By Pam McDonald

Let’s get down to brass tacks. If you’re still selecting, ordering, and paying invoices manually, it’s typically costing $60 more per transaction than you would if you were using a more automated system.

That’s the bombshell dropped at Tech Foresight 2020 by Rusty Zosel, CEO for Procurement Partners, the company that automates all the steps needed to buy something for your community — from product selection all the way to paying vendors.

Rusty and his colleague, Chris Sneed, VP of Business Development, were presenters at Tech Foresight 2020 in August, along with Mike Doerr, VP for Senior Living at Paymerang, an accounts payable disbursement system. The two companies launched a partnership this past June designed to reduce both the hours and the materials required for the typical accounts payable process by replacing manual systems with electronic payments – saving clients time, resources, and money.

Challenges for the 21st Century

They discussed challenges communities face when using “old school” accounts payable practices in the 21st century — especially now when suppliers’ distribution channels are disrupted for so many critical items. Procurement Partners recently conducted a survey and identified the following as primary sources of pain for communities’ accounts payable staffs:

  • Back and forth emails to ensure headquarters knows what’s being purchased
  • Lack of visibility into the approval workflow and status of payment
  • Standardization of vendors and processes, including formulary development creating guard rails around what’s being purchased
  • Maximizing savings; communities don’t always know the items corporate has negotiated contracts for or the quantities needed for price breaks
  • Lack of real time visibility into budget and spend
  • Volume of paperwork involved

Reduce Your Workload and Increase Your Bottom Line

They also shared a case study of one of their clients that provides assisted living and memory care at 36 locations. After only 90 days on Procurement Partners’ platform, the reduced workload enabled their clients to promote two of their five AP staff into other roles in the organization. 

After their first year with Procurement Partners, the client lowered their total vendor spend by about $1,700 per month, without changing contracts or vendors. They were able to automate 65% of all invoices without having to enter data, and then imported the remaining invoices to capture all their spend. Overall they gained 20 times ROI on their subscription cost when compared to the value of the lowered spend and reduced operations time.

Make the Move Away from Paper Checks and Take Advantage of Rebates

Mike discussed the added value Paymerang’s clients experience by automating payment, reconciliation, and follow up. He says his firm helps move businesses from paper checks to electronic payment using ACH or credit cards. And Paymerang has its own cash-back rebate program through which clients receive tens of thousands of dollars in cashback rewards each year.

Not only does Paymerang save its clients time and money, it adds an extra layer of security. “Fraud is an at all-time high,” Mike says. “Many of our clients have received nasty emails purportedly from the boss demanding sensitive business information. Or have had bank routing numbers changed. Paymerang protects clients from fraud, waste, and abuse with best-in-class security.”

Mike notes that getting started is incredibly easy. “You simply upload your check or payment file from your ERP and fund your payments. We’ll take over and finish the job from there.” And Paymerang is quick, taking only 30 days to implement.

Get Out of the Rut

If your company is stuck in the doing-things-the-way-you’ve-always-done-them rut, it’s time to be open to an automated system, especially when you’re having to do so much more with fewer staff. Learn more about Paymerang at their website, paymerang.com and about Procurement Partners at procurementpartners.com.

To watch this Tech Foresight 2020 session and get access to all the session videos, please click here.