Accounts payable scanning is the step that turns a paper invoice into something the rest of the process can use, and it raises a question most teams answer by not answering it: once it is scanned, can the paper be destroyed? The scanning itself is the easy part and the retention decision behind it is not a software setting. It depends on your jurisdiction, on what the records are being kept for, and on whether your scanned copy is complete and readable enough to be relied on later. This page is how to scan so the record is usable, and how to approach the retention question deliberately rather than by accumulating boxes.
Scan so the record is complete
Every page, both sides where anything is printed, at a resolution where the figures are unambiguous. The point is that the scan replaces the paper, and a scan missing the reverse of a delivery note has not replaced anything.
Attach it to the record, not to a drive
A scan filed against the supplier and the invoice is retrievable by anyone; a scan in a dated folder is retrievable by whoever named it. This is the difference between a document management approach and a storage one.
Decide retention deliberately
How long records must be kept is a policy question for your jurisdiction and your own advisers. The IRS publishes guidance on record retention periods as one input, and the National Archives publishes the general discipline. Write your policy down, apply it, and record that you did, rather than keeping everything by default.
Questions people ask about accounts payable scanning
Can we destroy the paper after scanning?
That depends on your jurisdiction and on the quality and completeness of the scan, and it is a question for your own advisers rather than for us. What is certain is that destroying paper without a written policy is a decision nobody made.
What resolution should we scan at?
Enough that a figure cannot be misread and no more. Very high resolution creates storage cost and no benefit; the test is legibility of the smallest number on the document.
Does scanning make us paperless?
It is the first step. Paperless means the digital record is the one people actually use, and that is a habit change rather than a scanning project.