ReadSoft: Companies can save £1-2m by automating finance document processes

• Organisations globally spend £15.5b to £18.5b interpreting and entering business information, 80 per cent of which is unstructured
• Companies using electronic processing reduce cost per procurement by an order of 92 per cent lower than the average

Benchmarking research into the financial function of global business organisation by Readsoft suggests adoption of automated processes in conjunction with invoice processing could help British businesses cut cost per procurement to 92 per cent lower than the average.

According to the research which benchmarked over 4,000 organisations around the globe, companies worldwide spend £15.5 -18.5b interpreting and entering business information: 80 per cent of this is unstructured. Finance departments bear much of the brunt of this in the form of invoice transactions.

World class companies (those scoring in the top percentile of performance studies) process more than 41,000 invoices per full time equivalent (FTE) employee in the finance department. Yet the overall median for accounts payable (AP) per FTE is just 11,000, and for companies with less than £1.85bn turnover this falls to 8,000 per FTE, more than halving the department’s efficiency.

What still holds many companies back is the volume of accounts payable transactions that remain paper based as opposed to electronic. Top performing companies have double the number of electronic transactions than paper (120,000 versus 60,000), with pdf based invoicing the fastest growing and most preferred option. But the overall median suggests most finance departments still deal with similar numbers of electronic and paper invoices (60,000 electronic versus 70,000 paper based transactions). To deliver better managed accounts departments, organisations need to be able to deal seamlessly with any transactional format, whether paper or electronic. 

Simon Shorthose, Managing Director, Readsoft UK said: “ReadSoft’s capability to automate all document handling, offering a blended model regardless of format and media, enables companies to transition to hybrid models that equally encompass paper and electronic invoicing. This then delivers greater integration of Business Process Management and data capture and leads to world class operations.”

ReadSoft’s DOCUMENTS software platform empowers organisations to handle their documents in an uninterrupted, integrated workflow, generating significant financial benefits. ReadSoft is already a leading developer of software that enables companies to entirely automate their Accounts Payable document processes, and with the recent launch of ReadSoft Allocate can now deliver automation for the Accounts Receivable (AR) function, reducing AR costs by 70 per cent.

“This research demonstrates that better document processing delivers immediate returns on investment. Any business not looking to automate its document management is simply throwing away shareholder’s money,” adds Shorthose.

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Notes for Editors

Research on finance process was collated by ReadSoft and The Hackett Group which benchmarks 4,000 leading global companies.

Organisation effectiveness was benchmarked against a range of financial functions including: days sales outstanding; days payables outstanding; accounts payable rework rate; customer billing rework rate; accuracy of forecasts and analysis; functional role in strategic decision making; per cent of time analytic focus in on proactive decision making; per cent of time spent collecting and compiling data for analysis; and per cent of analysts with acumen to function as business partners.

Organisation efficiency was benchmarked against: overall function cost as a percentage of revenue; process cost as a percentage of revenue; technology cost per function FTE; staffing levels by process; cycle times and iterations; unit cost of transactions; utilisation of self-service for inquiry; application complexity; automation of transactions; reliance on spreadsheets and per cent of business reports distributed electronically.

About ReadSoft
ReadSoft is a leading global provider of software solutions for Document Process Automation. ReadSoft’s software enables companies to automate document processes such as accounts payable processing, document capture, document sorting, and order to cash. ReadSoft is by far the world’s number one choice for automated invoice processing. Since the start in 1991, ReadSoft has grown to a worldwide group with operations in 16 countries on five continents and a network of local and global partners. The head office is located in Helsingborg, Sweden, and the ReadSoft share is traded on the NASDAQ OMX Nordic Exchange Small Cap list. For more information about ReadSoft, please visit www.readsoft.co.uk 

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Gary Marshall
XL Communications
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