Integrated IT Research Paper
ERP’s and AP: An Short Study of Accounts Payable Automation Options
Abstract
Accounting has been part of human lives as far back as prehistoric times when families had to account for food and clothing to face the cold seasons. In more recent times, development of the corporate form of organization created a need for reliable financial information to help management make informed strategic decisions. The challenges of providing fast, accurate and precise information to the decision makers has been resolved with systems such as Accounting Information Systems (AIS) and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP). With these systems, tasks that required time-consuming, manual and tedious methods can now be completed faster, more reliably, accurately and precise. I will talk about these systems at a high level in my research, however the focus of my paper is on how technology has helped to automate the manual and paper elements of Accounts Payable including imaging or scanning.
ERP’s and AP: An Exploration of the Impact on AP
I decided it would be interesting to focus my research on Accounts Payable primarily because of all the areas I have worked over my career, I remembered Accounts Payable being one of the most paper driven processes. It was easy to see that in the whirlwind of paper, there had to be ways to automate and streamline the various accounts payable processes to make them more efficient. The challenge was finding the time outside of the day to day processes to research what was available. For my research, I read through accounting books looking for specific examples of Accounts Payable automation with minimal success, I later realized that I was looking at my topic the wrong way, I was looking at a AP automation as its own system, when in fact, it’s a small part of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The moment I started down the ERP path for my research, was the exact moment I was
Abstract
Accounting has been part of human lives as far back as prehistoric times when families had to account for food and clothing to face the cold seasons. In more recent times, development of the corporate form of organization created a need for reliable financial information to help management make informed strategic decisions. The challenges of providing fast, accurate and precise information to the decision makers has been resolved with systems such as Accounting Information Systems (AIS) and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP). With these systems, tasks that required time-consuming, manual and tedious methods can now be completed faster, more reliably, accurately and precise. I will talk about these systems at a high level in my research, however the focus of my paper is on how technology has helped to automate the manual and paper elements of Accounts Payable including imaging or scanning.
ERP’s and AP: An Exploration of the Impact on AP
I decided it would be interesting to focus my research on Accounts Payable primarily because of all the areas I have worked over my career, I remembered Accounts Payable being one of the most paper driven processes. It was easy to see that in the whirlwind of paper, there had to be ways to automate and streamline the various accounts payable processes to make them more efficient. The challenge was finding the time outside of the day to day processes to research what was available. For my research, I read through accounting books looking for specific examples of Accounts Payable automation with minimal success, I later realized that I was looking at my topic the wrong way, I was looking at a AP automation as its own system, when in fact, it’s a small part of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The moment I started down the ERP path for my research, was the exact moment I was
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