Whether we accept it or not—we all know how helpful technology is these days. It’s the key to solving most, if not all of our problems. Today, technology is used in healthcare, education, retail, foodservice—all of the above. It’s everywhere.

The point is it makes life easier. When you’re a restaurant operator, you’re constantly looking for ways to reduce unnecessary time that’s spent and save money, right? It seems like we’re all running short on time and spending more money than usual these days.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way anymore. We know you’re already implementing the use of technology in certain areas of your operation, I mean, who isn’t? Why not implement it into one more? Your Accounts Payable. You’ve probably heard that term before, and if you haven’t, you can read more about it here.

Let’s take a look at 5 ways using online account payable tools make your life easier.

Flexibility

Have you ever come home from work and realized you’ve forgotten to pay a bill? It happens too often—we’re all human. Wouldn’t it be convenient to pay your bills from anywhere using whatever method works for you?

When using technology, you open a door to flexibility. What works for you may not work for someone else. So with a variety of options on how to pay, when to pay, and where to pay from, there’s bound to be a way that works for everyone.

You’re not limited to any one place or method; you do what works best for you. The plus side is, your vendor isn’t affected by your choice of payment either. It’s a win-win situation!

Save Money

When you go paperless, you save a LOT of money. No more purchasing paper checks, envelopes, stamps, ink—literally anything you’d need to get your bills out the door and into the hands of your vendors.

No more transaction fees or bank fees! Let’s face it, you’re probably paying anywhere from $10-$40 per transaction and that adds up FAST. That means you could be paying up to $400 extra for just TEN transactions. It’s 2022, ditch the bank, go online. ACH transfers are in.

Even if you pay with a credit card online, your fee would still be cheaper than before! So it doesn’t matter what method you choose for paying, as long as you’re using an online Accounts Payable tool.

Let’s also not forget the amount of time your staff may be putting in to pay those bills—sometimes even staying overtime to crank them out. Wouldn’t it be nice to use that time doing something else? If you’re paying your staff to spend all their time paying your bills, it’s time to switch over to technology.

Security

Everyone’s worst nightmare is getting their check lost or stolen in the mail. It happens to everyone. When you go digital, you won’t have to worry about this ever being an issue again.

Digital payments leave a clear trail the second the money leaves your account. Both you and your vendor will receive confirmations during this process, and you’ll even be able to check the status of your payment the minute it leaves your account to the minute it enters theirs.

Was it delivered? Was it processed? When was it received? Are there any changes to be made? You’ll be able to answer all of these questions in an instant when you switch your Accounts Payable online.

There’s really nothing to worry about when using technology for your bill pay. Online payment tools come with encryption and security protocols that help you avoid fraud and keep your payment secure.

Understanding Cash Flow

When you pay your bills the old traditional way with paper, it’s easy to lose track of your cashflow. The process of recording your payment data in an excel spreadsheet is tedious and labor-intensive.

It gets complicated and hard to keep up with, and once you forget to input one data entry, you fall right off track. And let’s not forget how difficult it is to view ALL of your data at once. It’s nearly impossible!

When you switch to technology, you can monitor your spend, compare your cash-in/cash-out, and easily view any problems that may occur.

This all contributes to making better business decisions and helps your streamline your operation’s cashflow.

Reduce Errors and Streamline Invoices

We all make mistakes, we’re human. So it’s no surprise that cutting edge technology is exactly what we need to avoid these errors and streamline our operations.

Switching to automated Accounts Payable means you’ll reduce errors you may accidentally miss when manually entering data into your old-school excel spreadsheet after making a payment. Maybe you even overpaid or underpaid your vendor, it happens, but it doesn’t have to continue this way.

When you use account payable technology, you eliminate room for error because the software is able to extract the exact data directly from your electronic invoices—this is where Food Cost Management technology comes into play. It perfectly reads and identifies the exact amount owed and the date of which it needs to be paid. It’s trustworthy and ground-breaking.

No more paper invoices! Everything goes electronic. The technology is able to identify important points in your invoices just by scanning through a quick screenshot.

Your staff can even approve, authorize, or reject payments directly through their phone. Each step of the process is recorded in the case of needing to go back to review the actions that were taken to pay the bill.

What more could you ask for?

Automate Your Accounts Payable Today

Dining Alliance members no longer need to worry about paying bills the old-fashioned way. When you become a member, you get access to our Food Cost Management and Accounts Payable technologies to help you streamline your operations.

Automating your payment process is crucial in 2022 to help avoid error, save money, and salvage time.

Embrace technology and get started as a Dining Alliance member today!