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06.24.09 Hospitals Expand Imaging Endorsement
The use of imaging and document management in AP can bring huge benefits because it transforms mountains of paper invoices into a paperless, automated environment. There are lots of software vendors out there to choose from, but the choice has been made a little easier for hospitals. The American Hospital Association (AHA) has given its exclusive endorsement to a document management system from Hyland Software Inc., developer of the OnBase enterprise content management (ECM) software suite.
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06.17.09 “On-Demand” Invoice App Wins Award
Bill.com, Inc. has won a 2009 Tax & Accounting Technology Innovation Award from The CPA Technology Advisor, the leading independent multimedia technology resource for the accounting profession. The award honors new and enhanced technologies that benefit accounting and tax professionals. Nominated products must be less than two years old or have undergone a significant revision or addition during the past two years.
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06.12.09 FULL AP EXPO PROGRAM AVAILABLE
Schedules and descriptions of over 30 sessions and workshops—including many on AP automation--are now available for our upcoming 8th Annual AP Conference & Expo October 14-16 at the Loews Royal Pacific at Universal Orlando. more...
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05.20.09 Why Automating AP Can Stall
In our research, one of the biggest reasons companies do not move forward with AP automation is “lack of knowledge” and the confusion about all of the choices out there. So anything you can do to increase your knowledge and sort things out, such as listening to webinars, reading white papers, or attending an AP conference, will help.
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04.22.09 No Instant Results from Automation
Systems that automate the AP process cut costs and increase productivity. But don’t expect productivity increases to happen overnight when installing a new system. Here's why.
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04.15.09 Automated Invoice Routing is Up
Two-thirds of AP departments that have automated their invoice process say they achieve significant cost savings in the routing and approval phase. How? By using an automated workflow solution, which has the ability to look up the correct approvers for a given invoice based on various criteria, such as the business unit or department, type of order, dollar amount, or other variable.
Adoption of this type of solution is increasing. When we did this research back in 2004, 84 percent of companies we surveyed said they relied exclusively on manual lookup. Now, that figure is around 50 percent.
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04.14.09 Track Those Invoices
To streamline your invoice processing, start at the beginning. That is, where are the invoices going once they come in the door? Are they forwarded to the buyer or user of the goods or services? Do they all go right to AP? Unless you have a policy set up, invoices that are simply addressed to the organization but not a particular individual can float around for weeks from desk to desk before eventually ending up in AP or on the desk of the actual buyer/approver. more...
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03.18.09 Automate to Collaborate
AP automation is the “next great opportunity to improve business performance through collaboration,” according to an article by David Peraino, Global Procure-to-Pay Executive at J.P. Morgan Treasury Services. Peraino’s background includes a stint as Chief Procurement Officer at American Express.
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03.06.09 Test Your AP IQ: Types of EIPP
There are three types of Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP) models. Which of the following is NOT one of these models? more...
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03.04.09 New Report Says E-Invoicing is Top Goal
Implementing or increasing electronic invoicing is the top priority for financial automation for 2009, according to the AP Imaging and Workflow Benchmarking Survey Report from PayStream Advisors. Almost half (48 percent) of organizations polled cited this technology as their priority. Medium and large organizations were more aggressively focusing their energies on electronic invoicing, with more than three-quarters of the companies (78 percent) stating that this was their top goal.
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02.25.09 Figure Costs Before Automating
Before automating an AP process, whether it be invoices, payments, or expense reports, one of the most important things to do first is to figure out the current cost of whatever it is you want to automate. There is simply no way to determine whether you can save money with any automation solution unless you know your current cost. Depending on the size of the department, calculating costs can range from extremely simple (AP salaries and benefits divided by number of items processed) to quite complex.
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02.18.09 Is the PO Flip a Flop?
In some organizations, the PO Flip is really PO Flop because it assumes that the PO is correct. And who gets blamed when you do this and there is a dispute? AP, of course--because AP paid something based on the PO that was for that amount, even though the price has changed, the quantity has changed, or maybe there was freight, or insurance, or it should or shouldn’t have been taxed, or something was or wasn’t on the invoice. more...
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02.03.09 Need to Cut Your AP Costs? Free Webinar!
AP managers have found many ways to cut costs and increase productivity. Some ideas are new and innovative. Others have stood the test of time. Either way, they work—and that’s all that matters. Learn all about them by attending a FREE 60-minute webinar. more...
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01.26.09 PRESS RELEASE: Controllers Eye AP
CFOs, Controllers and Business Managers now realize there are significant bottom-line savings to be found in accounts payable, savings they need to tap in 2009. You’ll find a precise roadmap to those savings at the 9th Annual Accounts Payable Operations conference (March 11-13, San Antonio), presented by the Institute of Management and Administration, BNA Subsidiaries, LLC and Casher Associates.
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01.21.09 The Solution Provider: Friend or Foe?
Providers of AP automation solutions can sometimes appear to be your ally, but, at other times, they may seem to be your adversary. Actually, either extreme will not be healthy. It can hinder success of the project if you distrust the provider to the point where you require proof of every statement and insist on doing everything your way. On the other hand, trusting the provider too much can cost you money and potentially lead to an unsatisfactory implementation.
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01.02.09 Test Your AP IQ: Reducing Paper Invoices
Which of the following techniques does NOT help to reduce the number of paper invoices that come to AP?
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12.24.08 Discount Management Apps
Although this trend is just emerging, expect to see automated discount management to become a significant factor in the evolution and growth of invoice automation. According to our report, Paperless Accounts Payable: The AP Department’s Complete Guide to Invoice Automation, customers of one solution provider are reporting that their return on investment from “dynamic discounting,” as the feature is called, are five to 10 times as large as their ROI from processing cost reductions. To the extent that such benefits are replicable, they will be too large for chief financial officers and AP managers to ignore.
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12.17.08 No Tech Budget? Consider SaaS.
With organizational budgets as tight as ever, fewer AP departments will be able to sell the idea of a big upfront investment for new AP technology. So consider SaaS (software as a service). Also known as “on-demand” software, look for this phenomenon to become more prevalent in AP departments. That’s because SaaS is a software application that you don’t own, but merely access over the Web on a pay-as-you-go basis. more...
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12.10.08 Use ACH as Paper-Free Kickoff
Our Paper-Free AP conference in Ft. Lauderdale focused on ways to get rid of that mountain of paper invoices in your AP department. One speaker recommended that you begin your efforts to go paperless by first pursuing electronic payments.
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11.19.08 Top Ways to Drive Web Invoicing
Receiving electronic invoices via the Web versus paper via the mail saves AP departments time and money. Of course, the trick is to get vendors to do it! At our recent 7th Annual AP Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, Bruce Kelly, managing director at The Hackett Group, shared with attendees the results of their recent research that reveals the most cited ways organizations drive the move toward Web-based invoices. more...
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10.08.08 AP Tech-Speak
Imaging… OCR…..EIPP… Software-as-Service—these are some common terms used in AP automation, but they can sometimes be confusing. So here are some quick definitions to help understand some of the acronyms and jargon being thrown around. We’ll add to this list in future e-Alerts and keep it updated as new terms come into play.
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10.01.08 Report: E-Invoices to Exceed Paper by 2010
The number of electronic invoices in the United States will overtake the number of paper invoices by 2010, reveals the Electronic Invoicing Adoption Survey Report from PayStream Advisors. The report is based on the results of PayStream's survey of 280 accounts payable, procurement, and treasury professionals.
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09.17.08 Vendor Portal KOs Pesky Calls
“Do you have my invoice?” “When am I getting paid?” These are the two big questions on the all-time hit parade of vendor calls coming in to AP. But with a vendor portal you can eliminate all these incoming calls. And it’s become one of the very critical AP automation tools. This technology, also known as Interactive Web Response (IWR) is the Internet version of Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Most providers of automated invoice solutions can provide a vendor portal for self-service queries of purchase order and payment status.
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09.10.08 Working With an AP Technology Consultant
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08.20.08 100% e-Invoicing for Hospitals
A new online service provides hospitals with a way to get 100 percent of their invoices electronically, even from vendors who insist on submitting invoices via snail mail. The service, OnDemand AP™, is a partnership between BancTec and GHX. BancTec specializes in high-volume document and payment processing services, and GHX operates the largest electronic trading exchange and invoicing network in the healthcare industry.
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08.14.08 >>> AP Benchmarking Survey Now Open <<<
How much does it cost AP departments to process an invoice? How many invoices should AP staffers be able to process in a month? What is the average error rate for payments? You will get the answers to these questions--and a lot more—if you take part in our AP Benchmarking Survey. We’ll send you the results so you can see how your AP department stacks up against all the others.
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08.13.08 Your Vendors’ Slant on E-Invoicing
We do a lot of research into how AP departments use electronic invoices—and the benefits they achieve. But what about the other side? That is, what do your vendors think about e-invoicing? Understanding their feelings can help you convince them to start sending you invoices electronically.
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07.30.08 E-Z EDI For Any Size Vendor
Traditional EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) for electronic invoicing is well-suited to your large vendors—but what about all of your small and medium-size vendors? It’s not easy for them to implement EDI, so you’ll have a tough time convincing them to send you electronic invoices. Sure, you can outsource the task to a “third-party supplier network,” but many AP departments would rather keep the function in-house. Circuit City uses a type of EDI that any vendor can use—they just need Internet access. more...
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06.11.08 Biggest Barrier to E-Invoicing
Lack of knowledge about electronic invoicing is the reason most cited by AP pros for not moving forward with this technology. One-third of over 300 AP pros we recently polled said this was the biggest barrier, followed by “lack of priority” of investment in AP automation. more...
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06.04.08 Want More E-Invoices? Just Ask
The benefits of electronic invoicing from AP’s perspective are clear: less manual data entry, fewer errors, faster payments—to name a few. The benefits are also clear to your mirror-image counterparts at your vendors—the accounts receivable folks. The AR people know that e-invoicing benefits their organization by eliminating all associated mailing costs (paper, postage, clerical time, etc.), gives them greater visibility into billing, and can help improve their DSO (Days Sales Outstanding), which is the flip-side of the DPO (Days Payables Outstanding) metric.
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