Your accounts payable team has been pressing you to select a paperless AP invoice automation solution. You need to solve an immediate problem, but you also want to plan for the future. Have you thought about the future benefits of leveraging one end to end solution for AP invoices, payment processing, purchase requisitioning and expense reporting?

With one solution, your team gains visibility to the entire procure to payment life cycle – from contract, to requisition, to PO, to receipt, to invoice, to expense report, to payment.  One system will allow you to securely collaborate with vendors, pre-approve expenses, capture invoices, manage accruals and approve and process electronic vendor payments.  You need visibility, flexible workflows and automated integration to Dynamics GP that your bank and some payment solutions cannot provide.

Review this quick evaluation checklist, so you are ready for GPUG Summit next week when you speak with solution providers:

1)      Does the solution eliminate paper and introduce electronic invoice capture and payment processing?

No more paper invoices getting lost! Vendors should be able to submit invoices directly to the software solution so that a transaction can automatically be created.  Once a payment batch of approved invoices has been selected and the payment has been approved, the vendor can be paid via ACH, virtual credit card or check payment.  With payments and AP invoice processing automated, your employees have more time to spend on strategic goals, such as renegotiating vendor contracts.

2)      Will the solution generate meaningful savings and how?

For payment processing, savings can come from using electronic instead of check payments, which involve printing and mailing costs.  However, a true purchase to payment solution will also deliver cost savings on the front end through approval of employee requisitions.  Department managers can review a purchase request and check to see whether a preferred vendor was selected and whether the request is within the department’s budget before giving approval (or rejecting the requisition).

3)      Does the solution offer a common workflow for employees to submit or approve requisitions, invoices, contracts or payments?

Wouldn’t it make the workday easier if AP and employees across the organization could log in once, and from one application, have the ability to review all vendor contract spend, open invoices and finalized payments? A unified solution with a consistent user experience across screens makes it a cinch for employees to manage multiple business processes without using multiple business applications.

4)      Does the solution provide an end to end view of the purchasing cycle?

Just as a unified solution makes the business process more seamless for employees, it also gives the CFO and financial managers the necessary insight into spending without requiring them to log in to separate systems.  For example, a CFO can examine the details of a large payment and click to view associated invoices before approving it.

5)      Does the solution have robust reporting for improving month-end closing and cash management?

A top benefit of an integrated purchase to payment system is that you not only have an accurate record of all payments but you also have a reliable record of all invoice and expense accruals, which will help speed up your month-end closing process.  Having this information at their fingertips will also help your management team to make cash flow projections to better time future purchases.

6)      Does the solution allow approvers to give approval on the go?

Increasingly, employees are working more from mobile devices and different locations; they don’t want to have to wait until they get back to their laptop or desktop to approve an invoice.  Modern purchase to payment solutions incorporate the latest mobile technology that makes it easy for an AP manager or the CFO to take out his or her phone and approve a payment within a few minutes.

Interested in learning more about a comprehensive purchase to payment solution for your organization?  Make sure you join Ariett at GPUG - visit booth #216 and sign up for our presentation featuring NEW Payment Processing on Wednesday (10/12) at 11:15!

by Ariett