A recent report from PYMNTS concluded that “manual AP processes are expensive, labor-intensive and more susceptible to fraud and errors.” This is particularly true of manual approval processes, which can waste your staff’s time, increase the chances of human error and make compliance more difficult than it needs to be. That’s why modern finance teams are moving away from outdated manual methods and embracing automated processes for approvals of purchase orders, invoices, budgets, expenses and other employee transactions.
This article explores the reasons underlying this shift and discusses how automated solutions can streamline your financial workflows, elevate your data quality, improve your regulatory compliance efforts and help your business scale.
Manual approvals are holding you back
Manual approval processes may be manageable when your business is small. As your company scales, these outdated methods quickly create barriers to your operational success. Here are the main issues businesses face when relying on manual approvals:
Slow and inefficient workflows
Manual approval processes often involve sending documents back and forth via email and waiting for responses – or relying on paper-based systems. This creates unnecessary work for your team, which can increase your department’s costs substantially. It can also prolong approval times, leading to late payments and skewing your performance metrics.
Opportunities for human error
In a recent Gartner survey of nearly 500 controllers, over half (59%) reported making several errors per month. This highlights the risks of handling approvals by hand, which can lead to mistakes such as missing signatures and data entry errors. Manual approvals also increase the likelihood of an item getting stuck in the process or lost altogether. Errors like these can frustrate your team, bog down transactions and cost your business money.
Lack of visibility and accountability
When approvals are processed manually, tracking their status is cumbersome at best. Managers and finance teams often struggle with limited visibility into where an approval stands or who’s responsible for the next step. This causes confusion and delays, which can be particularly harmful when approvals are time-sensitive.
An inability to scale
As a company grows, the number of approvals required across various departments and levels of authority increases. Manual processes cannot scale effectively to handle the growing volume, creating bottlenecks and slowing down financial operations. This becomes a major roadblock for finance teams trying to keep pace with an expanding business.
Poor compliance management
Manual workflows also make it hard to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Without a clear audit trail, tracking approvals for compliance purposes becomes a cumbersome task. That often leads to missing documentation or incomplete approvals, which can create non-compliance risks like penalties and even legal issues.
When we add up all these factors and multiply them by the number of approvals your company tracks and processes every month, the time, costs, frustration and issues that result from manual processing can be substantial.
Automating approval workflows just makes sense
By transitioning from static, manual approvals to an automated and dynamic process, you can unlock several significant benefits. That’s why companies are adopting systems that automate approvals and integrate with their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. This approach can help your business achieve several benefits:
Accelerate approvals
Automation reduces the time it takes your staff to route items to the right people and get the signoff they need to keep your transactions moving. That speeds up financial processes, cuts down on approval times and allows your team to focus on more strategic tasks – and that improves job satisfaction for finance employees. Because of the efficiencies it creates, automation has been shown to generate a substantial return on investment in finance.
Take control of the process
Automation provides real-time visibility into approval statuses and eliminates the need for constant email follow-ups. Because approval processes are automated, dynamic and software-enabled, they can be enforced consistently and changed easily to stay aligned with the needs of the business. Automation also simplifies multi-department approvals and allows decision-makers to accept or reject requests with a simple click – without ever touching a piece of paper. When automated approvals are combined with broader strategies like invoice automation, the benefits are substantial.
Improve data accuracy
By eliminating manual data entry, automation minimizes the errors and omissions that create delays and lead to costly financial mistakes. It also helps minimize the human oversight required to ensure accuracy by making key fields standardized and required.
Streamline compliance
With built-in audit trails, approvals are properly documented and accessible for review at any time. This makes it easy to comply with industry regulations and offers peace of mind when it comes to financial reporting and auditing.
Scale your approval capabilities
As your business grows, automated systems scale seamlessly, handling increased volumes of approvals without creating new operational bottlenecks or adding manual tasks to your team’s workload.
Transform your financial workflows with ZoneApprovals
At Zone & Co, we understand the frustrations that come with manual approvals. With ZoneApprovals, you can automate your entire approval process – from submission to final signoff – while gaining full visibility and control over the process.
ZoneApprovals integrates seamlessly with your existing ERP system, providing real-time access to approvals from anywhere. It allows decision makers to review, approve or reject requests with a single click, accelerating your business's financial operations, boosting compliance and helping you scale.
Want to learn about taking your invoice and payment processing to the next level, too? Read our guide to AP automation in NetSuite.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
1. How does manual intervention in approval processes hinder growth?
Every time a person opens an email, copies and pastes from a PDF or touches a piece of paper, it creates opportunities for delays and errors. These risks become more pronounced as businesses grow, making it difficult for finance teams to scale their operations and keep up with increased activity.
2. What are the benefits of automating financial processes?
Automating financial processes simplifies complex workflows, reduces human error, speeds up approvals and makes auditing easier. Additionally, automation provides better visibility into financial data and improves reporting accuracy. And by cutting down on manual tasks, automation gives finance employees time to focus on strategic, high-impact work rather than repetitive processes.
3. How can automation improve compliance in financial operations?
Automation ensures that financial processes follow predefined rules and regulations consistently. By creating an audit trail, automated systems provide transparency and accountability, making it easier to meet compliance standards. This reduces the chances of non-compliance, as every action is logged and easily reviewable. This is a critical benefit for businesses operating in highly regulated industries.
4. What types of financial processes can be automated?
Beyond approval workflows, businesses can automate tasks such as invoicing, budgeting, expense tracking and financial reporting. By automating these processes, companies reduce the time spent on manual data entry and minimize errors, all while improving operational efficiency. ZoneApprovals, for instance, automates financial approvals to ensure consistency and speed across all finance-related decisions.
5. Will automating my financial workflows require significant IT resources?
No, modern automation solutions are designed to be easily integrated with existing systems, such as ERP platforms, without requiring significant IT resources. Solutions like ZoneApprovals offer quick setup and minimal ongoing maintenance, allowing businesses to benefit from automation without a large upfront investment in IT infrastructure or manpower.
6. How does automation affect employee productivity?
Automating routine tasks allows employees to shift their focus from low-value activities like chasing approvals or correcting errors to more strategic tasks that contribute to business growth. Employees can work more efficiently, spend less time on repetitive processes and bring greater value to the company as a result. Automation not only leads to higher productivity, but it also improves job satisfaction for finance employees.
Ready to automate?
If you’re ready to transition from manual approval processes to an automated solution that enhances your business’s efficiency and compliance, ZoneApprovals can help. By automating financial workflows, you’ll not only reduce errors and delays – you’ll set your business up for future scalability and success.
