7 Ways to Make Invoice Management Easier to Access, Approve, and Control

Invoice management should not depend on where someone is sitting, where a document is stored, or how quickly finance can chase an approval.

Yet in many organizations, accounts payable still depends on desk-based routines, hard-to-find supporting documents, manual follow-up, and disconnected approval steps. That creates friction for finance teams, approvers, and anyone else involved in reviewing or validating invoices.

For organizations using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, AP automation can help make invoice management more accessible without sacrificing control. By digitizing documents, enabling approvals across devices, and keeping invoice activity connected to the ERP, teams can reduce delays and keep AP moving.

Fregatten Jylland, one of Denmark’s most recognized maritime attractions, offers a practical example. By implementing Truvio AP Automation for Business Central, the organization gained digital invoice management, electronic document viewing, and mobile-friendly approvals, helping staff manage invoices with greater speed, visibility, and confidence.

Here are seven ways organizations can make invoice management easier to access, approve, and control.

1. Move invoice documents out of inboxes, folders, and paper files

One of the first places invoice management breaks down is document access.

Before an invoice can be approved, users need the right context. That may include the invoice document, vendor details, supporting materials, approval history, amounts, coding, or related ERP information.

When those documents live in email threads, shared folders, paper files, or disconnected systems, finance often becomes the document retrieval team. AP staff spend time finding files, forwarding attachments, answering questions, and helping approvers locate the information they need.

A better process brings invoice documents into the workflow itself.

With electronic document viewing, users can access supporting materials directly when they review an invoice. That reduces back-and-forth, improves visibility, and helps everyone work from the same source of truth.

For Fregatten Jylland, electronic document viewing was one of the most important improvements. The finance team gained faster access to invoice materials inside Business Central, making routine invoice work easier to complete and control.

2. Make approvals available from more than just a desktop

Invoice approvals often stall for a simple reason: the approver is not at their desk.

That is especially common in organizations where staff move between offices, facilities, events, vendors, visitors, or operational responsibilities. The workday is not always built around a workstation, but many AP processes still are.

When approvals require desktop access, invoices wait. Finance follows up. Payment timing becomes harder to manage. A routine task becomes another administrative bottleneck.

Mobile-friendly approvals help solve that problem.

When users can approve invoices from phones, tablets, and desktops, AP can move with the business instead of waiting for someone to return to a computer. This helps reduce delays while giving approvers a more practical way to complete their work.

For Fregatten Jylland, mobile access helped make invoice approvals more flexible for a busy cultural attraction where staff need administrative processes that fit daily operations.

3. Keep AP connected to Business Central

Making invoice management easier should not mean creating another disconnected system.

When AP workflows sit outside the ERP, finance teams may gain convenience in one area but create more work in another. Data may need to be reconciled. Users may need to switch systems. Documents may sit separately from the invoice record. Reporting and audit visibility can become harder to manage.

For organizations using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, AP automation is strongest when it extends the ERP instead of working around it.

A Business Central-connected workflow keeps invoice documents, approvals, and status updates close to the finance data teams already rely on. That gives finance better visibility while giving approvers a simpler way to participate in the process.

Fregatten Jylland implemented Truvio AP Automation as a digital invoice management system for Business Central, helping the organization modernize AP without separating invoice work from its ERP environment.

4. Reduce the need for finance to chase approvals

Approval follow-up is one of the most frustrating parts of manual AP.

Finance teams often know an invoice is waiting, but they still need to remind approvers, resend documents, answer questions, or confirm whether the invoice has been reviewed. These follow-ups may seem small, but they add up quickly across a steady flow of invoices.

A more accessible AP process reduces the need for finance to act as the traffic controller.

When approvers can access invoices, view supporting documents, and take action from the device that fits their workday, they are more likely to complete approvals on time. Finance gains better visibility into where invoices stand and can focus on exceptions instead of routine reminders.

The result is a smoother process for everyone involved: fewer status checks, fewer delays, and less administrative noise.

5. Make the approval experience intuitive for non-finance users

AP automation only works if people actually use it.

Approvers outside finance may not live in the ERP every day. They need a process that is clear, simple, and easy to navigate. If reviewing an invoice feels confusing or time-consuming, users are more likely to delay the task or create workarounds.

An intuitive approval experience helps keep users inside the process.

That matters for control. When the official workflow is easy to use, people are less likely to approve through email, rely on verbal confirmation, or route documents outside the system. Finance gets a cleaner process, and approvers get a better experience.

Pia Sundberg, Finance Manager at Fregatten Jylland, described the impact of Truvio this way:

“Truvio has made our invoice management much more efficient and accessible. We appreciate the technological innovation that helps us navigate through administrative tasks with ease.”

Ease of use is not just a convenience. It is one of the reasons digital AP workflows succeed.

6. Improve control by reducing workarounds

Some teams worry that making invoice approvals more flexible could weaken control. In reality, the opposite is often true.

When invoice management is difficult to access, people create side channels. They forward documents by email. They approve outside the system. They delay action until later. They rely on finance to manually move the process forward.

Those workarounds make AP harder to control.

A more accessible workflow helps keep users in the right process. Electronic document viewing gives them the context they need. Mobile approvals make it easier to act quickly. ERP-connected workflows help finance track status, approvals, and supporting materials in one place.

Better access leads to better process adoption. Better adoption leads to stronger visibility and control.

7. Choose implementation support that helps teams adopt the new process

AP automation is not just a technology change. It is a workflow change.

Even when the benefits are clear, teams need confidence during implementation. They need to understand how documents will be viewed, how approvals will work, how users will adopt the process, and how the solution will fit inside Business Central.

That is why implementation support matters.

Fregatten Jylland’s transition to digital invoice management was supported through close collaboration and expert guidance. According to Sundberg:

“Truvio was instrumental throughout the implementation process. Their expertise, responsiveness, and guidance helped ensure a successful integration and gave us confidence from start to finish.”

The right support helps organizations move from manual routines to digital AP with less disruption and stronger adoption.

The takeaway: accessible AP is better AP

Invoice management slows down when people cannot easily access the documents, approvals, and ERP information they need.

By making AP easier to access, organizations can reduce delays, improve visibility, and keep routine finance work moving. Electronic document viewing gives teams faster access to supporting materials. Mobile approvals help staff take action from wherever work happens. Business Central-connected workflows help finance maintain control without forcing users into slow, desk-bound routines.

Fregatten Jylland’s experience shows what this looks like in practice: a more efficient and accessible invoice management process that supports daily operations while keeping AP connected to Business Central.

Truvio AP Automation helps organizations digitize invoice management, simplify approvals, improve document access, and extend Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with more efficient procure-to-pay workflows. To see how Truvio can help your team reduce administrative friction and keep invoice management moving, request a demo.