What is a one-click approval workflow?

Well, it’s pretty much as simple as it sounds. One-click approval workflow is productivity at its finest. Managers or purchasing supervisors are able to approve or decline a company purchase with a tap of their finger. Instead of going through the long and tedious traditional approval workflow of cross-communicating and waiting for approvals for days or weeks, companies can purchase products and have them delivered in the time it would have taken their manager’s manager to open their email. 

As you can imagine, this saves companies the two things they can’t afford to lose: time and money.

One-click approvals: your company’s superpower

There is only one term that can truly sum up the true impact of an easy, one-click approval workflow: efficiency. Efficiency is a true superpower for companies. Period. Not only do one-click approval workflows streamline your entire AP workflow and save time and money, but they also give managers the ability to oversee purchases, prevent fraudulent charges, and keep close tabs on all purchasing patterns; this superpower allows managers the opportunity to cut costs, get products faster, and improve the overall efficiency of the purchasing process—directly resulting in improving the overall efficiency of the business. And what does higher efficiency in business mean? You guessed it. Cha-ching!

As Investopedia puts it, efficiency is “a peak level of performance that uses the least amount of inputs to achieve the highest amount of output.” Simply put, one-click approvals make it possible for companies to order what they need in seconds. In every company's case, wasted time is wasted money.

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How Order.co’s one-click approvals help companies thrive

Order.co’s one-click approval workflow enables companies to scale their operations by eliminating the traditional, time-consuming (and sometimes non-existent) approval process. 

With hundreds of nationwide studios, CorePower Yoga needed an efficient approval workflow to combat their $50,000 in monthly rogue spend. Stefanie Teintze, Facilities and Property Management Specialist, explains that, before Order.co, there was “no process or system to manage spend at our locations. Each location was making its own spend decisions and regularly going over budget. We had no visibility or control of spend, and invoice audits showed we were averaging close to $50k in unapproved spend monthly.” 

With Order.co’s one-click approvals, CorePower Yoga has implemented an easy approval workflow. “By implementing controls and approval processes, Order.co has allowed us to essentially eliminate all unapproved spending,” adds Stefanie. With one-click approvals, Stephanie and the CorePowerYoga team have visibility on their spend, the ability to budget, and the necessary tools to expand faster than competitors.

Order.co's One-Click Approval Workflow:

We make approvals easy.

Order.co sends the manager a push notification or an email to either approve or decline a purchase with a simple click. By using Order.co as your go-to purchasing platform, not only do you centralize all approvals, but you are also able to access and reorder past products, organize all company expenditures, and budget accordingly. A one-click approval workflow is the holy grail—the “superpower”—that hundreds of fast-growing companies are adopting, and they’re not turning back. 

Give your company the superpower of efficiency. Schedule a demo with Order.co today!

What is 3-way matching?

Essentially, 3-way matching is a process in accounting in which a company verifies that a purchase order (PO), supplier invoice, and goods receipt all reflect the same products and pricing. If the numbers are consistent throughout each document, wah-lah! You’ve got yourself a 3-way match! With the green light of a 3-way match, payment is then issued to the supplier. 

3-way matching plays two critical roles in your accounting operations: 

• They prevent fraudulent charges from being charged to a company’s account
• They prevent companies from reimbursing unauthorized purchases

As you can imagine, doing this process by hand—especially if your company orders hundreds or thousands of products every month—can be pretty time-consuming. They say ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, but we’re here to tell you that your invoicing system is broken—and teach you how to fix it.

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3 reasons you need 3-way matching automation

By using a platform that automates your 3-way matching, you are killing three birds with one stone. As a result, three more advantages present themselves. Your company can:

Saving time with 3-way matching automation

Think about it: when an unknown or unmatched purchase appears, that is an immediate red flag. Manpower and company time goes into investigating the charge, diagnosing the mistake, and reconciling the corresponding paperwork. With an automatic 3-way matching process, all that time is saved.

Saving money with 3-way matching automation

As the saying goes, time is money. But, not only does an automated 3-way matching system save you money with time, but it also prevents your company from paying for unauthorized purchases, otherwise known as “Maverick Spend”. When analyzing the true costs of maverick spend, it is not uncommon to find that up to 80% of a company's invoices are generated from uncontrolled purchasing. Read that again: 80%. 

Sleeping easy with 3-way matching automation

Take the stress out of audits. By automating your 3-way match system, not only are all your invoices stored in one place, but your accounting team has human-error-free documents that are organized, easy to read, and ready to be reviewed. Sit back, relax, and enjoy your easy audits.

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How Order.co’s 3-way matching automation helps companies thrive

Order.co’s automatic 3-way matching enables companies to scale their operations by eliminating the tedious process of reconciling invoices and approving payments.

With over a million invoices to process per year and a small AP team, WeWork estimated that, before Order.co, they would have needed to hire 150 AP specialists just to reconcile and process all of their invoices. Not only was their 3-way matching system confusing and time-consuming, but it was expensive—costing WeWork $20-$24 to manually process a single invoice. 

WeWork has since been able to utilize Order.co’s automated 3-way match and invoice reconciliation feature—ridding WeWork of their manual invoice-to-payment process, ensuring accurate payments, and giving Finance Manager Kyle Ingerman and his team complete confidence in their AP process. The automatic 3-way purchase order match and invoice reconciliation process has been a “huge advantage and time-saver” for Kyle.

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What Order.co Offers Accounting and Finance Teams

We put the balance back into balancing your books.

Order.co automatically matches your company’s POs, supplier invoices, and goods receipt—ensuring accurate payments, a simplified accounting process, and a streamlined P2P system. With 3-way matching, your company never has to worry about overpayments or ghost invoices ever again. 

The way we see it, automatic 3-way matching is like the Advil for your accounting headache. Schedule a demo with Order.co today!

Business success demands effective decision-making, on-time reporting, and accurate data entry. Still, sometimes errors enter the system—and poor invoice processing is a primary reason.

Users may not discover inaccuracies caused by an incorrectly processed invoice until they prepare the accounts payable (AP) trial balance. This leads to late reporting and delayed decisions. If no one discovers the errors, executives might make decisions based on inaccurate reports.

Accuracy in accounts payable trial balance is crucial. It positively impacts working capital to improve operational control and future planning. To demonstrate how your business can ensure an accurate trial balance and improve processing (so you can reap the rewards of control and planning), we discuss:

• AP invoice processing and AP trial balance preparation
• The value derived from improved invoice processing
• Nine common causes of inefficient, multi-site processing
• How accounts payable trial balance errors impact your vendors
• The solution for first-time-right trial balances and how Order.co helps you deliver them

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What is an accounts payable trial balance?

The accounts payable trial balance—also called the accounts payable trial balance report—is a listing of the end balance in the chart of accounts. It includes subtotals for partial and unpaid invoices appearing on each general ledger (GL) account. 

The AP trial balance enables accounting to post payable liabilities to the general ledger. Accurate and comprehensive inclusion of those payable liabilities helps the business reconcile initial journal entries, bookkeeping records, and sub-ledger balances with bank statements and other documents. The amounts are later totaled and posted to the correct general ledger account. They eventually appear as current liabilities on the balance sheet.

Trial balance and invoice processing: The main points to consider

The C-suite creates business success by ensuring all external and internal actions deliver intended results efficiently and accurately. Every aspect of corporate finance significantly impacts outcomes, particularly the AP process. While accounts payable is only part of the overall accounts structure, effective invoice processing is a valuable subtask to prioritize.

Invoice processing improves when your accounts payable account is accurate, fully inclusive, and timely. Therefore, accuracy and transparency become the norm across the entire accounts payable processing system. Together, they enable greater accuracy to support C-suite decision-making. 

Here are some common positive outcomes of accurate accounts payable:

• Operations maximize working capital
• Companies allocate funds to spur growth versus maintaining current operations
• Vendor relationships improve
• Accounting team members work more efficiently

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The value of improved invoice processing

Accurate invoice processing determines overall control of the accounts payable process. It enables AP teams to make the best use of cash and available credit within an accounting period.

Accuracy and timeliness, in many instances, come from adopting a comprehensive, automated AP system that offers validation and tracking for accounts payable, accounts receivable, expense account data, etc. 

The gold standard is an automated AP system that handles daily transactions and produces the required management and financial reports for that accounting period, including the trial balance report.

9 Common pitfalls of multi-site AP processing

Businesses with several sites, functions, and divisions often create accounting process silos. Each site, function, and division has a separate bookkeeping system to record and account for its procurements and payments. This may extend to separate order approval, procurement, and accounts receivables processes. 

Individual procurers in each location may have the same preferred vendors for products and services as other procurers. However, if they order separately, it duplicates efforts and robs the company of leverage. 

Redundant and siloed ordering affects the business in several ways:

• Multiple invoices matching each order and delivery
• Maverick spend and budget waste
• Missed opportunities for bulk discounts
• Poorly negotiated terms and conditions
• More complex invoice processing
• Increased invoice exceptions and errors
• Potential for procurement fraud
• Higher overall spending and overhead
• Weakened cash position and credit access

Problems of interim trial balance reports

Beyond ineffective and decentralized purchasing, each site or function often prepares separate financial statements up to a predetermined level. For example, they may:

• Balance the accounts payable and receivable ledger accounts
• Produce separate (balanced or unbalanced) AP trial balance reports
• Have separate operating and P&L Accounts

Bookkeeping entries, account balances, and any supporting documentation go to the head office. They’re then summarized for the accounting period. After reconciliation, the AP teams use the balances to create an overall trial balance report before posting it to the general corporate ledger. Alternatively, the approved reporting system may require each site or silo to prepare basic bookkeeping figures to be aggregated at the corporate level.

A major and common problem for head office-based accounts payable processing teams is that any errors in the interim AP trial balance reports are difficult to locate once they extend to the corporate level. One silo’s accounts payable trial balance may appear accurate because its debits and credits balance out. An error within an account number may have gone unnoticed.

Alternatively, an error of commission in one liability account may be balanced by an error of omission in another. The net result is that the errors may remain invisible until a vendor’s invoice amount is underpaid, overpaid, or missed.

The immediate result of such mistakes is more research and corrections work for AP. This wastes time and creates inaccuracies in finalized financial reporting. Miscalculated payable liabilities in the general ledger are concerning since the executive team may base decisions on faulty reports.

The downstream effect of inaccuracies in any AP trial balance reports is payment delays for vendor invoices. A vendor that has accepted orders, shipped products or services to separate sites, and submitted accurate invoices should have a reasonable expectation of timely payment. Failure to pay because of internal AP errors may lead to delivery suspensions or renegotiation of credit agreements.

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A balanced trial balance may still not be accurate

Balanced AP trial balance reports are a prerequisite for producing accuracy across siloed departmental and corporate general ledgers. However, balanced trial balance reports may still have equalizing errors of omission or commission concerning debits and credits.

AP trial balances may also have errors of principle, such as if a clerk incorrectly posts a vendor’s invoice for services or materials to a capital acquisition account. This can result from something simple like a misunderstood product code or mistyped account number. 

Therefore, a trial “balance of balances” is not a guarantee of accuracy. As a result, it cannot be relied upon to prove there are no unbalanced journal entries or that the financial statements will be accurate.

How Order.co helps accounts payable trial balance reporting

Accurate and timely reporting is essential for businesses to achieve and maintain financial control and for the C-suite to make valid decisions. Improving preparation starts with making improvements in AP invoice processing. 

The goal is for AP processing to be simple and accurate. That helps ensure trial balance reports are accurate before you enter data into the general ledger and publish the balance sheet.

By implementing a procurement solution like Order.co, businesses automate and streamline many of the processes that lead to more accurate invoices and AP trial balances, such as:

• Avoiding the nine pitfalls common to multi-site procurement and processing
• Increasing visibility to improve capital efficiency
• Improving vendor relationships through timely, accurate payments
• Operating a transparent, automated system—from product sourcing to invoicing and payment

To learn more about improving your AP processing with Order.co, request a demo.