Workflow system: work more easily with your colleagues

What is a workflow?

By a workflow we mean the various actions you have to take to process an incoming document within the organization. Such a document can be a purchase invoice, but also a delivery note, packing slip, signed contract, order confirmation, Certificate of Good Conduct or assessment form.

To process such documents, you need a special type of workflow. This is because a combination of the image and the data is always required. For data, you can think of an order or project number, general ledger data and the person to whom the document refers. Or there is a reference to an administration, which means you have to check whether the invoice is addressed correctly.

Workflow: what issues are involved?

With digitization in full swing, it is becoming increasingly easy to share data or images with each other (so sending data or files separately is very easy these days). Sharing its combination, on the other hand, is not yet established in financial or administrative systems. Take a look at what this is like in purchase invoice processing. It is increasingly easy to store data or images in your accounting system, but the digital workflow process is often not set up to present both the data and the image of the invoice simultaneously or clearly.

Other problems also occur in the workflow process (e.g. of purchase invoices). For example, it is often not clear where a document is located or who should take the next step. In addition, it is often difficult to collect logging information. After all, how do you keep track of who did what at what time? The answer is simple: through a solid digital workflow system.

What does a good workflow look like?

Do you want to use a workflow within your organization to make the processing processes around incoming documents more efficient? Then choose a digital workflow system that meets the following 5 requirements!

1. The system optimally combines data and picture. In this way, you offer your colleagues the opportunity to assess an incoming document, including all relevant data, quickly and reliably.
2. It is possible to add comments and ask questions. There must be some form of action in the system. With an invoice, for example, this is the choice button to agree or disagree.
3. You can log information. That way you can always see who did what and when. If there is a question or a dispute arises, you can easily look it up. And if you want to work on improving your own process, such information is of course also important.
4. There is a mechanism by which a document can pass one or more people before final approval is given.
5. The system lets you automate as many steps as possible – especially recurring operations, such as releasing, forwarding and removing payment blocks.