Paper to digital: how document standardisation improves business efficiency

Imagine how cost-effective and easy it would be if invoices and all the other documents your business routinely processes were automatically available to the right user, at the right time and in exactly the system and format they need. That’s what the paper to digital journey is all about: document standardisation to help your business run efficiently.

Businesses process a wide range of documentation including orders, invoices, shipping notes, delivery advice, sales and stock reports and product data. When you compare a manual based system to a digital one, an automated solution for processing all of this documentation has many benefits.

Take invoice processing in the Accounts Payable department for example:

Going from paper to digital means…

An integrated solution based on the principles of EDI, or Electronic Data Interchange, can help you automate your processes, make internal operations more efficient and support those essential relationships with partners across your trading network.

And we’re not just talking about invoices here. Forward-thinking organisations are already extending their standard EDI message set from its traditional mainstays of orders and invoices to include items such as sales reports and forecasts, analysis of operational performance, and catalogue information.

The ability to distribute and visualise this invaluable information across different parts of the business via an integrated feed can support decision making and operational performance. The same goes for the information you and your external partners in the wider trading network choose to share with each other. Fast, accurate exchange of business content can help with overall supply chain resilience and the management of many different applications.

The key challenges for most businesses new to the paper to digital journey are deciding where to start and how to deliver measurable ROI within an acceptable timeframe.

Taking it step by step, the first priority is to identify the documents, transactions and protocols that you plan to standardise, share internally and exchange with your trading network.

Having analysed and mapped current processes, the next stage is to find a solution that can translate the content held on all those invoices, forms, emails, scanned images and pdf attachments that pass through the business.

This data needs to be put into a format suitable for your business systems and the requirements for message exchanges with trading partners.

According to research by Swiss global market analyst Billentis* moving from paper to digital can reduce management costs by between 60% and 80% in Accounts Payable and Receivable departments.

That claim is evidenced through faster processing, fewer errors, healthier cashflow and more scope for compliance with the increasingly prescriptive tax and customs requirements of governments and regulators around the world.

Failing to keep up with such requirements could easily leave a business out of step with competitors and market demand.

Here at digital supply chain technology provider Transalis, we focus on helping businesses develop efficient data exchange solutions to inform critical decision making and supply chain resilience.

We offer a choice of product bundles suitable to all supply chain complexities, based on; the number of trading connections, the capabilities required (including paper-to-digital), and the level of support needed for complete transparency, visibility and efficiency across the business.

The flexible packages available offer help with partner onboarding, matching and validation, deep-store archiving and in-country compliance, whether for the UK, EU or the rest of the world.

eInvoice Freedom is the ideal product bundle for smaller companies with only a few trading connections who may wish to build their own solution with help from Transalis. You select the number of partner connections you need while taking advantage of Paper-to-digital OCR for seamless integration.

Companies with up to 25 connections and looking for ready integration of eInvoice Paper to Digital with their existing ERP and financial systems can harness the benefits of eInvoice Essential. This is ideal for optimising AP and AR processes, recording all invoices with a digital time and date signature.

Those customers with up to 75 connections will typically benefit from eInvoice Connect. This includes a dedicated Success Manager to help with onboarding and ensure systems integrations are running efficiently, as well as online access which enables your trading partners to upload and download digital invoices.

Our latest product is Transalis eInvoice™ Automation, ideal if you manually process an average total of 2,000+ incoming or outgoing invoices per month.

Harnessing all the benefits of document standardisation, Transalis eInvoice™ Automation also enables those with fewer trading connections or EDI or eInvoice capabilities to still exchange invoices in the file formats their partners prefer.

And for convenience, you can use Transalis eInvoice™ Automation alongside our other EDI and eInvoice products, so helping you support wider trading networks without having to onboard them via an EDI or eInvoice connection.