As businesses scale, the complexity of accounts payable (AP) processes in JD Edwards (JDE) continues to grow. Many organizations still rely on manual invoice approvals, which create bottlenecks, slow down operations, and negatively impact cash flow. If you belong to this group, you’re likely struggling to maintain efficiency, facing delays, errors, and increased costs
The 10 challenges of manual invoice processing
1. Lack of Visibility into Invoice Status
When invoices are processed manually, tracking their status becomes a major challenge. Paper-based workflows and email approvals make it difficult to pinpoint where an invoice stands in the approval chain, increasing the risk of misplaced or forgotten invoices.
2. Approval Delays Due to Paper-Based Workflows
Manual invoice approvals often rely on paper documents or email chains, both of which can get lost or overlooked. Physical invoices must be passed from one approver to another, causing unnecessary delays that can result in late payments and strained vendor relationships.
3. Human Errors and Data Entry Mistakes
Manually inputting invoice data into JD Edwards increases the likelihood of errors, such as duplicate payments, incorrect amounts, or misclassified expenses. These mistakes require additional time and resources to identify and correct, further slowing down your AP process.
4. Difficulty in Managing High Volumes of Invoices
As your company grows, so does the volume of invoices you process. Handling large numbers of invoices manually is not scalable and leads to bottlenecks, making it difficult for your AP team to keep up with the workload.
5. Sluggish Approval Cycles Lead to Late Payments
Delayed invoice approvals often result in late payments, which can lead to penalties, strained vendor relationships, and missed early payment discounts. A slow approval process disrupts cash flow and financial planning.
6. Increased Workload on AP Teams
Manual processing places a heavy burden your AP team, requiring them to track invoices, chase approvals, and resolve errors manually. This inefficiency prevents them from focusing on more strategic financial tasks.
7. Compliance and Audit Challenges
Without a standardized and automated approval process, maintaining compliance with internal policies and regulatory requirements becomes difficult. Auditors require clear documentation of invoice approvals, which can be challenging to provide when records are scattered across multiple systems or paper files.
8. Risk of Fraud and Duplicate Payments
It’s more likely for fraudulent invoices to slip through the cracks because of manual processes. Duplicate payments or unauthorized expenses can go unnoticed due to the lack of proper checks and balances in a manual system.
9. Labor-Intensive and Time-Consuming Tasks
Processing invoices manually involves repetitive tasks such as data entry, verification, and approval routing. These tasks consume your valuable employees time that could be better spent on higher-value activities.
10. Increased Operational Costs and Late Payment Fees
The inefficiencies of manual invoice approvals lead to higher operational costs. You may incur additional expenses due to late payment penalties, missed early payment discounts, and the cost of hiring additional staff to handle increasing invoice volumes.
How automating invoice approvals in JDE will help you solve the issues
Automation streamlines invoice approvals by routing invoices to the right approvers instantly, thanks to automated workflows approvals happen faster, reducing delays and improving cashflows. By automating invoice processing and thanks to OCR and AI-powered solutions you will eliminate manual data entry reducing errors and ensuring only correct information is entered into JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. You will gain real-time insights into invoice status and easily identify bottlenecks.
Conclusion
The limitations of manual invoice approval processes in JD Edwards create inefficiencies that slow down business operations and increase costs. By transitioning to automated AP workflows, your organization can streamline approvals, reduce errors, enhance visibility, and improve compliance.
Start your AP automation journey
If your business is still struggling with manual invoice processing in JDE, it’s time to make the switch. Contact our team to learn how AP automation can transform your invoice approval process and help you achieve greater efficiency. Fill out the form to get in touch with our team.