Digitizing Accounts Payable

The oil and gas sector is going paperless— at the speed of molasses.

Field tickets, service invoices, production statements, and division orders all generate volumes of paper that need to be entered into an accounting platform. It seems like each producer, oilfield service provider, and vendor has their own way of doing so. Together, this can wreak havoc for a back office trying to efficiently manage the accounts payable function of an organization.

Thankfully, the digitization of accounts payable (AP) can lead to more efficiency, accuracy, and productivity. Transferring documents in the cloud or simply managing them electronically does a lot of good. It reduces waste, duplication, and the risk of lost paperwork, and also increases the speed of the entire process. Employing an accounts payable technology system allows for:

• Reviewing, analyzing, and resolving any over or under billings
• Maintaining an up-to-date log of unpaid invoices
• Outing invoices for approval
• Paying invoices via ACH or physical check runs
• Receiving and responding to invoice inquiries
• Enhancing visibility into accounts payable cash flow
• Transforming transactions electronically to route for approval

However, the technology— even with optical character recognition (OCR) tools that are designed to eliminate manual data entry— can’t work 100 percent autonomously. An AP Specialist needs to verify that invoices are coded correctly and flow through the approval and payment process on time. Inconsistencies in formatting, type, and invoice complexities can lead to errors that need an actual human to identify and correct. So, what do you do when you see the value of streamlining your AP functions, but you recognize that it can’t be 100 percent hands-free?

How PetroLedger can help

The AP team at PetroLedger Financial Services can help set up and manage an integrated program to make vendor invoice tracking, payments, and expense billing easy. Our team can oversee an inbound stream of invoices and either proficiently code the expense directly or engage in a prompt conversation with the operations team to correctly designate the expense. Once in the system, expenses are routed for approval and ultimately released for payment either electronically or by physical check.

You don't have to manage your AP functions alone. Let PetroLedger be your hands-on, oil and gas outsourced accounting back office and seamlessly streamline them for the digital world.

Think this technology could be a valuable resource for you? Contact us today to find out how we can help. If you want to read more insights from PetroLedger, check out our blog!