Green Finance Practices for Earth Day

Accounting firms looking to be a little greener have many ways to accomplish the goal.

With Earth Day coming up (Saturday, April 22), Basware is offering some tips, starting with adopting paperless business processes throughout their financial operations – one of the leading areas of paper consumption in an organization. Basware is a provider of networked purchase-to-pay (P2P) solutions, e-invoicing and innovative financing services, today shared best practices that

Helping to raise awareness of the impact of paper invoices on the environment, Basware offers an e-Invoicing Savings Calculator, which enables companies to input the number of paper invoices they send or receive each year and calculate how many trees that impacts, as well as the total amount of cost savings that could be realized by transitioning to e-invoicing. According to the calculator, if a company sends or receives 350,000 paper invoices per year, that amounts to 42 trees that are destroyed.[i]

According to the Paperless Project, in the last 20 years the use of paper products has increased from 92 million tons to 208 million, representing a growth of 126 percent. In the U.S. alone, approximately 68 million trees each year are used to produce paper and paper products. According to a report from Billentis last year, businesses and government received about 170 billion invoices globally[ii] – not including the various supporting documents accompanying those invoices, such as purchase orders, goods received and in some cases financing or payment information – which increases that number by multiples.

“Companies can significantly reduce their carbon footprint by eliminating paper, and nowhere can it have a greater impact than in their purchase-to-pay departments, which are buried under mounds of paper catalogs and invoices,” said Eric Wilson, vice president, Purchase to Pay, Basware. “The real beauty of this, is that they can do good for the environment and their companies at the same time. By turning to paperless, streamlined processes in purchasing, invoicing and payment, companies are gaining greater visibility and control over spend, cash flow and working capital; making better purchasing decisions; and saving a substantial amount of money.”

Following are best purchase-to-pay practices companies can implement to help meet their paperless office and green goals:

Adopt e-invoicing. e-Invoicing is easy, quick, secure and environmentally responsible. Companies can reduce and even totally eliminate paper invoices by using cloud-based B2B networks to send and receive e-invoices globally. In addition, companies can realize up to 90 percent cost savings, gain accuracy, and eliminate time-consuming and manual processes, such as printing, mailing, scanning, keying in invoice data, manually matching invoices to orders and archiving.
Encourage e-catalog purchasing. Companies can eliminate large paper catalogs for employee purchasing by providing e-catalogs over B2B networks. This practice also helps companies enforce their purchasing plans and policies, support the vendors that provide the best value, and significantly increase spend under management.
Pay electronically. By implementing electronic payment practices, companies can forgo the need for checks and cash in B2B financial transactions. It’s not only good for the environment, but it’s also a more efficient and effective way to conduct business, and it helps suppliers get paid faster.
Create a green supply chain ecosystem. By encouraging suppliers to transact electronically through supplier on-boarding programs, supplier portals and other services, many companies are promoting eco-friendly practices throughout their trading ecosystem, which can have a rippling effect across industries.

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Basware is the global leader in providing networked purchase-to-pay solutions, e-invoicing and innovative financing services. Basware’s commerce and financing network connects businesses in more than 100 countries and territories around the globe. As the largest open business network in the world, Basware provides scale and reach for organizations of all sizes, enabling them to grow their business and unlock value across their operations by simplifying and streamlining financial processes. Small and large companies around the world achieve significant cost savings, more flexible payment terms, greater efficiencies and closer relationships with their suppliers. The company’s North American business, Basware, Inc., is headquartered in Stamford, Conn. Find out more at www.basware.com.

Accounting