses run into problems in the P2P cycle, they tend to revolve around communication limitations between core systems like their ERP and CRM. Even workhorse platforms like NetSuite and Salesforce have moments where manual reconciliation in Excel is their out-of-the-box form.
However, when businesses rely on a “traditional” P2P process – even when it works well in the beginning – they inevitably run into challenges during periods of growth and scaling. Manual record-keeping also introduces the possibility of human error and potential compliance issues. And in any stage of growth, traditional P2P processes often suffer from general inefficiency and a lack of transparency that can affect activities like reporting downstream.
There are a few ways to partially mitigate these issues without software, such as selecting reliable vendors during the procurement process. However, these actions alone won’t be enough to get your P2P process where it should be. Instead, you’ll need to combine these efforts with a high-quality automation solution to unlock the level of efficiency (and the improved financial performance) you deserve.
The case for automation
Fortunately, with a properly designed and integrated software system, automation solutions can eliminate bottlenecks and inefficiencies in your P2P process. To understand where these solutions might benefit your P2P cycle, look for places in your workflow where you need to:
- Save time. Automated P2P tools can complete tasks like data capture more quickly than any person, giving these processes a considerable speed boost.
- Increase your accuracy. Procure-to-pay automation can also nearly eliminate errors throughout the P2P process, helping you avoid headaches later on.
- Optimize spending. Since P2P tools automatically collect data, they can give you increased insight into your business’s spending habits.
According to research from Accenture, about 80% of all financial operations have room for improvement with automation – and traditional P2P processes definitely fall into this category. Meanwhile, a Corcentric survey found that 49% of US, France and UK-based businesses don’t automate their financial processes. Thus, adopting automated procurement solutions is an easy way to gain an advantage over your competitors.
How Zone & Co automates the P2P process
You won’t be able to automate your company’s P2P process on your own; instead, you’ll need help from a partner like Zone & Co in order to make these improvements. Here’s how three Zone & Co tools can streamline your P2P workflow:
1. ZoneCapture
With ZoneCapture, companies can automate the invoice capture process, seriously reducing their reliance on manual data entry as a result. That translates to benefits like an 83%+ reduction in invoice processing times and 90%+ fewer data entry errors.
2. ZoneApprovals
ZoneApprovals is designed to automate your company’s approval processes and can handle hundreds of bulk purchase order approvals. This approval workflow automation tool also provides total audit visibility, helping you monitor current data and future projections.
3. ZoneReconcile
Companies don’t have to worry about reconciliation accuracy while using ZoneReconcile. This tool reduces reconciliation errors by 99% while speeding this process up by 95%.
For a real-world example of the benefits associated with procure-to-pay automation, look no further than enviolo. This e-bike gear manufacturer worked with Zone & Co to automate its P2P process after growing by 50% over four years. After switching to automated P2P tools with NetSuite integration, enviolo benefited from increased accounts payable productivity, bank reconciliation accuracy of up to 100%, the ability to approve multiple invoices at once and many other positive changes.
P2P automation best practices
Though AP automation can come with undeniable benefits for your company, there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about this process. While making the switch to automated P2P process tools, be sure to follow these best practices for automating P2P workflows:
- Pay attention to ERP integration. If your tools can’t integrate with enterprise resource planning tools like NetSuite, you’ll have to deal with unnecessary complexity while using them.
- Give your teams thorough training. Adding any program to your workflow can come with growing pains, but taking time to train your workers can keep these issues to a minimum.
- Keep an eye on key metrics. Your automated P2P tools should make your P2P process easier to deal with. If you’re dealing with any unexpected operational issues, your metrics will help you identify and resolve them.
The future of P2P automation
Since procure-to-pay automation is the future of procurement, this field isn’t going to be standing still. Instead, P2P automation should change dramatically in the coming years due to emerging trends such as AI-powered analytics, blockchain-based payments and other technological advancements.
Fortunately, you won’t have to worry about the consequences of these changes when you team up with Zone & Co for procure-to-pay automation. We’re keeping a close eye on trends in the procure-to-pay space and eventually planning to incorporate these technologies into our existing tools.
Take your P2P process to the next level
If your business’s manual procure-to-pay process is struggling to keep up or you’re anticipating future growth and scaling challenges, your NetSuite-based tech stack is definitely a strong candidate for automation solutions. A traditional P2P process simply won’t deliver the efficiency, accuracy and data visibility your company needs to remain competitive in today’s economy.
While the thought of rebuilding this workflow from the ground up might sound intimidating, it doesn’t have to be. After your business adopts tools like ZoneCapture, ZoneReconcile and ZoneApprovals, this process will function more smoothly than ever before.
Are you interested in adding Zone & Co’s P2P automation tools to your workflow? If so, learning more about these products is the best way to get started. Schedule a demo for tools like ZoneCapture, ZoneApprovals and ZoneReconcile today!
FAQs
What is P2P automation?
P2P automation is the use of automation tools to reduce your company’s reliance on manual data entry throughout the procure-to-pay process. With the help of these tools, you can automate P2P tasks like reconciling invoices, approving purchase orders and capturing invoice data.
Why automate P2P processes?
By automating your company’s P2P process, you can benefit from an unmatched level of accuracy. This accuracy doesn’t come at the cost of speed, either; instead, these tools can help you process invoices and complete other P2P-related jobs more quickly than ever.
How does P2P automation integrate with NetSuite?
P2P automation integrates with NetSuite through native SuiteApps like ZoneCapture, ZoneApprovals and ZoneReconcile, which embed seamlessly into your existing ERP environment. These AP automation solutions automate invoice processing, invoice approvals and bank reconciliations directly within NetSuite leveraging features like OCR for data capture, multi-level approval workflows and bulk approvals, smart rules for transaction matching, and more.
