Deck the Halls with Digital Documents | FTNI Blog

Ho, ho, ho! It’s that magical time of year when holiday decorations adorn our homes, and we’re filled with festive cheer. Nevertheless, there’s always a scrooge or two who can't get into the holiday mood. And you guessed it, it’s because businesses and their accounts receivable (A/R) teams are still manually managing paper-based receivables.  

Far too many businesses are stuck in the snowdrift of time-consuming, error-prone back-office A/R processing. By managing incoming payments and associated remittance documents manually, businesses are wasting valuable time and money within their A/R organization.

But worry not, because there is a solution—the gift of Enhanced Document Processing (EDP). In this blog, we’ll unwrap how EDP solutions can bring merry efficiency and twinkling time-savings to your A/R operations, not only during this holiday season, but also into the new year and beyond!

Enhanced Document Processing: Santa’s Workshop for Paperless Processing

Before we get to fully unwrapping the gift of efficiency with EDP, let’s first understand what it truly means.

Many A/R departments receive complex remittance documents from customers that are intended to help with the cash application and reconciliation of payments covering numerous invoices. Unfortunately, these documents create large volumes of tedious, error-prone manual data entry for internal receivable teams.

However, with EDP solutions, A/R staff is able to scan or upload remittance documents along with payments to a single user interface to automate the capture and extraction of invoice and remittance data from the documents. Like Santa’s workshop, EDP works hard all year-round to ensure that your team can make the most of the holiday season.

Utilizing AI to capture and read semi-structured remittance documents, EDP solutions help to eliminate manual data entry. All required remittance data captured from the documents is populated within a single interface based on a business’s unique cash application specifications. The data is then associated with the appropriate customer account and payment for posting into any back-office system (i.e., true straight through processing).

Just as Santa checks his list twice to make sure no name or detail is overlooked, EDP solutions ensure that no detail is missed and all remittance information is successfully and efficiently uploaded. And, with the same precision as placing the star at the top of the Christmas tree, EDP accurately places the extracted remittance data where it belongs - with the relevant customer account and payment information.

Let’s Recap: Document Processing’s Trusty Helper

1. Physical & Electronic Documents - Conveniently scan physical or upload electronic remittance documents to match to the associated payments for automated cash application.
2. AI-Powered Data Capture - Extract tabled and semi-structured data within complex remittance documents. Additionally, the AI improves and learns each time a new document is processed so that accuracy continuously improves over time.
3. Three-way Data Validation - Extracted data can be validated against customers’ open A/R details to further increase accuracy and operational efficiencies. 
4. Automated Cash Application - All captured data is associated with customer payments and can be transmitted to any back–office system for cash application and reconciliation purposes.

EDP is your business’s trusty helper, working behind the scenes, just like Santa’s elves, to deliver your organization with automated document and A/R processing.

The Gift of Efficiency: Three Bountiful Benefits

A Jolly Journey of Holiday (& Year-round) Savings

With EDP solutions, your business can bid farewell to manual data entry and time-consuming tasks surrounding document and invoice processing. EDP eliminates the manual review and data entry associated with remittance documents that can include data covering tens, even hundreds, of invoices. 

A priceless gift, EDP offers relief to your A/R team by allowing them to spend more time on higher value functions rather than being stuck in a drift of endless documents. Imagine the time and effort your team can truly save with EDP. While others are untangling unruly remittance documents from their manual back-office operations, you and your A/R team will be spending free time sipping hot cocoa by the fire.

Naughty or Nice: Automated Data Extraction

With automated remittance data extraction capabilities, EDP solutions let you know who has been naughty or nice this year - in this case, who’s paid their invoices and who has not. By having the ability to scan physical remittance documents along with check payments, or capture physical documents for association with electronic payments, as well as conveniently uploading electronic remittance documents for invoice matching purposes, EDP accelerates data extraction and automates cash application. 

The Gift that Keeps on Giving: Cash Application Automation

Based on your unique business processes and workflows, EDP has the flexibility to capture specific data fields to help automate cash application and reconciliation to any back-office system. All data that is captured within the EDP module can be automatically associated with customer payments and transmitted to any back-office system for posting and reconciliation. 

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This holiday season, deck your halls with Enhanced Document Processing solutions - let it be your holiday helper. With EDP added to your receivables mix, your organization will get the gifts of time savings and more accurate cash application operations, ensuring a merrier holiday season. So, as you prepare to celebrate this time of year, remember that EDP is the gift that brings efficiency and joy to your accounts receivable operations.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

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¹ Forbes, “The Future Of AI-Powered Document Processing” | 2021

2 SSON, “Collaborative Accounts Receivable: How the AR Pulse Check Survey Reveals an Urgent Need for Instant Customer Engagement" | 2022