Digitizing SME administration: does it pay off?

“Should we digitize our financial records?” It’s a question many SMEs ask. After all, an SME does receive invoices, but the question is whether there are enough of them to digitize its records. Wouldn’t you rather handle the processing manually? While that does take some administrative effort, digitization seems to be mostly for larger companies. Scan-and-recognition software is often expensive and therefore SMEs think the investment does not pay off. Did you know that this does not have to be the case at all?

Handle financial administration digitally: also useful for SME entrepreneurs

Manually processing incoming invoices is a monotonous, repetitive task. Maybe you spend only a few hours a week doing it. But surely you would rather spend that time on core processes and important projects. Especially when you have to pay attention to things like budget and man-hours (which is almost always the case within SMEs), you need to make strategic business decisions. Digitizing administration can be a very wise step in this case. Why exactly is this the case? We list 3 reasons for you!

1. The investment is limited and pays for itself quickly

Digital solutions are not necessarily pricey. If you choose an entry-level model, you can already work a lot more efficiently. This eliminates all the input work. And often you are quickly operational for a limited investment. A solution like this pays for itself in no time at all: you save time for crucial tasks and you no longer lose paper documents, because you handle the administration concerning purchase invoice processing in one digital platform.

2. Employees remain satisfied and can develop

Which offers more challenge: repetitive, manual work or a controlling position where you also have time to take on other types of projects? The latter, of course. Because that makes the range of tasks a lot more diverse. SMEs that work with good scanning and recognition software keep their employees happy. Digitization means that financial administrative employees no longer have to do boring, monotonous over-typing. After the system recognizes all the invoice data, they can assess whether everything is correct and book the invoice. This means they have more time to take up other work. This allows them to develop themselves more broadly and get more enjoyment out of their jobs. And remember that happy employees make for happy customers!

3. Overview leads to insight

Where do you currently stand with your administration? From a management perspective, this is a very important question to ask. If you choose to digitize your financial administration, you can easily answer this question. Because in that case your administration is up to date and you have an overview of all income and expenses. This allows you to see at a glance where your company stands.

Work more efficiently: in 2 steps to digitizing your administration

1. Take a close look at your processes

Map out all the steps and see where you can still make gains. Be critical of your own processes: if a certain way of working has never caused problems, it doesn’t mean you should keep it in place. By comparison, maybe you get in your car at 6 a.m. every morning to get to work on time. You succeed, but you spend 3 hours in traffic every day. Goal achieved? Yes indeed. Efficient? Not exactly. So a method that works is not necessarily the best.

2. Determine which solution suits your organization

Do you want to digitize all or part of your administration? Does the software of your choice fit with business plans you want to realize in the (near) future? What does a solution cost and what does it deliver? It is important to think about these kinds of questions in advance. If you have all the information and options in order, you can more easily choose a solution that fully meets the needs of your organization. Do you need guidance? Then consider the following: if you can cut purchase invoice processing time by more than 50% with a software solution, the investment is worth it!