In business, time is money. Every hour that your employees spend on tasks that don’t generate revenue, you’re losing the opportunity to grow your business. These types of tasks are common in most businesses, and if you don’t manage them efficiently, you could be losing money. Finding ways to improve your document workflow can increase productivity and your bottom line.
The Inefficient Document Workflow
Repetitive activities, such as processing an invoice, can take many steps and involve multiple people to complete.
For example, to pay a vendor, employees may have to go through several steps, such as:
- Scanning an invoice
- Emailing the invoice to the finance department
- Printing the invoice
- Filling in any other information by hand
- Rescanning the invoice with added data
- Sending payment
- Entering data into the computer system
These labor-intensive tasks are inefficient with repetition and introduce the possibility for human error and security lapses.
Making Improvements to Your Document Workflow
By taking an in-depth look at tasks that must be repeated frequently, you can begin to identify steps that can be eliminated, automated, or made easier. For example, when you digitize this workflow, it can be as simple as:
- Scanning the invoice into a digital workflow
- Information is automatically parsed and completed
- Alerts are sent to appropriate personnel when errors are detected, or fields exceed pre-set parameters. Employees attend to only these cases.
- If no alerts are sent, payment is made automatically
This eliminates wasted time and money, and only requires employees to take control when there is a specific issue identified.
Making improvements such as these does more than simply make this job more efficient. When employees are not tied down to repetitive and time-consuming tasks, they can be better utilized, ultimately improving morale and job performance. The reduction of the need for printed documents also helps boost security and reduces your carbon footprint.
Many businesses have document workflow problems that they don’t know how to solve. Contact a West X representative today and we’ll help you zero in on these time-consuming tasks and find a solution that works for your business.
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