What to automate ?
A large distributor uses intelligent capture to automate its account payable process.
Before (Manual)
After (Intelligent)
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Steps:
- A supplier sends an invoice or request for payment to the company. The financial document can be received in hard copy, by email, by fax or by a secure link to a portal.
- The document is sent to accounting. The document received is in electronic format, it is also printed before it is sent.
- Accounting receives the document and marks it with the date received. The transaction is prepared in the financial system and the department responsible for its approval is identified.
- If the financial document is in paper format, it is scanned and a copy is placed in an electronic file.
- .The paper version of the financial document is sent to the appropriate department and a tracking spreadsheet is maintained by the accounting department to ensure compliance with deadlines.
- The document is approved and the transaction is updated in the financial system. The person in charge may also request the assistance of the Accounting Department to process the document.
- Once approved, the electronic document is moved to the processed folder and the spreadsheet is updated. Payment is prepared and sent to the client in electronic format.
Challenges and issues
- Handling paper invoices is complex and requires very close tracking of accounting so that payments are on time.
- The electronic file requires a lot of manual management in order to place the documents in the correct folder with the correct document name.
- Accounting matching and imputations are done manually resulting in processing delays.
The intelligent automation innovations
- Deploy a smart capture module that is able to recognize the received documents, extract the relevant information and automatically match if all the information is present.
- Deploy an intelligent electronic file allowing the assignment of documents directly to the persons in charge and perform a complete follow-up & automate them.
Technological toolbox
The benefits
- Accelerate invoice processing times to maximize available discounts.
- Simplify the process of searching for an invoice or voucher.
- Eliminate duplicate invoices or pay claims.
- Enable the implementation of an automated dashboard to ensure the integrity and performance of the process.
The ROI
The new process reduced the average invoice processing time by more than 3 days and reduced the resources required to process vendor invoices by 30%.
