Help with AP process for construction subcontractor.
I am looking for a way to automate or ease our AP process for a subcontractor in a large city.
Currently, all invoices go to an accountspayable@xxx.com email address (some come by mail and are scanned in). From receiving the invoices, the invoices are put into a "rename folder", they are then renamed with the Project managers initials, job #, vendor name, invoice number. After being renamed they are put into Quickbooks (desktop) as an item receipt, coded to (hopefully) the correct item code, the "Customer:Job", and amount. The invoice is then moved into the project managers "Unapproved" folder. The PM's review the invoices and move them into their "Approved" folder. Once the invoice is approved, the AP team finds the item receipt on QB, adjusts anything relating to the bill, and marks the invoice as bill received. If after approval, the invoice was originally coded to the wrong item code, everything on that line item disappears and needs to be reentered by the line item. AP needs to go into each PM's approved folders each day to pull out the invoices and also emails need to be sent to remind the PM's about their unapproved invoices. After the invoices are approved and entered as a bill, they are moved to an "unpaid" folder. Once paid, they are moved from Unpaid to each jobs folder into their paid invoices.
Currently, we have 78 jobs on our active job list and about $100M in backlog. This process is incredibly manual and very tedious. I have 6 years of public accounting background so I know there are other options out there. I know the key fix is switching from Quickbooks to another ERP program, but we just spent a large amount on a program to integrate with Quickbooks for our WIP and the we did not have the best time working with developers. I think we may be too busy to make the switch now. I am the only one under 60 in the accounting department and the ladies do not like change. I am also the daughter of the owner, so any changes suggested by me are already not taken well.
I know its a stretch to have everything manual removed from the process, but are there any systems that link with QuickBooks desktop or anything to use as a bandaid until we have the time to switch ERP systems?