When you are setting up your accounts payable, you need to think of how you can manage your accounts without wasting time doing the work by-hand, trying to reconcile a lot of different documents, or collecting receipts, purchase orders, and invoices. There are six tips listed here that will make it easy for you to make your accounting departments functional and efficient. Plus, you can use these tips to organize your business in a way that makes the most sense for you.
1. Find Software That Helps
Intacct accounts payable allows you to organize your bookkeeping and accounting. You need to know who your vendors are, how much they owe you or how much you owe them. You should organize your accounts into categories that are easy to understand, and you need to see a copy of every receipt or invoice so that you know how much is owed. Your company uses a budget to ensure you have enough cash flow, and using accounts payable software ensures that you are managing your money properly.
2. Scan All Receipts/Invoices/Purchase Orders
You should scan all the documents that come along with each purchase. If you are reimbursing someone on your staff for purchases that they made on behalf of the company, you need to see their receipts. Upload the receipts into the system so that you can create quick payments. You can print checks or send bank transfers to the employee.
If you are paying vendors, you can see exactly how much is owed, where to send the payment, and you have a digital copy of the invoice/purchase order so that you have documentation in case there is any confusion over how much is owed.
3. Transfer Information To The Ledger
You need an automated platform that will transfer information from your invoices and receipts to the ledger. You do not have time to send reports to the accountant who will enter all this information by-hand. You are much better off sending all this information electronically. When the data is updated electronically, your ledger remains in perfect condition. Your accountant cannot miss any documents, and you will not lose any information that should be sent over.
You need to see automatic updates on the ledger when you are making constant payments, and someone who is reading the ledger can see realtime changes in each account. This is a safe way to manage your budget without being surprised by daily expenditures.
4. Take Notes On Each Purchase
The notes that you take on each purchase will be used to ensure that you know why the purchase was made in the first place. Many purchases may seem random because they fall outside your normal patterns, and notes on the account make it easy for you to understand why your employees are buying these items. If your employees are noting why they made purchases on a business trip, you can easily reconcile their expense account. If managers are buying rewards for their staff, you can see why something like a trip to the Caribbean needs to be paid off.
5. Pay Instantly
You can make payments instantly if the vendor has an online platform these payments. You can set up the software to log in to the online portal, make the payment, and debit that money from your ledger at once. If you have a username and password that must be used for payments, you can set up those payments with the personal information that is used for the account.
The same is true for paying things like sales tax, insurance premiums, and matching employee contributions on an IRA. You can send out all these payments instantly so that the state gets its money, the insurance policies are all in good standing, and your employees see their retirement accounts rise in value every month.
6. Print Reports
You can print reports from the program at any time so that you can see what was paid, how much it was, and when it was paid. You need all this information so that you can explain to your superiors why you made these payments. Plus, you can set up deferred payments that will come out on a particular day. You can see when the payment was set up, when it came out, and when it was removed from the bank account.
Conclusion
When you would like to make sure that your accounts payable department is efficient, you can use software to make your life easy. Plus, you can use the software as a way to save money because it will do everything you need. You can connect the software to your accounting software, and you can send payments directly to vendors. Your accountants cannot miss any paperwork that was filed, and you have a digital copy of all receipts, invoices, and/or purchase orders.
