SharePoint vs M-Files: The Tool For AP Productivity & Purchase Order Automation in Chicago

Developing competencies in your organizational processes is a critical first stage toward digital switch-over, back-office innovation, and supplying your business an advantage in a growingly cutthroat professional industry.

Concrete operations and incoherent workflows with impasses make synergy, productivity, transparency, and responsibility to shareholders notably difficult.

Through accounts payable automation, you can implement dematerialized systems into your company and streamline duties like purchase requests, invoicing, payment processing, procurement, and data entry processes.

Mechanizing these types of business operations creates more proficiency in enterprise resource planning (ERP), better cost reductions, and enhanced utilization of your personnel.

Within this manual, we’re examining two of the most popular platforms used for AP proficiency and purchase request mechanization: SharePoint and M-Files. Our goal is to aid you in selecting the appropriate solutions stack and partner so you could augment and accelerate your AP digital revamping.

But before we begin with our product analysis, let’s discuss what purchase requisition mechanization is and how it creates higher efficiency for your AP workflows.

What is Purchase Order Automation?

Purchase order automation is the process of employing business solutions via robotic technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) to mechanize the purchase request process and its corresponding tasks.

Through mechanization, purchase orders could be automatically sent to the appropriate party to start the approval routine. Then, immediately after the request is authorized, it is automatically transmitted to the merchant.

While this may not appear to be significant at first glance, mechanizing the purchasing process eliminates the need for a by-hand process, tangible arrangements, and simplifies the usual laborious workflow.

As an example, with purchase order solution or your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application, you can develop digital purchase requests that contractors can comprehend and then have the details automatically fused into your accounting software.

This seemingly minuscule aptitude greatly simplifies the system, remarkably reduces the requirement for by-hand interference, and thus, amplifies productivity through your Accounts Payable section.

The Perks of AP and Purchase Order Automation

We talked about a number of the gains of AP digitization in the preceding section, but to be certain that you understand, let's take these advantages apart in the simplest terms.

• Digitized data logging and storage

• Improved productivity via extra digitization and less human intervention

• Enhanced precision on account of less human faults

• Enhanced visibility into operations via mechanized workflows

• Real-time analytics, auditing, and reporting to continue to improve efficiencies

• Reformed logistics chain and merchant relationships and self-service portal

• Improved ability to regulate for safety and amenability

Since we’ve gone over what AP and electronic purchase order is, how it functions, and why it’s vital, let’s begin our product assessment on Sharepoint versus M-Files.

Microsoft SharePoint Online vs M-Files Review

Coming in this chapter, we’re examining a fundamental breakdown between the pricing and competencies of SharePoint and M-Files, succeeded by a deeper dive on their AP and purchase requisition automation qualities.

Basic Price and Features Breakdown

Although this chapter presents a good conventional simultaneous evaluation, it doesn’t tell us much about how these tools handle tasks namely purchase order automation. So in this next chapter, we’re providing an overview of each tool and how it manages this significant operation.

Microsoft SharePoint Overview

SharePoint is one of the more recognized and established enterprise content management (ECM) and DMS platforms, because of its deep connection with diverse prevalent Microsoft tools like Excel, Outlook, and Word.

When it comes to purchase request mechanization, SharePoint sanctions you to address the entirety of concerns you might be experiencing with your current, by-hand purchase request arrangement.

Order Tracking

To start, by using Microsoft SharePoint and incorporating Office 365 programs, personnel could oversee purchase requests at any stage from request approvals to delivery.

Customization

SharePoint and Office 365 also empower your business to customize your electronic purchase order system to your particular guidelines and necessities.

Components you can individualize within SharePoint comprise of the template of the purchase order forms, line items, multi-level approvals, role assignments, and filters based on payment terms, location, type, and more.

Communication

SharePoint and Office 365 could also promote correspondence between sectors. When the PO process has started, SharePoint can prompt a programmed email to all appropriate parties to alert them that the operation has begun and once more when it’s accomplished.

Interactive Dashboards

One more important aspect of digitization is the insight into capability and workflow visibility. SharePoint enables this by allowing you to oversee purchase order progress with an interactive dashboard.

Through the dashboard framework, you may monitor purchase order history among sections, see the evaluation of approval vs denial percentage, and follow the state of existing POs.

Robust Integrations

SharePoint also offers great versatility in that it can integrate with most tools across departments for improved synergy.

For instance, if a division delivers a purchase request for a network printer; as soon as the order is processed, SharePoint can spontaneously develop an entry in your finance solution for the new IT asset.

Now that we’ve discussed what SharePoint can accomplish in terms of helping you automate your AP workflows, let’s continue to M-Files.

M-Files Overview

M-Files is a powerful enterprise content management (ECM) system that presents both on-premise, cloud solutions, or a hybrid version determined by your organizational needs.

Its interface is modeled off the Windows Explorer internet browser making it convenient to figure out and execute for parties that are used to the Windows operating system.

Furthermore, M-Files offers state-of-the-art functionality that empowers businesses to digitize workflows and processes such as purchase order automation. Let’s take a look at those aptitudes.

Input

With M-Files you can gather invoices from primary or allocated sites and automate the gathering of important data linked to your purchase request and approval workflows.

Data entry

As an extension of the input capability, M-Files allows customers to pinpoint and withdraw information from purchase requisition fields to promote the mechanization and conveying process. Furthermore, M-Files permits you to input any pertinent company rules, confirmation details and incorporates directory lookups to assist in ensuring veracity throughout the operation.

Matching and coding

As an advanced functionality, M-Files may perform conforming of POs and GL coding of non-PO billing statements in your ERP system to facilitate structure and routing.

Digitized approvals

The M-Files solution can regulate and mechanize as much of the authorization procedure as you desire. This involves managing, response, queues, routing, and aging accounts. Any purchase order that flunks the authorization course can be corrected physically and then reinstated into the automation flow for validation.

Automatic storage of approved POs

After validation has been accepted, purchase requisitions can be sent to finance spontaneously to finalize handling and storage in a main repository.

How Wave Can Aid You in Executing Your Purchase Order Automation Tool in Chicago

Holding your business competitive nowadays involves rationalizing your processes and removing the hindrances from your workflows that mitigate your capability and productivity. Moreover, it involves picking the appropriate business tools to accomplish your tactical growth objectives.

At Wave, we can help by analyzing the fundamental pieces of your company and via gradual digital transformation and company system automation, reform them.

We use a consolidation of innovations based on your business requirements to digitize your tedious workflows around collecting, arranging, and registering data so that it's uncomplicated to locate and access whenever, from any location.

We can assist you in customizing your AP digitization solution to satisfy your business's precise requirements and we gladly collaborate with upwards of 60 industry-accepted ECM and DMS platforms including M-Files, SharePoint, OpenText, and Oracle.

If you’re ready to learn more, connect with us today and we can arrange a time to chat.