I attended a webinar yesterday presented by DocLink, a company the specializes in software for document management. You could digitize a document simply by scanning it. The trick is finding a document a year or more later. What makes DocLink, Beanworks and companies like them different is that their software uses artificial intelligence to capture from the document. Details like the vendor name, invoice date and invoice number are catalogued. Not only does this help prevent duplicates but it allows the software to retrieve a copy of the purchase order and any other stored documents for the approver. I think I am not alone in my desire to tame the flood paperwork I’m required to keep. I’ve traditionally printed supplier invoices. By the end of the year I have a stack of paper to organize and store.

7 Years is a Long Time

Much of it arrives in my email inbox so it should be accessible in 7 years. That may not be the case. Have you tried to print an old bank statement? My bank charges a fee even if I print them from the web. Email is not a given either. Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) automatically delete messages older than five years. Microsoft 365 let’s you change the setting on specified folders. You can save everything to a folder, copy it to a USB stick and put it in a box at the end of the year. For bigger companies that’s not reasonable.

What Vendor Should I Trust?

Each vendor has its merits. I like the products that tie into your ERP system. I have experience implementing Beanworks. DocLink allows you to drill down from a report to the actual document, see who approved a transaction and when. Both simplify the process of approvals, keying, coding, matching purchase orders, paying and storing payables invoices. Document management vendors can integrate to most common ERP systems, on-premises or in the cloud, it doesn’t matter. Your vendor will supply you with a connector. You can digitize and store any kind of document like contracts or employee evaluations for example. Choose a solution that offers mobile and web access, configurable approval channels and multiple approvers for high value transactions. The digitized documents are stored in the cloud. This means they are stored on Amazon Web Services, Azure or some other service with a massive infrastructure and multiple data centers.

Cost and Benefits

Timely processing of payables gives rise to more accurate job costs, elimination of late payment fees and reduced storage costs. Paper is not being shuffled from one person to another. You can see what is outstanding and who has yet to weigh in at any time. Pricing is based on services subscribed and the volume of transactions.

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