Ramping Up for the 4th Quarter Using Stampli

For many businesses, the fourth quarter of each year presents both opportunities and challenges. Kabbage recently surveyed 300 US businesses and reports these results:

• The fourth quarter causes the greatest fluctuations in cash flow for businesses
• One-third reported that the fourth quarter is the most profitable time of year
• 42 percent reported costs increasing as much as 25 percent during the fourth quarter 

Retailers (both online and physical stores), bars, and restaurants are particularly impacted by changing sales and costs in the fourth quarter. In this podcast episode, Rachita Sundar, SVP- Finance at Hubspot, explains that managing the challenges of a busy fourth quarter requires careful planning, and the use of automation.

Stampli’s end-to-end accounts payable (AP) platform gives you full control and visibility over all your corporate spending from cards to invoices to payments—all in one place. With AP Automation, your team can process more invoices in less time, and collaborate with all stakeholders through a central communications hub.

Use this discussion to assess business operations, so you can generate higher sales and profits during the fourth quarter. 

More Tasks, More Time

Every customer sale requires a certain number of tasks to be completed, and more tasks require more time. Performing more tasks also increases the risk of errors. With proper planning, however, you can manage higher levels of customer demand and minimize errors. 

Assume, for example, that Julie owns Sunrise Gifts, a business that operates online and through five physical store locations. Sunrise generates 40% of annual sales between November 1st and December 31st of each year. Here are some of the challenges Julie must manage in the fourth quarter:

• Inventory: Sunrise must purchase and pay for a large amount of inventory to meet customer demand, and buying inventory requires a big cash investment. If Sunrise runs out of inventory, the business can’t fill orders and may lose customers. Sunrise may also change the mix of products it purchases, based on customer preferences, and management needs accurate data to make purchasing decisions.

• Staffing and training: Julie hires and trains seasonal workers, who provide customer service during peak business months. The entire staff must understand the Sunrise marketing approach, including decisions about pricing and product promotion.

Sunrise makes a large capital investment to prepare for the fourth quarter, and then reduces spending in January of the following year. This year, Julie’s goal is to increase holiday sales by 15%, and add 30 new product offerings to customers.

Reviewing the Current Process

To explain Sunrise Gift’s current process for handling inventory and accounts payable, assume that Cathy, the purchasing manager, orders 2,000 Pineforest candles on October 15th. These candles are a popular holiday item, and each store sells the candles during the holiday season. Here are the current steps require to purchase and sell the inventory using purchase orders (POs):

• Shipment: The vendor ships the candles to Sunrise, and emails an invoice and a copy of the PO to the purchasing manager’s email address. If the purchasing manager is not in the office, vendors are instructed to email invoices to the operations manager.

• Verifying receipt of inventory: The operations manager reviews the items shipped, and compares the vendor’s shipping receipt to the invoice and the PO. If the documents don’t match, the operations manager emails the vendor and copies the purchasing manager. The purchasing manager handles corrections to the order and gathers any additional documentation.

• Accounts payable staff: When the documents match and the correct items are received, the operations manager attaches all of the documents to an email sent to the accounts payable (AP) staff. AP manually enters the purchase data into the accounting system, posts journal entries, and generates a check for payment. The check is sent to Julie, and the supporting documents are emailed to Julie.

• Owner review: Julie, the owner, reviews all of the documents and signs the check for payment. The check and documents are sent back to AP for filing, and AP sends the check and a copy of the vendor invoice to the vendor.

• Vendor follow up: The AP staff manages incoming emails and phone calls from vendors who are following up on outstanding invoice payments.

The current system involves heavy use of email, and Sunrise does not have a centralized location where all of the documents and communications can be reviewed. The busy fourth quarter generates more activity, and this inefficient process puts pressure on the Sunrise staff, and may create bottlenecks that slow invoice approvals.

More transactions lead to more errors, and error correction requires even more time. Stampli’s AP platform is a better solution for processing AP.

Better Results Using Stampli

Take over invoice and bill processing with smart and intuitive AP processing. Here are some of the ways that Stampli saves time, reduces errors, and allows businesses to scale.

Automated data capture and coding

Stampli automates much of the data capture and coding process. An AP bot uses advanced AI and OCR technology to capture data in real time. The bot learns your accounting process for accurate coding and invoice approval routing, along with duplicate detection and built-in calculations. In addition, your AP platform can receive all vendor invoices at a single email address. 

With this paperless approach to AP, your staff will spend far less time capturing and coding data, and less manual work reduces the risk of coding errors. 

Using a Better Approval Process

Use Stampli’s central communication hub to post all supporting documents, and to notify approvers. Coders, approvers, and other staff can ask and answer questions in the same communication hub, and all messages are stored for review.

Stampli eliminates the need for hundreds of emails with supporting documents attached. Everyone involved in the process can access invoice details with the click of a mouse, and making an invoice decision has never been easier.

Flexible Payment Options

Businesses retain maximum flexibility and control over payments. Use your preferred payment method or Stampli Direct Pay for easy payment runs with painless paper checks and easy-to-reconcile ACH transactions. Managers can also use Stampli Card as an efficient payment option, and a strategy to minimize the risk of shadow spend.

Automating accounts payable gives users visibility into invoice activities with greater transparency and accountability. Audit-ready histories of approved bills are stored for you, and invoices can be accessed anytime. 

Manage More Transactions, and Prepare To Scale

Automation is a tool that allows your business to scale, and managers can process more transactions with confidence using Stampli. If you add more product lines, store locations, or vendors, Stampli can adapt to your needs. Don’t just manage spend, control it with Stampli.