With new technologies, many businesses have implemented different automation software in their day-to-day operations. See if AP Automation Services or Business Automation Tools are right for scaling your business. This use of technology and automation software streamlines the workflow of businesses, reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and improving a business’s overall performance.
There are use cases for business automation, which include automating manual processes like data entry, customer service, inventory management, invoicing, marketing, and more.
Automation software is specialized software that may have a specific task or offer multiple solutions. This software ranges from enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions to customer relationship management (CRM), robotic process automation (RPA), and workflow management software. All these solutions enable workflow automation, allowing businesses to save money and resources.
We will be going through examples and the utility of business process automation (BPA), but first, we will try to understand what BPA actually means.
What is Business Process Automation?
Due to the specialized nature of automation platforms and software, there is no one automation fix for all of the processes and operations involved in the workflow of a business. Automating processes by utilizing this software in isolation or cohesion is called business process automation.
The first step in implementing BPA is identifying repetitive and manual business tasks. These tasks either use too many resources or are monotonous and time-consuming due to their repetitive nature. Using automation software can help tackle these processes and waste less time.
Not to mention, employing BPA can reduce inefficiencies and human errors and decrease processing times, improve data accuracy, and give real-time solutions for a faster and more streamlined workflow.
Utility of Business Process Automation
There are a lot of benefits of business process automation. Due to the constant technological advancement, BPA is helping businesses automate new processes daily. The first utility BPA offers is increased efficiency. BPA can streamline workflow so that it takes less time and resources to complete tasks. This helps in faster turnaround times, cost savings, and increased productivity.
Expanding on the cost-saving aspect, BPA replaces manual processes and allows employees to invest their time and efforts in something more productive instead of repetitive tasks. This saves costs by negating the need for employees for tedious tasks.
Another important utility aspect is scalability. BPA allows businesses to scale operations more effectively by automating manual processes. This enables businesses to expand their operations easily without spending too many resources.
BPA also helps in compliance with laws and regulations, especially while using record-keeping and auditing automation software. Human errors might lead to a sticky situation regarding laws, but BPA helps get the perfect solution every time.
Accounts Payable Automation
Accounts payable processes are infamous for being repetitive. They require much time and focus to ensure that a business’s money dealings are error-free and efficient. This is why many businesses are adopting accounting automation platforms like MakersHub to streamline accounts payable operations.
In addition to real-time results, faster processing times, enhanced compliance, and reduced errors, accounts payable automation allows for better cash flow management. Due to the real-time ability of accounts payable software like MakersHub, businesses can make more informed financial decisions.
Examples of Business Process Automation
Due to the wide range of utilities BPA has to offer, there are multiple fields of business where BPA can be utilized to make business process management easier and more efficient than ever. This saves time and resources and gives businesses an edge over their competition.
Data Input Automation OCR – Optical Character Recognition
OCR technology has been around for a while, but its implementation in processes like accounts payable is relatively new. For instance, automation solutions like MakersHub use OCR technology to read invoices and harvest necessary information, which would otherwise take hours since businesses deal with many invoices daily.
Automation software like these allows businesses to process in real-time and cash in on offers like limited-time discounts on payable bills.
CRM Software
CRM stands for customer relationship management. As the name implies, managing customer queries, processes, and complaints is an important part of any business. This work can be repetitive, and handling a large number of customers can become difficult if it is being done manually.
CRM software helps in managing interactions with customers or potential customers. They collect consumer data, make customer profiles, and manage interactions of all kinds in real-time. One commonly used CRM solution is Chatbot.
Chatbots can use robotic process automation (RPA) to learn from customer interactions and give customers appropriate solutions to their queries and problems. This also allows for realistic responses and the ability for follow-up responses, making the customer experience better.
The best part about a chatbot is that it is available 24/7 and requires minimal maintenance. Instead of paying and managing a specialized customer support team, businesses can utilize solutions like chatbots to provide 24-hour support to increase customer satisfaction.
Accounting Software
Accounting businesses have typically needed to catch up in adopting new technologies as their processes are deeply embedded in traditional methods. But with accounting and bookkeeping solutions like Quickbooks and MakersHub, many businesses have started incorporating automation processes into their accounting operations.
Instead of keeping records on paper and making long spreadsheets with manually entered data, businesses are saving time and resources. Automation solutions also enable businesses to handle time-sensitive processes, especially accounting, where payments must be made and received before certain deadlines.
Accounts Payable Software
The accounts payable process requires a lot of manual tasks, which can become repetitive over time. But with the help of accounts payable software, tasks such as data entry and payments can be automated.
For instance, suppose you are dealing with invoices from multiple customers and vendors. Many have different templates, which leads to confusion and increases the chances of human error. Software like MakersHub uses OCR technology to do the work for you by reading different invoice templates and extracting information relevant to the payable processes.
MakersHub can also enable you to do auto-mapping, which helps code items and expenses and assign them correctly to your business’s chart of accounts (COA). This will take a lot of time and effort if it’s done manually. It can also read invoices in real time to extract data like SKU, PO number, payment terms, discounts, and up to 39 other fields of information just by scanning an invoice.
Accounts Receivable Software
Like accounts payable, another tolling and often manual process in accounting are accounts receivable. Accounts receivable has historically been a paper-based process, where everything is documented and processed on paper documents.
With accounts receivable software, businesses can easily manage receivable processes, which involve organizing and tracking payments owed by customers. Accounts receivable solutions can also send notifications to customers about pending payments and keep a record of all the payments received and money yet to be paid.
They also allow you to create and send invoices to customers in a standardized manner with little margin for error. In addition, they can also keep track of customer credit and give analytical reports on financial performance and customer payment behavior.
Inventory Management Software
Inventories are a big part of businesses, especially if your business is product based. Inventory management systems help track inventory, including stock levels, reordering, and sales history. This helps ensure the business has the right product amount at the right time.
They also help generate purchase orders and provide analytics regarding inventory to optimize inventory management further.
Barcodes can be utilized to quickly extract information about inventory and track it effectively. It can also be used to manage order fulfillment in real-time, allowing for increased customer satisfaction and timely delivery of products.
Marketing Automation
Marketing process automation tools are relatively new but are highly effective as they can learn market trends quickly and segment customer groups effectively. This can streamline marketing processes and provide a more personalized experience to customers.
Automation tools can create customer profiles and analyze customer behaviors to deduce trends, expectations, and preferences. They can also manage leads to attract more customers and keep track of interactions potential customers have had with the business in the past. This can help the sales team come up with ideas and decision-making.
Another widely implemented benefit of marketing automation is email marketing. Email marketing allows us to keep the customers in the loop. By analyzing behaviors, customers are sent emails whenever they might be using their devices. In addition, these emails can be personalized to whatever stage of business the consumer is at that moment.
Social media marketing processes can also be streamlined with the help of automation tools by scheduling online posts, monitoring engagement, and generating relevant reports to increase reach and engagement online.
Robotic Process Automation
Robotic process automation refers to using robots or ‘bots’ to automate business processes and deal with repetitive tasks. These bots help in the digital transformation of businesses and can mimic human behavior and interact with digital systems. They can also be used for data entry, extraction, and other repetitive and manual tasks.
With the help of artificial intelligence, RPA can be used to learn from data provided and customer interactions. Bots can also be scheduled to perform tasks at specific times and integrate with ERP and CRM systems to streamline workflow.
Like any other automation solution, RPA also gives reports and analytics to gauge process efficiency and task completion times.
Human Resource Software
Human resource software helps make tasks such as employee onboarding, hiring process, and decision-making easier and more effective. Managing multiple employees, gauging their competencies, and allocating them to optimal positions can be hard as multiple factors are involved.
With human resource software, these tasks can be streamlined. Tracking employee attendance, managing payrolls, optimizing the onboarding process, and recruiting new employees can all be done using automation solutions.
Lastly, analytics and reports can also be generated using automation software. These can help train employees, set up schedules, or interpret employee performance.
SCM Software
Supply chain management is an important part of businesses. Managing supply and maintaining relationships with suppliers is important for the timely acquisition of supplies and the smooth flow of information and finances across the supply chain.
Even small businesses must deal with multiple suppliers and complex supply chains. SCM software can manage inventory, orders, and logistics. In addition, SCM software allows businesses to manage supplier relationships, which includes negotiating, sourcing, and managing supplier contracts in real time.
Suppliers like to deal with fast and efficient businesses, and employing SCM automation solutions will help businesses achieve this efficiency.
Business Automation Software Recommendations
Before choosing a business automation software, it is important to analyze the processes your business is partaking in and select the processes which will be most beneficial if automated. In addition, the integration of different automation software can also help a lot in optimizing cross-functionality among various business operations.
Clarify Your Current Processes
There might be multiple processes that can be automated in a business. But the weightage of those processes and their benefit varies from business to business. This is why choosing the most optimal process to automate is important.
Automation solutions are cheap but still carry a price tag. It is important only to automate business processes, which will be the most beneficial and take the business to the next level.
Processes can be shortlisted using a diagram, such as a Miro board, by developing mind maps. In addition, surveys and polls can also be circulated to different departments to select the processes that might be repetitive or take a lot of manual work.
Identify Bottlenecks or Manual Friction
In a business, several processes can become a bottleneck and slow down all other business operations. Automating such processes should be a priority for any business if they want to optimize tasks and business operations as a whole.
For instance, manually doing accounts payable processes and using paper to make handwritten invoices and keep records might become a bottleneck and result in delayed vendor payments. Doing everything manually takes up a lot of time and effort.
Is Your Core Software Able to Scale or Be Added to?
Enterprise resource planning (ERP), CRM software, and accounting software can act as core software for businesses and can do several tasks and operations easily. But they might lack in certain aspects. For instance, they might not be efficient in doing a task or might not be able to do the task altogether.
Selecting a core software that can integrate with other software easily is important. For instance, MakersHub can seamlessly integrate with QuickBooks, a widely used bookkeeping software. This allows for easy coding and cohesion between different tasks within the accounting department.
Assess Your Options to Add Tools or Automation
Since replacing important processes with automation software solutions is a big step, it is important to consult businesses and people who are using automation solutions and people who are offering automation tools so that you get a clear idea about the pros and cons of employing BPA.
For instance, consulting financial advisors like CPAs, external CFOs, or even company advisors such as QuickBooks Pro Advisors can be fruitful for automating financial processes. They might have insights and information that can only be obtained once you use the automation tool.
Buy-in From Your Team
Getting stakeholders like employees on board and making an internal buy-in possible is also important, as employees will be the ones who will be interacting with automation tools, and their work will be affected by it. Listening to their opinion and getting them involved with these decisions is important. They might also have insights that only come from experience and better explain the pros and cons of using automation tools.
Endnote
Automation services provide a fast solution to all the tasks that might bottleneck and act as hurdles for modern businesses. For instance, MakersHub is a prime example of using automation techniques by incorporating technologies like OCR to accelerate the payable process and help businesses achieve new heights.
While there are a lot of automation solutions available, the usage and dependency vary from business to business. This is why scoping out tasks and shortlisting them for automation is important and should not be ignored if you want to save costs and resources.
