Organizations are always searching to reduce cost and improve efficiency within their
companies and one good candidate for such improvement is the paper-based accounts
payable (AP) invoice process. Paper-based invoice processing by its very nature is
manually intensive because so many individuals have to “touch” the document before it
can be paid. For example, the AP Department needs to extract any paper-based invoices
from the mail envelope and then coordinate the end-to-end process for each invoice. The
coordination includes: reviewing and routing the invoice for approval, validating the
approval(s), entering the invoices for payment. Throughout the life cycle of the invoice,
the AP Department also needs to know the real time status of the invoice.
In order to improve the efficiency, organizations have automated portions of the AP
process by receiving invoices electronically and/or most storing invoices digitally;
however, the most inefficient process such as entering the invoice, coordinating the
approval(s) and knowing the real time status of the invoice still needs to be improved.
The purpose of this white paper is to explain how organizations can improve their AP invoice process.
Oracle WebCenter Enterprise Capture provides organizations with a single system to capture both paper and electronic documents. Capture supports both centralized and distributed image capture from a user-friendly web interface capable of using high-volume, production-level scanners. Support for the industry-standard TWAIN scanning interface enables Capture to use a wide variety of industry-leading document imaging scanners to digitize paper content. Existing electronic document files can be easily captured by users or automatically captured through an importing process that can monitor an email server or network folder. Once captured, documents are organized and indexed by applying metadata through manual or automated processes that use bar code recognition technology. After documents are completed, they are committed into a content management system. Capture is fully integrated with Oracle WebCenter Content: Imaging and with Oracle WebCenter Content to provide organizations with one system to capture, store, manage and retrieve their mission critical business content.
Reduced time to track down Invoice inquiries in any stage of processing by providing common interface across all instances and stages
Real-time metrics across all instances to providing AP the ability to spot and and make adjustments to ensure timely processing of invoices
Enhanced duplicate invoice check that provides early dedication by monitoring invoices through all stages of processing.
Self-service learning modules for faster unboarding, and knowledge refresh on common processes
Audit and Compliance support by providing a means to pull invoices information and supporting documents into a zip file to support internal or external audits
Accrual of invoices that are in process and have not been interfaced to EBS
Reduced IT support by providing menu options to unlock batches and check email queues
Duplicate Invoice ROI
Some of the Reasons for duplicate invoices:
Vendors sending invoices through more than one channel (email and mail)
Invoices submitted through Coupa and WebCenter
Invoices process on different instances for the same vendor
Same invoice process on duplicate Vendor for a different business unit
Cost of Duplicate payments
Reduction of monthly cash flow
Research and contacting vendor
Managing credit from vendor or processing payment from the vendor
Tom Korbecki presents two high-level checklists that can help you forge a path to your project’s success. How many items can you check in the succeed column?
Support for the CIO is not enough, must also have CEO and top executive support.
Lack of Direction
Lack of ownership by the business and participation in the project
Unrealistic time frame
Not enough time to build business process improvements
Not enough time for testing
Underestimating effort to test internal and external interfaces
Implementation budget
Companies tie their hands by underfunding the efforts and/or limiting the scope through impractical project schedules.
Tier 1 packages such as Oracle should be budgeted on the upper end due to the implementation complexity and the size of the company.
Internal resistance by either IT or the business to leave legacy software.
ERP packages typically are developed around best practices. Software often fails to achieve it’s promise due to the reluctance to change by people who have a vested interest in the existing process or software.
Failed to capture 100% of the requirements during the discovery phase
