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Purchase-to-Pay Automation Process by IntelliChief

Accounts payable is crucial in an organization’s financial health and operational capabilities. Purchase-to-pay automation is one of the most effective ways enterprises can streamline invoice processing, strengthen vendor relations, and reduce tedious manual tasks.

 

Let’s explore how one organization increased operational productivity, accuracy, and efficiency through purchase-to-pay automation.

Landoll Corporation Aims to Improve the Purchase-to-Pay Process

Landoll Corporation began with three employees in 1963. They have grown to become a global provider of innovative products for agriculture, transportation, material handling, OEM, military, and government sectors. Today, Landoll continues to be recognized for their durable and high-performance equipment across various industries.

 

Over the decades, the company has faced obstacles as they aimed for growth. During their expansion, they found that their manual, paper-based accounts payable processes kept invoice volumes high. Additionally, their delayed document handling affected vendor payment schedules negatively, which put a strain on their relationships with suppliers.

 

“When I looked at the size and scope of the business process that we had become entangled in, I decided we had to develop a paperless business model.” — John C. Schmidt, Group Manager at Landoll

 

This realization began Landoll Corporation’s search for a solution to these issues—they discovered purchase-to-pay automation. After thorough evaluations of different solution providers, their team chose IntelliChief to support their digital transformation. Our platform now allows Landoll to minimize repetitive tasks and processing time, as well as enhance their procurement and payment operations.

 

“The point to be made is this—buyers should be focusing on the purchasing process and developing quality vendors with the ability to deliver products on time at competitive prices, not shuffling paper between departments and staff.”

Getting Started With Paperless Purchasing

Landoll turned to IntelliChief for purchase-to-pay automation. They began streamlining the process with their paper-based purchasing phase, which was one of the major causes of inefficiency. Here’s how the new process works:

 

  • A purchase order is created in the company’s Infor ERP application
  • The PO is merged with an electronic form and automatically delivered to the vendor, based on the mode they prefer
  • The finalized PO is archived digitally in IntelliChief’s secure repository, which can be accessed immediately at any time

Advantages of Going Paperless

Instead of handling physical documents, Landoll now uses IntelliChief’s advanced platform to capture and extract data from transactional documents, including email, fax, and paper-based formats. The collected information is compared automatically against data in the Infor ERP and stored with other relevant documentation.

 

Consider this scenario involving order acknowledgements:

 

If a buyer received a confirmation email from a supplier stating, “We have received your PO and will ship by the requested date,” it’s considerably more efficient to capture the acknowledgment in IntelliChief with the purchase documentation collection. This eliminates the need for paper files, improving visibility throughout the purchasing cycle.

 

Here’s how IntelliChief helped address this scenario:

 

If a shipment issue arises, the buyer can instantly pull up the PO and all related records to investigate and resolve the issue. All purchase details are centralized and accessible, reducing turnaround time and boosting efficiency.

Handling Discrepancies Without Delays

When materials arrive, the receiving documents are electronically captured. The same processing occurs with bills of lading and related packing slips. IntelliChief captures and archives all types of purchasing documentation automatically, applying pre-configured business rules that continuously improve through built-in learning capabilities.

 

Why is this important? It allows IntelliChief to connect receiving documents with the corresponding PO and any other related documentation.

 

According to John C. Schmidt:

 

“For orders to have items that were back-ordered or shipped incorrectly, IntelliChief’s workflow can expedite resolutions of these issues in an efficient manner. When there’s a discrepancy in the packing slip, it can be electronically routed to the specific buyer. It’s very easy and cost-effective compared to our paper process days.”

 

Schmidt also pointed out another important benefit of going paperless:

 

“In the past, we used 15 filing cabinets and a warehouse to store our purchasing documents. With IntelliChief, we have no filing cabinets, nor are we moving any files to the warehouse. The square footage previously occupied by filing cabinets in the AP Department is now being used for additional, much-needed meeting space. Filing time of the past is now directed to more productive purposes.”

 

Before adopting IntelliChief, Landoll relied on two full-time employees just to manage document storage and retrieval. Now, those team members are applying their skills elsewhere in the business, free from repetitive manual tasks.

Key Benefits of Purchase-to-Pay Automation

Adopting purchase-to-pay automation brings significant improvements across your procurement and finance functions.

Manual purchase orders, approvals, and invoice matching not only slow down operations but also leave room for human error, compliance risks, and missed savings. Automation streamlines these workflows, freeing your team from time-consuming, repetitive tasks.

With IntelliChief’s purchase-to-pay automation, organizations can experience:

  • Faster invoice processing with fewer discrepancies and reduced manual handling
  • Improved accuracy in matching POs, goods receipts, and invoices
  • Lower operational costs by minimizing paper usage and eliminating duplicate payments
  • Stronger vendor relationships through timely, accurate payments
  • Better visibility and control over spending management with real-time reporting and audit trails

Best Practices for Implementing P2P Automation

Transitioning to purchase-to-pay automation requires more than just updating software. It takes a thoughtful approach to change management and stakeholder involvement.

Whether you’re implementing automation across a single department or multiple locations, following proven methods can ensure a smoother rollout and improved ROI.

Here are a few key practices to keep in mind:

  • Start with process mapping: Understand your current workflows so you can identify inefficiencies and areas ripe for automation.
  • Engage key stakeholders early: Involve procurement, finance, IT, and leadership from the start to align goals and reduce resistance.
  • Set clear KPIs: Define what success looks like. Are you aiming to cut the processing time in half or eliminate paper invoices?
  • Plan phased rollouts: Start with a smaller department or vendor group, refine your approach, and scale across the organization.
  • Provide adequate training: Even the best system falls flat without user adoption. Make sure your team understands how automation benefits them.

Payment Scheduling Optimization

IntelliChief significantly improved payment scheduling optimization for Landoll Corporation. Before implementing purchase-to-pay automation, the AP team manually processed around 100 invoices per day, which included printing, sorting, marking up, and physically routing them for approval. Discrepancies required paper copies to be sent to buyers, delaying resolution and increasing the workload.

 

An Excel log tracked outstanding invoices, adding more manual effort. On average, invoices were handled four to five times each, leading to:

 

  • Late payment penalties
  • Missed early payment discounts
  • Slow processing times
  • Vendor dissatisfaction
  • Increased errors

 

Final approvals triggered check printing, which then required manual filing—an inefficient and error-prone system.

 

“Now, Invoices that arrive via fax are electronically captured and are routed to the appropriate AP staffer’s electronic inbox. Mailed Invoices are processed and scanned by Administrators, who then index them with the appropriate vendor and PO number. IntelliChief’s workflow process routes the Invoice to the appropriate AP staff’s inbox. Emailed Invoices are captured with Capture Enterprise, with email and attachments sent to the imaging database.” — Susan Slater, Accounts Payable Supervisor at Landoll

 

With purchase-to-pay automation, IntelliChief enables smarter payment prioritization through enhanced visibility and integration. Landoll can now quickly identify which Invoices qualify for early payment discounts and take action.

 

This entire electronic procedure for capturing and routing Invoices helps speed up the process. This is essential for us to receive payment discounts, which accounts for considerable capital annually.

 

If past transactions need to be reviewed, IntelliChief’s powerful search retrieves documents using vendor numbers, PO numbers, invoice numbers, or other metadata.

Beyond the Purchase-to-Pay Automation With IntelliChief

With IntelliChief, Landoll’s digital transformation had begun. Leveraging results from their purchase-to-pay automation, Landoll set its sights on expanding IntelliChief utilization to other departments, business units, and processes, such as its order-to-cash operations.

 

Landoll Corporation has enabled everyone from sales, customer service, order processing, invoicing, and collections to go paperless with IntelliChief.

Do you want to learn more about automating your company’s P2P process? Contact IntelliChief today to learn more about our solutions to your enterprise’s problems.

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