Expedite finance workflows by giving your teams the power to complete processes in the solution they use every day
Finance workflows are becoming more complex and unwieldy than at any time in the department’s history. Consider AP. Successful organizations process thousands or even millions of invoices and payment requests every year. Yet, even in the digital age, they continue to struggle with process gaps that can delay invoice approvals or increase the time it takes to resolve exceptions.
One reason these process gaps exist is that many of the people involved in the AP workflow aren’t even members of the finance department. It is challenging enough to get business users to prioritize finance workflows over their own daily tasks. But if they’re also expected to log into different systems to complete the workflow, it can create a gap that prevents fast, efficient processing.
If you’ve experienced the complexity of modern AP before, you’ll know exactly how frustrating it can be. AP teams are likely processing invoices in your ERP or finance system of record where they have instant access to invoices as well as supplier, accounting and payment data. Whereas other colleagues – whether they are in procurement, master data, payments, or even senior leadership – will receive notifications via email or another digital channel, requesting them to take action in a system or app that they don’t commonly use.
This might seem like the logical thing to do when there’s no real alternative. But emails are easy to miss – especially for busy senior stakeholders. Even when these colleagues do notice emails, they’ll need to log into the ERP or possibly a web app to give their approval, which increases processing time. It can take even longer if multiple approvers are required or if AP has other tasks they need to perform before an invoice can be posted and paid.
These process gaps not only create delay, they also add more work for business users who have other things to do. In the world of accounts payable, these delays are unacceptable because wasted time means wasted money. Invoices that aren’t paid on time can result in late payment charges, missed opportunities for discounts, and strained or irreparably damaged vendor relationships. Added up over time, delays of even a few minutes or hours per action represent a significant bottleneck to efficiency – and a root cause of high invoice processing costs.
The simple solution: provide easy access to finance workflows in Serrala Microsoft Teams app
Teams is part of the newest generation of enterprise technology. Used by over one million companies worldwide and powered by the infinite scalability of the cloud and powerful new AI-technology, it gives AP teams an elegant answer to this kind of challenge.
Instead of forcing business users to log into a monolithic system of record or web app that they aren’t familiar with, why not provide them with access to your AP workflows and the information they need directly in Teams – an application they’re already using?
Leveraging the ubiquitous business application to expedite workflows is one of the most promising ways to increase the efficiency of the essential but unglamorous finance processes on which all organizations depend. It checks all the boxes: it is user friendly, completely secure and convenient for users to access anytime, anywhere.
This is why, at Serrala, we are extending our finance process automation workflows to be available within Teams.
Built for collaboration, Microsoft Teams reduces processing time and effort – for everyone
Millions of organizations rely on Microsoft Teams as their primary communication and collaboration tool. It is estimated the app sees 320 million average active users each month, and hosts 5 billion minutes of meetings every single day. What’s more, it’s already rapidly becoming a powerful tool for file sharing – with a 75% rise in recent months.
Why is this? Because people know they can reach the people they need to reach there, quickly and easily. It’s already used for many parts of people’s ordinary working routines, and the more people that use it, the more useful it becomes.
One app with multiple ways to improve finance automation
Serrala Microsoft Teams app helps streamline workflows across multiple Serrala solutions. In accounts payable, the app accelerates the review and approval of supplier invoices. The app provides GenAI-powered insights that can save busy users time trying to locate the information they need in standard reports or dashboards. Authorized users can generate new insights into invoice status and supplier spend by asking “human language” questions, with answers supplied directly in the Microsoft Teams chat in real time.
Approving credit limit requests is also made faster and easier. Credit managers and approvers can receive alerts whenever a customer requests an increase. With easy access to essential credit information, they can approve these quickly and keep sales flowing. Keeping your organization protected from any potential non-payment while still maximizing new revenue streams.
For each process flow, the essential data and documents are available to users with the touch of a button. This makes the app the perfect tool to encourage cross-department collaboration to ensure quick, efficient resolutions. Serrala will be adding more transaction processing scenarios to the app in the coming months.
Empowering people to thrive in the next era of finance
Our users have found that using the Serrala Microsoft Teams app can reduce the time stakeholders need to review and approve transactions by up to 90%. When combined with Serrala’s powerful financial process automation solutions, the app can help drive an increase in overall efficiency of up to 80%.
It works because the app helps connect the finance team with business users across the organization, empowering them to work better together to achieve maximum process efficiency with maximum flexibility.
Want to learn more about what the Serrala Microsoft Teams app can do for your organization?
Contact Serrala today to learn more about our precision-engineered, award-winning suite of finance automation applications, that automate all working capital-related processes from Order to Cash, Procure to Pay, Cash, and Treasury. Visit our resource center now or click here to book a demo.
