The prior article referred to invoices being duplicated. Using one of the purchase invoice data extraction products can help to prevent this type of error occurring as potential duplicates can be detected prior to entry into the accounting records.
With more and more invoices coming into the business in electronic format – often PDF files attached to emails – these emails can simply be forwarded to the data extraction software (often automatically) and the “magic” happens. The supplier, date, invoice, VAT etc are extracted from the file and populated ready to send to the accounting records. On first use, it does need to know the analysis code to use in the accounts software, e.g. British Telecom will usually be posted to Telephone. After first use, this can be automated in the future, so that all BT bills will be coded as Telephone.
This has the benefit of saving significant amounts of time and improves accuracy.
Another enormous benefit of using this type of product is that the invoice is stored in both the data extraction software and the accounting software – and are always visible…no more filing needed and no need to print the PDF versions either.
This software can be “free” in some circumstances.
If you would like to know more, want a demo or want to try it, give us a call.
