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Regardless of the industry your company operates in, whether you are in technology, marketing or music, it is likely that you will have a busy accounts payable department to ensure that all of your invoices are paid on time. What’s more, they will work hard to ensure that all necessary documents are filed correctly in order to remain compliant with HMRC guidelines. However, no matter how diligent and well trained your accounts payable staff are, it can be very difficult to keep track of and manage huge amounts of financial information, especially when it is stored in a variety of physical and digital formats.

Invoice scanning solutions, such as invoice scanning automation can revolutionise the daily process of your accounts payable department

Safely storing data in a way that is easily accessible, saving your business time and money. If you’re still not sure about what accounts payable automation is, or how it can help your company to operate, here are three reasons why you should be using invoice scanning automation.

1. Your time is saved when searching for invoice files

While many may think the process of matching up purchase orders and more is a simple task, the reality of the job is much more challenging. Even with an efficient storage system in place, searching for each particular file is difficult and time consuming. Choosing an invoice scanning service from us means that all of your files will be scanned and uploaded to your document management system using OCR technology, making every document fully text searchable. Time that was spent manually searching through virtual and physical filing systems is reduced to just a few clicks, freeing up more of your accounting staff’s working day to concentrate on other tasks.

2. Scanned invoices are HMRC compliant

HMRC states that a business must keep its records in order to create a Self-Assessment tax return. However, there is no limit to how these records can be stored, and on GOV.UK website it notes that ‘You can keep them on paper, digitally or as part of a software program’. Choosing to digitise your accounts documentation as part of an automation service can keep your business complaint.

3. Your invoice data not to be accidentally damaged or destroyed

It is important to keep a safe and secure record of your businesses accounts files, not only to keep HMRC compliant but in order to maintain an overview of the actual spending of your company. Keeping these files in a physical format runs the risk of this information being lost, damaged or destroyed. Storing them digitally via an accounts payable automation system ensures that no data is ever misplaced, ready to be used when it is needed.

These are just a few reasons why you should be considering to use invoice scanning automaton. The use of a digital invoice is becoming increasingly popular with businesses in London and throughout the UK and invoice scanning services is what we offer through our professional scanning services in London. You can get in touch with us to find out more information about our invoice scanning services.

The advantages and benefits of going paperless cannot be argued, but the way in which to do it is still being debated for many businesses. Should you use a document scanning company and outsource your work, or can your document scanning be done in house?

At Pearl Scan we provide a premium service for document scanning in central London, as well as throughout the entire city in north, south, east and west London too. We have many happy clients ranging from blue chip organisations to local SME’s, all with a variety of budgets, who would all argue that document scanning can be done in house – yet they still choose to outsource it to us at Pearl Scan.

Setting up a system for in-house document scanning in east London, or wherever your office may be based, is certainly possible. And if you choose this method, there are a few thing that you will need to invest in:

Specialist scanning equipment

Basic scanning hardware may be able to cope with basic scanning requirements, but in order to fully realise a paperless office then you must invest in the appropriate, costly equipment that is capable of digitising all of the files used in your business such as invoices, slides, surveys, payslips and more. If you intend on relying on a digitised version of documents to inform your operations in your office, these paper documents must be scanned and converted in the highest possible quality.

Training staff

Just as you need the right equipment to perform the job correctly, you must take the time to ensure that your staff are trained in fully operating this new equipment correctly, safely and efficiently. This can be a time consuming process, and you may either need to re-allocate an existing member of staff’s job role or hire a new, dedicated scanning manager.

New procedures

Implementing a new in-house system means that your entire workforce will also need to be trained in new procedures to help make this happen. What do we do with our old documents? Can I still print things out? Is this mail ready to be disposed of yet? These are all questions that will need to have a solid clear answer. Failure to do so could lead to chaos in the workplace, rather than streamlined efficiency.

While it is assumed that keeping processes in-house can keep prices low, ultimately it can results in accumulating costs and extra time that needs to be invested in order to make it happen. We provide document scanning in west London, east London and all around the UK, offering our clients a fully rounded document scanning solution that reduces these concerns to one, clear payment package that takes care of your entire document digitising needs. We have industry standard scanning equipment ready to use, operated by our team of document scanning experts.

If you’re still unsure about whether or not to outsource your document scanning, get in touch to find out more.

HR, Accounting and Legal Departments Still Printing Too Much

A new study conducted by Wakefield Research and Infotrends has revealed the extent of the printing crisis in small to medium-sized businesses. Printing and other paper-based activities are still flourishing in the corporate office, despite new eco technologies, and the main offenders are those in HR departments, legal offices and accounting firms.

The studies show just how dependent businesses are on paper for daily routines – with 73% of owners and decision makers at companies with less than 500 employees print at least four times a day. Paper is still a major part of the workflow in many sectors, including legal and HR.

The Research Vice President of Gartner, Ken Weilerstein, says that companies have tried to go paperless but failed to eliminate it altogether. Today, he says employees print an average of 400 pages per month – that’s A LOT of paper. He says many companies have figured out the easiest ways to “go paperless” by scanning and storing documents online, but it wasn’t possible to eradicate all in-house printing and scanning completely.

The Key to the Paperless Office

The trouble with implementing a paperless office isn’t the in-house documents. Once all records are scanned and in an electronic management system, employees can convert to the paperless process quite easily. Being completely paperless becomes an issue when dealing with other businesses and sometimes clients, who still have a reliance on paper.

They may ask you to post a hard copy of a contract to sign, rather than use a digital signature. Some companies may want to fax or post you a shared document instead of email it across. Others may not accept a digital invoice...the list goes on. The secret of successfully implementing a paper office is cooperation. One company has to be brave and take the first step, start the tidal wave in the corporate world. Everything is being transferred to digital, it’s just a matter of time before those businesses which resist the movement have to conform.

So why not be ahead of the times and be the first company in your area to make the move to a paperless office? It’s something you could brag about in the future as a cutting edge forward thinking business.

Pearl Scan specialises in HR document scanning and legal scanning services. Join a number of businesses who have ignited the digital revolution and benefited from exceptional document management.