Keywords: electronic invoicing, einvoicing, e-invoicing, PayStream, small and medium enterprises, SMEs, accounts payable automation

PayStream report shows accounts payable automation on the increase for SMEs

Aislinn Collins | News | 27 July 2012

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Independent research firm PayStream has released a report entitled “2012 Automating Payables for the SME Market: A Big Bang for the Buck.” The report shows that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly looking to move towards accounts payable automation.

PayStream’s survey gathered data from over 300 professionals from a number of finance and accounting positions at SME firms.

For the most part, accounts payable automation adoption has largely been seen in Fortune 1000 companies who have the resources to implement such changes. However, the PayStream report suggests that this may now be changing, with over a quarter of SME’s surveyed evaluating advanced automation solutions.

However, many still seem to be taking their time when implementing electronic invoicing. Very few SME’s reported receiving e-invoices and only 11% currently utilise an e-invoicing system. The report suggests that many are being held back by financial considerations, even though electronic invoicing generally offers good ROI. Despite financial concerns, a number of SME’s could see that there are advantages to e-invoicing and 39% are currently evaluating the usage of such a solution, with most citing fewer lost or missing invoices as the main benefit.

According to PayStream, the increasing availability of affordable and easy-to-implement automation solutions is increasing interest from SMEs. Smaller companies are realising that automating processes can alleviate some of the challenges they are facing from manual, paper-driven processes.