AP Automation

Paystream Advisors finds that a large percentage of organizations say manual data entry is one of their biggest issues. Companies currently receive invoices in EDI format, paper and email – paper and email (usually a PDF) being the most predominate format.

As a result, a lot of time is spent inputting, processing, and manually transporting supplier invoices. As a company grows, invoice volume puts pressure on staff and resources.

Other Invoice Pain Points
Routing issues, lost or missing invoices, and decentralized invoice receipt are other pain points PayStream uncovered. Exceptions have a tendency to bog down processing time as a result of rigid workflows or missing documents.

Solving Invoice Processing Issues With Invoice Workflow Automation
The report also reports on how invoice approval workflow automation (IWA) has provided the benefits to companies who have embraced it:

• Lower processing costs
• Improved visibility of liabilities
• Shorter approval cycle times
• More productive employees

Achieving Invoice Workflow Automation Success
The new report also provides advice on how to choose and deploy the right IWA solution for your business. Key deciding factors include:

• types of invoices the organization deals with
• invoice volumes
• ERP integration
• staffing levels
• company growth

To download a copy of the report: PayStream Advisors Invoice Workflow Automation Report click here.

Intelligent document recognition (IDR) is an important technology for growing companies. With growth comes larger invoice volumes and a greater strain on resources.

A recent PayStream Advisors report highlights the fact that one of the biggest challenges facing both enterprise and SME organizations is the handling of large volumes of both paper and email invoices – the majority of which are not received as EDI or XML.

Because of this, many AP departments devote a large portion of their time to the manual input of invoice data into their ERP – a time-consuming and error-laden process at the best of times.

The good news is that most ERPs output invoices in PDF format, which is extremely compatible with the A.I. and automation currently available in intelligent document recognition technologies.

With respect to ERPs that produce invoices in other formats (such as XML, Excel, EDI, or JPG among others), the good news is that intelligent capture technology can handle these formats as well. 

How Intelligent Documentation Recognition Works

To classify an invoice, IDR uses information stored in a database to recognize documents according to their layout.

Once the document is recognized, IDR collects data from the data fields that have been mapped according to rules that apply to that vendor or organization. This data is then sent into a business process such as an invoice processing application, approval workflow or to the ERP.

Some IDR technologies are electronic only, in that they can only process electronic formats. Others can handle paper invoices as well by scanning the information and then mapping the data fields accordingly.

Intelligent OCR handles both paper and electronic formats seamlessly.

Paper invoices are scanned and intuitively recognized by the software, the field data is mapped and the invoice status is available in a central dashboard. Electronic invoices, in any format, are instantly recognized and processed in a similar fashion.

For companies that are looking to streamline their AP processes, Intelligent OCR combined with workflow creates a seamless process that reduces processing costs and speeds up approval cycle times.

Advanced IDR

Intelligent OCR uses both A.I. and capture automation to scan paper and electronic invoice documents, turning the information into useful data. The cloud-based software seamlessly integrates with popular ERPs and requires minimal  I.T. involvement. It seamlessly integrates with NetSuite,  SAP Business One, SAP ECC, Intaact, Dynamics, Infor, QAD and more

See more about Intelligent OCR here.

Accounts Payable in 1988 and 2018

In 1988 approximately 15% of US households had PCs (personal computers), there was no internet as we know it today (although there was Internet Relay Chat), Motorola was selling mobile phones (mostly for installation in cars) and a cloud was a “visible mass of condensed water vapour floating in the atmosphere, typically high above the ground”.

Paper and paper processes were king – meaning if paper is still central to your 21^st century AP process your AP team is still working with leading edge, circa 1988 technology!

It’s How Invoices Are Paid That Counts

Your accounts payable team is responsible for processing and reviewing the invoice transactions between your company and your suppliers. On the surface the process is fairly straightforward. You buy something, with or without a PO, and then you have to pay for it. Your payment must meet the terms and conditions agreed upon at the time of purchase.

As is the case in most things – the devil is in the details. And it turns out that this “simple” process is actually quite involved. It’s how you pay your invoices that counts.

• Are your people opening the mail and routing paper invoices – or are they printing e-mailed invoices and then sending the paper for approval?
• Who is coding your invoices, and who approves each purchase?
• Does the invoice, based upon the amount, need more than one authorization?
• Who checks to be sure that the PO-based invoices match the actual PO and if this is not the case, what happens next?
• How do you know when the goods/services are received and what happens when there is a discrepancy? Who reconciles?

In 1988 this process could take several days – sometimes weeks. There was no other way. But “it’s 2018” and our solution is doing the following for clients:

• reducing approval cycle times by up to 70%
• reducing processing costs by up to 40%
• having an up to 20% increase in invoice volumes without adding staff

In 1988 you had no choice – take that piece of paper, put it in an envelope, have someone walk it up 3 floors and around the building, wait for it to come back…

Make A Choice

Today you do have a choice – stay loyal to your paper processes or advance to a cost effective, efficient automated AP technology that empowers everyone who touches the payment process.

To find out more about EchoVera’s AP Automation that has a 95% approval rating and requires minimal I.T. involvement, click here.

In a new report issued by PayStream Advisors, one of the biggest back office challenges organizations face is the capture of both paper and emailed invoice data into their ERP. See PayStream Advisors: Invoice Approval Workflow Automation Report.

Unless the organization has invested heavily in EDI, many AP departments spend a lot of time and resources handling large invoice volumes from various suppliers – without an efficient way to get them into their ERP.

In most cases emailed invoices are printed out and then manually keyed in. Paper invoices are processed the same way. Manual errors are rampant and for companies that are growing this task can be a considerable challenge.

Trends in invoice scanning technology now make it possible to not only make emailed invoice input relatively painless, but much less arduous for paper invoices as well.

Emailed Invoices
Emailed invoices are sent in their various formats, which could be PDF, Excel, XML, Word, EDI, Tiff, or JPG to name a few. Intelligent capture technology uses A.I. and automation to identify who the supplier is, intuitively map the data fields, and make the data useful for input to the ERP. Once the system is set up, the supplier sends their invoice (in whichever format they choose) to an established email address. The technology processes the information and provides the data within minutes of receipt.

Paper Invoices
Paper invoices are scanned by Intelligent OCR that can extract all of the information necessary for invoice processing. The technology can detect who sent the invoice as well as capture all of the data fields that are essential for processing. The paper can be discarded and the invoice data is available for audits and archiving.

Scanning Invoices Into Accounts Payable – The New Age of Data Capture
Not only does technology exist to extract the essential data from both paper and emailed invoices, companies are taking advantage of the intelligence gathering abilities inherent in “line-level” invoice data. This means that organizations looking to improve their business processes can access data that can help them achieve measurable results.

Intelligent OCR seamlessly integrates with NetSuite, SAP Business One, SAP, Oracle E-Business Suite, Sage, Intacct, Dynamics, Infor, QAD and more.

To find out more about Intelligent OCR and Intelligent Capture with AI, click here.

Many of our customers struggle with their purchasing process.

This is because even though there are many stakeholders in the purchase cycle, actual responsibility and accountability can often be muddled.

This isn’t because the different roles in the organization are incompetent or at fault, but that in every organization and industry there is a real lack of transparency throughout various business processes. This is especially true in organizations that opt to use inefficient paper-based processes or when the company’s ERP is not capable of the flexibility required to support efficient workflows*

Whatever the case, organizations are looking to optimize the purchase process with a positive ROI and Request-to-Pay automation may be a great way to do just that.

The Request to Pay Process

With Request-to-Pay automation, everyone with a stake in the purchase is involved in the process, and the process is visible to everyone who plays a role. This high level of visibility actually supports accountability across all roles. Authorized stakeholders can actually see all relevant activity – changes made, when they took place and who made them.

Everyone from the person who makes the requests, to the approver who manages the budget, to the purchaser who makes the purchase, to the person who receives the goods, and to the accounts payable person who ensures payment – are part of the request to pay workflow.

This is what the automated Request to Pay looks like:

1. The requester completes a purchase requisition, and it is automatically routed for approval.
2. Once approved the system changes the requisition to a Purchase Order.
3. The approved PO is sent to the buyer who can now place the order.
4. Delivery of the product or service is made, and the goods or service receipt is recorded in the system.
5. The vendor sends an invoice for the product or service, and the system automatically matches the invoice to the PO and the goods receipt.
6. If there is an exception, it is automatically routed to the proper role for review and exception handling. The exception is in a complete information “packet” that holds an invoice image, the PO, the goods receipt, and notes.
7. If there is no exception, the invoice is automatically sent to the ERP for payment.
8. The vendor receives a payment and all of the payment details are recorded in the ERP.

Find out more about Request to Pay automation here.

*Most ERPs have rigid approval workflows, but not by design! (see “Invoice Approval Workflow Gets Flexible!“)

One of the best features of great budget software for enterprise is the ability to tie transactions together.  You can also monitor the actual budget amount used – useful as you process each piece of the transaction and for auditing purposes later.

So what does it look like?  The example below is based on the user having a specific GL account and department.

Keep in mind the user has the option to browse items that are approved for a specific budget AND/OR there are rules set on the item type to require a budget to be assigned AND/OR the administrator can leave the fields open for users to decide where assigning a budget is appropriate.

One of the key benefits of EchoVera’s Budget is being able to see the budget request, the requisitions, purchase order, delivery, and invoice – all as a complete package – for audit purposes.

For more information about EchoVera Budget, click here.

———————
Companies are digitally transforming their procurement and purchasing processes, and that includes software that helps them manage their CAPEX expenditures. This may include functions like approval workflow and document capture.

Where does CAPEX software make a key difference?

Specifically, CAPEX software allows companies to allocate a specific budget to a larger investment project and have visibility and control over the entire process. Some of the benefits include:

• Ease of delegation
  Workflow administration levels designate who can buy what within the organization. Built in alarm functions send out an alert when a set percent of a CAPEX budget is exceeded.
• The right suppliers, the right products
  By setting up delimitations for each supplier and product category, only preferred suppliers are used with defined product categories.
• Faster procurement process
  Purchase orders that match certain parameters are automatically approved. Invoices that match to the goods receipt can go immediately to the ERP for payment – bypassing manual handling and the resulting errors.
• More visibility 24/7
  Users can query information such as supplier name, budget request ID, status, the role of the approver in charge, product categories and requisition numbers. Purchase orders related to specific budget requests can be included in reports as well.

EchoVera CAPEX is a cloud-based solution that integrates with your ERP. Find out more here.

Businesses using Oracle E-Business Suite are discovering the value of using “intelligent” OCR to scan their invoices. It’s all part of a larger trend:

• With increasing invoice volumes, growing companies want to avoid adding to their headcount
• Newer OCR technology for data-extraction can be implemented with minimal I.T. involvement
• Businesses want to leverage the investment in their ERP with automation that provides a positive ROI

Invoices come in many different formats. Whether they are delivered in the mail and have to be manually handled, or sent by email in an electronic file format such as Word, Excel, PDF, EDI, and XML –  the data needs to be captured quickly and efficiently.

Traditional OCR is Outdated

Traditional OCR software has some constraints. For example, a company might receive an invoice by mail and scan it, but the data it collects is not available because of integration issues. Scanning could be avoided if the invoice comes by email, but in many cases the email invoice is printed out and the information is keyed into the ERP manually. Both of these methods are time and resource-intensive.

In the U.S., 89% of supplier invoices are in either paper or email format. 76% of companies surveyed input invoice data manually*.

For Oracle E Business Suite users who need to capture invoice data, Intelligent OCR intelligently captures all of the information needed – with 95% accuracy for paper invoices, and 100% accuracy for electronic formats.

Intelligent OCR uses A.I. and intelligent automation to extract data from any format of invoice, whether it was sent electronically or through the mail.

Intelligent OCR searches, interprets, validates, and extrapolates semantic meaning from any format or file type. It intuitively detects and learns each unique supplier invoice based on document layouts, including a tagging technology called Intellitags.

That means the manual data entry of invoice information into Oracle can be drastically reduced or eliminated. For more information, or to book a demo of Intelligent OCR for Oracle E Business Suite, click here.

*Source: Company revenues up to $100 Million – 2018 Guide to Payables Automation – Paystream

There are many constraints in the Dynamics ERP suites. This is especially evident in how user fees are structured,  and the lack of functionality around invoice approval workflow for Dynamics specifically.

User Costs for Invoice Approval Workflows

• Dynamics workflows are scripted, and that means using IT resources to create or modify them
• Customers must purchase Dynamics user licenses for requisitioners
• If the user touches two modules of Dynamics, such as Purchasing and GL, that can mean additional costs
• There is a user cost for coding – approvers must be licensed in the same way if they want to code an invoice (for G/L and AP)

Functionality Issues

• Without support for punch-out capabilities, PRICAT (Price/Sales Catalogue), or webshops users cannot access supplier catalogs or websites
• Users have to look at each line in order to determine a mismatch for Purchase Order matching
• Much manual legwork goes into finding the discrepancy, and the routing is limited by rules
• Accounting accruals take time and unrecorded liabilities become an issue
• Dynamics lacks an audit trail for the invoice approval process
• Business documents are not stored in an image repository for retrieval
• Data capture is a manual process in many cases, which is restrictive with large invoice volumes

Extending Dynamics Functionality

The good news is that it is possible to leverage your investment in Dynamics by using best-of-breed third party software that provides the functionality Dynamics is missing – with minimal involvement of valuable I.T resources. With the right application, you will have:

Reduced Costs

• Workflows are graphical and dynamic, allowing for ad hoc routing
• Software cost is based on invoice volumes, as opposed to number of users

Extended Functionality

• Users can access preferred online supplier catalogues
• PO matching is automated, and exceptions are sent to approvers on their laptop or mobile devices
• Shows invoice status in a central dashboard
• Creates an audit trail showing messages between users and suppliers as well as document images
• Has a document management system that allows you to not only store contracts and other relevant files, but allows you to put them into a workflow as well
• Have an automated data capture system that uses Artificial Intelligence to extract essential information from invoices, whether they are mailed in paper format or sent in email as a PDF, XML, EDI, Excel, Word or other format.

Find out more about the functionality in EchoVera’s AP automation solution for Dynamics here.