Automated invoice processing with airSlate for Salesforce

Eight in ten sales professionals believe their roles have changed since the pandemic. The ‘Hybrid work’ model pushes sales teams to focus on virtual meetings and building meaningful customer relationships instead of being ‘road warriors.’ The use of invoicing software for automated invoice processing in Sales and Procurement is driving the change.  

However, manual invoice processing involving disparate data pulled from multiple spreadsheets remains a requirement among many Sales and Procurement managers. When it comes to implementing Salesforce process automation, sales teams face a digital skills gap and lack of training, negatively affecting their organization’s bottom line.

In this blog, we’ll focus on the benefits of automated invoice processing with airSlate for Salesforce.

Manual vs. automated invoicing

Despite living in an era of digital transformation, manual methods for managing processes are still popular among organizations with long histories. Invoice processing workflows are no exception.

A typical manual invoicing process appears as follows:

1. An organization receives invoices by post, email, fax, etc.
2. They are sorted and forwarded to the finance department.
3. An accountant then checks and verifies that both the invoice and purchase order documents match. 
4. If the invoice corresponds to the purchase order, it is approved and signed for payment.
5. If it exceeds the organization’s limited amount or contains any unclear data, it is sent on to a supervisor for further verification.
6. If everything is correct, the invoice is forwarded for payment.

An automated invoicing process looks completely different:

1. The Procurement Manager fills in the purchase order and emails it to their Vendor.
2. The Vendor is then notified via email, fills in the purchase order, and signs it.
3. The invoice is then automatically pre-filled with the information from the purchase order (or a CRM) and is forwarded to the Finance Manager.
4. The Finance Manager gets a notification, checks the documents, and signs them to process the payment.
5. The completed documents are attached to the email notifications and stored in a CRM.

Compared to digital invoicing software, manual invoicing is more expensive and time-consuming. Sales reps report a number of different issues stemming from manual invoicing, such as:

• Time lost when pulling data from multiple locations 
• Missed sending dates due to a lack of automated reminders and notifications 
• The need to switch between different applications to generate an invoice or a purchase order

And that’s without mentioning the risk of duplicating payments, lack of analytics, past-due charges, inaccuracies, etc.

The lack of automated invoice processing overwhelms sales teams with the time-consuming work it takes to generate new invoices month after month. Overall, inefficient invoicing operations negatively impact sales departments, customers, and the bottom line, leading to employee frustration, poor customer experience, and even lost revenue.

What is automated billing and invoicing software? 

Almost 80% of companies with invoice automation in place expect to cash in on their digital investment over the next three years. Investing in sales automation software and automated billing has proven to improve sales teams’ efficiency and customer experiences while streamlining revenue operations

The key benefit here — all sales activities are completed, tracked, and managed in a single solution which increases visibility over the process for all necessary stakeholders. 

For sales departments managing multiple customer accounts, invoicing software ensures billing and invoicing happen on time. 

Leveraging automation allows for a more streamlined invoice generation, approvals handling, payment collection, and more. Integrating your automated invoicing software with a CRM, such as Salesforce, NetSuite, or MS Dynamics, allows records and contacts to be automatically updated — eliminating the need for manual data entry. 

Automating the invoicing process is an essential part of streamlining the business revenue cycle. It allows for greater efficiency and visibility while accelerating the time to revenue

airSlate for Salesforce is an end-to-end workflow automation solution that allows sales teams to create custom workflows featuring document generation, web forms and surveys, eSignature, contract negotiation, and more. 

airSlate for Salesforce addresses the most challenging tasks for businesses looking to automate their invoicing within their Salesforce organization. #Salesforce #automation @airSlateAcademy

Four benefits of automated invoicing with airSlate for Salesforce  

Automated invoice process with airSlate for Salesforce offers many benefits for sales teams:

Disjointed billing and invoicing processes can hinder the customer experience by turning it into a transactional relationship instead of an ongoing journey with a brand. Sales reps can come across as pushy when trying to chase down payments month after month. Worse, bugging customers for payments could affect the sales team’s professional reputation.

Automated billing and invoicing activities allow for keeping it fast and professional when a payment must be collected. airSlate allows for adding payment collection forms to a business workflow and integrating them with a payment gateway in less than 10 minutes. This way, you can keep track of all payment data in real time via the Analytics widgets and Audit trail.

Not only do errors and typos hinder the overall customer experience with your brand, but they also erode confidence in your systems. In the worst-case scenario, late or missing payments disrupt an organization’s revenue stream.

airSlate lets you automatically pre-fill invoices with data from your Salesforce records, ensuring consistency and accuracy every time. airSlate’s Salesforce Integration Bots can be launched from a Salesforce account, providing sales teams with an easy and seamless single point of control. 

You can learn how to install, set up, and use airSlate for Salesforce to automate invoicing operations. Enroll in a free self-paced Automating Invoice Processing course at the airSlate Academy to learn the basics of automated invoice processing with airSlate.

A straightforward invoicing process significantly improves the customer experience. Having to focus on chasing down overdue invoices, tracking customer activities through multiple, disjointed systems, and fixing errors distracts sales reps from delivering a great customer experience. 

Automated invoicing software helps sales teams focus on developing customer relationships. Once you introduce invoice processing automation, it’s easier to upsell or cross-sell your services to loyal and happy customers.

Having visibility over recipients and the dates invoices are sent is essential for sales teams. Without this visibility, it could be challenging to predict when payments will come in, know when payments are late or completely missed, or keep track of whether an invoice was sent.

Invoice automation software allows sales teams to track the entire process within a CRM system. airSlate allows better visibility into invoicing activities in your Salesforce CRM organization. Not only will you be able to track the status of your invoice, but you can also automate follow-up and reminders so your teams can stay on top of payments. 

Ready to level up your billing and invoicing process? Contact Sales to learn how to get the most out of invoicing automation with airSlate for Salesforce.