Paperless Accounts Payable
When you use IntelliChief™, anyone in your company with proper authorization can view any document in your Accounts Payable system and gain immediate access to purchase orders, acknowledgements, statements, receiving documents, invoices, and checks.
IntelliChief gives you the ability to electronically manage and speed up your process to make it more efficient. You can:
- Handle purchase requests and approvals, generate, archive, and send your purchase order directly from an ERP or business application via fax or email
- Receive your goods, while capturing receiving documents by scanning and comparing them to the original purchase order
- Allow electronic notes to be entered for clarification on the purchase order
- Locate and open your original purchase order by searching, using IntelliChief or your ERP system
- Scan emailed or automatically capture faxed invoices and route them automatically to the right person or department for approval
- Process payments faster and securely by printing checks on secure laser MICR printers or sending them electronically via ACH (Automated Clearing House). The electronic image of all checks in your system is available to be retrieved at any time in IntelliChief.
- Create one process for matching documents:
- Link your issued check to the corresponding invoice electronically
- Retrieve your electronic check, the corresponding invoice and the originating purchase order at the same time whenever you need them
The payment of invoices is a critical operation for Accounts Payable departments, in which the company’s cash flow is heavily affected. Being able to control payment of invoices, taking advantage of vendor discounts, and having visibility to outstanding invoices are some of the key challenges A/P departments face on a daily basis.
Paper-based Invoice processing is adding unnecessary costs to your organization, such as:
- Receiving, sorting and distributing invoices manually
- Getting approvals
- Looking for backup documentation, such as receiving documents and purchase orders
- Resolving discrepancies
- Manual voucher entry
- Filing and archiving invoices and related documents
IntelliChief™ helps Accounts Payable departments take control of invoice processing and eliminate the paper that plagues your company. See sample IntelliChief Inbox below with all outstanding invoices.
Basics of Paperless Invoice Processing
1. Capturing Incoming Invoices
When Invoices are received via fax, IntelliChief captures them and places them in an electronic workflow queue. The distribution of this now electronic invoice can be automated so minimal user intervention is required.
For Invoices arriving via email, users can simply capture the attached invoice by “printing to IntelliChief”, which simply means they will send the email attachment to IntelliChief’s electronic image archive using IntelliChief’s Print Capture Driver.
Invoices that arrive via mail are scanned into IntelliChief so that electronic Workflow can do the task of routing them to the appropriate person, eliminating manual handling of paper invoices. Here is where Forms Recognition Technology can play a hand, automating even more the task of processing paper invoices.
2. Distributing Invoices
Which invoice should go to Mary? Who handles vendors with names beginning with letters A through D? These and other questions are what constitute your business rules. Depending on your processes and policies, invoices need to follow a certain flow. That’s where IntelliChief’s Workflow Engine will kick in and automate the work of distributing invoices to the appropriate person.
3. Approving Invoices
For those invoices that require approval before voucher, IntelliChief gives you the power to electronically review and approve the invoice. Every action taken on the invoice is recorded in that document’s history so you can always go back and check when the invoice was sent for approval, who approved it and when. Proxies can be set up in situations where the person is out on vacations. Alerts can tell you whether an invoice is sitting in someone’s inbox for too long. Instead of having to chase after approvals, you will now be able to focus on your work.
4. Matching Invoices
If you perform 2-way matching or 3-way matching, IntelliChief can help you get the correct documents ready for your review and eliminate the need for you to get up and look for them. The document matching feature allows you to set up rules that will keep documents in Workflow until their corresponding documents arrive. Invoices can go to a “Waiting for Documents” inbox while waiting for the receiving documents to arrive. Once the receiving documents are in the system and are matched with the invoice, the invoice is then moved to your “Ready for Voucher” inbox and can be easily matched against receiver and purchase order.
5. Invoice Voucher
After doing the voucher entry, IntelliChief will automatically re-index the invoice image you have on the screen, ensuring that indexes are up-to-date with your ERP system. The integration between IntelliChief and your ERP guarantees that document can be retrieved electronically at any time, directly from your ERP screen.
Invoice Processing with Forms Recognition Technology
Forms processing or forms recognition technology allows you to scan invoices and identify the data in the invoice automatically, reducing manual user intervention. Typical benefits include:
- Increased efficiency
- Enhanced data accuracy
- Decreased process time
- Reduced cost
- Improved compliance
- Integration with electronic approval workflow
The more invoices you process on a daily basis, the greater your savings will be. As invoices are scanned, you will be able to:
- Identify and extract key data
- Populate indexes automatically
- Validate data against your ERP system
- Automatically classify and sort invoices
- Automate invoice distribution via electronic workflow
For a detailed demonstration of IntelliChief’s forms processing technology, and see for yourself the savings it will bring you.
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