Manage Vendor Payments and Advances Without Spreadsheet Errors

Manage Vendor Payments and Advances Without Spreadsheet Errors

Running vendor payments through spreadsheets in the fast-moving companies of today could have a detrimental impact on the enterprise. Human-made errors were normally a result of manual processes, which caused delayed payments, a loss of GST input credit, and poor vendor relationships. Businesses tend to grow, and so do their vendors this in turn increases the number of advance payments, milestone-based releases, and GST invoice reconciliation that needs to be managed.

When you're just spinning around in a spreadsheet, then it's high time to come up with a new way to manage your vendors. Let's see how you could automate the process of vendor payment management with a couple of clicks instead of wasting time with smart automation. —principally through the platform 'Billcostro'.

Why Manual Vendor Payment Workflows Fail

Spreadsheets were previously used for vendor payment tracking and there have been some good things about them, but they still create certain risks:

• Usually, companies are not in the habit of reconciliation and do not check if any advances have been made, so mistakes widely occur, thus, inaccurate accounting due to inaccurate information.
• Manual releases do hinder behind a schedule or even cause a vendor to be paid more than once because they lack the automation required.
• When your GST invoice details do not match correctly, then you are at a loss of ITC (Input Tax Credit) and you might also have to pay penalties unnecessarily.
• Lack of an audit trail or an approval hierarchy makes it very difficult for companies not only to track progress but also to ensure that the right person will be held responsible in case of a loss.

The digital shift from paper to card payments has pushed expense management up the priority ladder in finance transformation.

The Complexity of Advance Payments

Advance payments are usually made in such sectors as manufacturing, marketing, construction, and software development. Yet the absence of a way to follow up on the uncollected advances and clear it with future invoices will cause the finance departments such miscellaneous extra work and pains as:

• Cash flow mismanagement
• Vendor disputes over balances
• Compliance issues with payment documentation

With a single-entry system like Billcostro, teams become more flexible by defining the terms with each vendor. It makes sure that any cash that is put out in advance is automatically registered and later correspond with the invoices thus, simplifying the whole process.

Milestone-Based Releases: Automated and Accurate

Most vendor contracts are committed to major portions of the development—end of a phase, material supply, or approval of goods. It is a huge headache when you do it on paper, right:

• Not getting reminders and using manual force may result in lateness or even full payment misses.
• The payments could be out of line with the financial situation and released before time.

Basically, customers can identify the payment stages in the contract and the app will then process each stage by itself. From now on, financial and the project team can work closely only to recognize the generated milestones and to make sure that the deliverables are accepted and the payment is reasonable.

Benefits of Automating Milestone-Based Payments:

• Reduces financial risk
• Strengthens vendor relationships through timely payments

• Improves visibility into project-level spend

   

GST Invoice Matching: Avoid Penalties and Save Input Tax Credit

Incorrect or postponed GST matching can cause damage to your budget. The non-matching of invoices and the GST sales and purchase returns leads to:

• Input tax credit that was not utilized
• Notices and penalties from Tax Authorities
• Damage to the image

Billcostro’s GST invoice matching engine is highly capable in this regard. It does the job automatically. The software gets the information that is on the invoice using EDI technology, then it matches with the GSTN data, and, alerts are sent to the company in case of any discrepancies. Validation is built-in the application, and among other benefits, finance teams can receive alerts and resolve queries.

Features That Matter

• Real-time GST invoice validation
• Error highlighting before filing

Seamless sync with accounting tools

Why Choose Billcostro?

Billcostro makes managing your costs easy by changing the manual vendor workflows into a clean, digital-first experience. Here is the way it can benefit you:

• One centralized vendor dashboard to track advances, milestone progress, invoice status, and GST compliance
• Custom approval workflows to make sure that the right stakeholders are notified before any payments are made.
• Automated reminders and alerts Thus, finance and operations teams can be sure that they are on the same page.

• Always have audit-ready records and on top of the available logs, who did what and when should be indicated.
   

  Real Impact for Finance Teams

   

• With Billcostro, companies have:
• Reduced vendor payment processing time by 50%
• Improved GST compliance and avoided ITC losses
• Gained real-time control over cash flow and vendor spend

• Reduced dependency on spreadsheets and email threads
  
   

  Final Thoughts

   

• Vendor payments are currently the main financial function of your business. They are not merely a back-office function, but they are a significant factor affecting your company's financial well-being. Although once useful, spreadsheets are no longer of any help, given that they are not adequate for large-scale operations, compliance, or teamwork.

   

• A new, more agile, and automated platform like Billcostro can sort out the long-standing issues of advance payments automation, milestone-based releases, and GST invoice matching for you. At the same time, it can give your finance team the necessary control and the self-assurance that they can cope up with the challenges.

Start a 30-day test run with your vendor workflows. Experience smarter expense management with Billcostro.