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Capturing Your AP and Orders Email

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Tim Nissen | Capturing Your AP and Orders Email.

With the volumes of email you receive, transactional data and attachments are easy to overlook – and it’s difficult to quantify what’s missed. This is particularly concerning regarding capturing your AP and Orders email.

A simplified automation solution: IntelliChief Email Import provides the capability to capture documents directly from your company’s email system. It targets specified addresses you designate (e.g. ap@, customerservice@), redirecting from your email server to the IntelliChief Email Import feature of IntelliChief ECM. The body and attachments are automatically captured into IntelliChief as body-attachment batches or individual documents.

The useful functionality: all the captured documentation is image-enabled, facilitating the contained information to be indexed for keyless, straight through processing within IntelliChief. ECM integration with your ERP and line of business systems assures the data is verified and validated for accuracy, archived with each transaction’s document collection, and readily available for workflow.

IntelliChief Email Import epitomizes automation – it runs behind the scenes. Conveniently out of the way, yet reliably functional. It complements IntelliChief’s complete enterprise Accounts Payable and Order processing automation for your organization.

If this is capability you and your colleagues could use, contact IntelliChief to see how it will function in your specific processing environment.

Purchase to Pay: Results of Automating AP Processing

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Tim Nissen | Purchase to Pay: Results of Automating AP Processing.

If you’ve attended a live sports or entertainment event, you’ve seen this company in action. They’re the stars for sound, staging, storage and transportation; the ones behind ‘the show must go on’.

The Challenge

The company was looking to streamline their Purchase to Pay process. Overall, the goal was to reduce the time, effort and cost of paying invoices. Within their Accounting workflow, all invoices were paper. Those arriving in an electronic format (frequently email attachments) were printed. This manual, paper intensive process made it difficult to find, route and organize each invoice associated with every order.

They used an internal mail service to send their paper invoices to Accounting, and the approval process was an extremely time intensive task. Their methods were not easy or efficient – those invoices without purchase orders were routed from Accounting to an approving manager via internal mail, reviewed/approved by the manager, then routed back to Accounting again by internal mail. Purchase order invoices were manually matched to the receiver’s invoice.

The Consensus

The company chose to implement IntelliChief as the enterprise content management (ECM) solution to automate their specific processes, creating an efficient Purchase to Pay environment. Since adding IntelliChief, the time for invoice approval and routing to the Accounting department for payment has been significantly reduced (quantified in the IntelliChief Automation Results section).

Now, all invoices are captured, electronically formatted, entered into IntelliChief and indexed by the Administrative Services department, replacing much of their ERP keying with touch-free, straight through processing. The company assigns each vendor a default approving manager. The invoices that are non-PO are automatically routed to the approving manager via IntelliChief’s automated workflow, eliminating (literal) steps from their previous manual routing process. PO invoices are placed in a To Be Matched inbox, with IntelliChief moving the PO invoices to be paid when a receiver matches the PO invoice. “A significant benefit of adding IntelliChief is the ability to handle existing workloads and avoid the need to hire or shift additional resources to AP, as our organization grows,” stated the company’s IT Director.

IntelliChief ECM’s integration with their ERP provided visibility, verification and validation (enhanced by IntelliChief’s item cross reference normalization) to assure payment accuracy, receipt of their contractual timely payment discounts, and avoidance of late payment penalties.

Paperless Prosperity

With IntelliChief ECM, all incoming invoices received by fax, email or mail are available electronically with-in the system, accessible via desktop or mobile device. With the company’s goal to be completely paperless, after the successful implementation in Accounts Payable, they see IntelliChief as the cornerstone of this endeavor. Next, their paperless expansion will encompass their Order-to-Cash process to decrease DSO’s and improve cash flow.

Complete Connection

A crucial component of their selection of IntelliChief is its ability to connect with any ERP or line of business system throughout the company. This will provide the company flexibility to utilize ECM in any department of their business they deem advantageous, to move them increasingly closer to paperless process management’s cost savings multiplier.

Seamless system integration was a significant differentiator of IntelliChief from other document management solutions. With IntelliChief, the company’s staff can capture, create, store, index, search, retrieve and distribute documents directly from any business system without leaving their desks, eliminating tedious, costly digging through filing cabinets or sourcing off-site storage for needed documentation.

Their IntelliChief AP Automation Results

Eliminate Expenses – They save $32 processing an invoice.

Reduce Processing Time – They save 23 days processing each invoice.

Capture Emailed Documentation Easily – Automated capture of emailed documents (both body contents and attachments) eliminates printing and keying.

Archive Simply – IntelliChief’s Print Capture function enables their users to electronically archive and prepare any document for workflow, simply by selecting the File-Print to IntelliChief feature.

Convenient 3-Way Matching – For Accounts Payables’ 3-way matching processing, the company’s staff utilizes a two-monitor desktop configuration, enabling them to simultaneously see both the original purchase order created in their ERP, with the invoice and receiver captured by IntelliChief.

Automate Invoice Routing Workflow – When processing invoices that required approval, the old method relied on internal mailing of the original invoice to the appropriate manager for approval, a process that took days. Using IntelliChief’s workflow to automate routing, the process is completed in minutes.

Improving Cash Flow with Accounts Payable

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Tim Nissen | Improving Cash Flow with Accounts Payable.

Founded in 1934 to make steel castings for the U.S. Military, this company has grown to be a top specialty manufacturer in the US. Their continued growth is based upon acquiring new customers while maintaining and growing loyal accounts through investments in innovative production abilities and proactive customer service.

A Paper-Based Problem

Improving cash flow with Accounts Payable.

One area of inefficiency this company realized was its plethora of paper processes. According to their Database Administrator, “We had a real need to go paperless to enhance accuracy while saving time and money.” The DBA and the company’s Controller agreed that an automated, paperless flow would benefit Accounts Payable (AP) and their interdepartmental colleagues, making sure that important documents never sat on anyone’s desk too long. It would also help the company with issues involving multiple document copies, outdated information circulation and duplicate payments.

The DBA indicated they had been using Quadrant Software’s Formtastic™ and FastFax™ solutions when they began their quest to go paperless, and they were excited to discover that IntelliChief enterprise content management (ECM) was a partner product of both Formtastic and FastFax, and could help them reach their document management and business process workflow goals. At first glance, the solution seemed like a perfect fit, but the company decided to evaluate other ECM options for comparison. In the end however, IntelliChief’s process workflow-matching configuration, and seamless integration with the company’s enterprise content management (ERP) system, made it the right choice for them.

“All the paper was costing us a lot of time and money,” the DBA relayed. It also resulted in too many mistakes. “We ended up double paying vendors two or three times a month, well, that we knew of. We had a team of four in AP who were struggling to keep-up with the increasing paper volume. They were doing the best they possibly could, though the backlog of ERP information keying and constant ‘walking-workflow’ put them in an unwinnable cash flow situation. IntelliChief was our way to fix this through automation.”

Piles (and Piles) of Paper

Before the IntelliChief implementation, all purchase orders were created manually. An initial requisition was drafted, and once approved three copies of the document were made. One went to AP, another to Purchasing and the final to the requestor. The information was then manually keyed into their ERP to create an official purchase order for the requisition. This PO would then be printed in triplicate and distributed. At this point in the process, the DBA explained that, “at least six pieces of paper had been generated to secure a single item.”

Once the item requested arrived, its receipt would be entered into their ERP. The receiver who signed for the goods would, according to the DBA, “hopefully be able to send the packing slip over to AP that day, preventing processing hold-up, or worse – documentation loss.” If the packing slip made it there, AP would then attempt to make a 4-way match, trying to marry up the original requisition, the PO, the packing slip and the inbound invoice from the vendor. Often however, all four documents did not make their way to AP, causing AP to have to request new copies from various parties within the process. If any originals did resurface, some items were entered twice, and invoices paid twice.

The time was right for the company to implement IntelliChief and activate additional tandem features within their ERP that would enable them to reliably go paperless.

Paperless Purchasing

The first thing the company did was to activate the Requisition Approval function within their ERP. This ability automates the requisition process, meaning no hard copies are produced. Once the requisition is approved in their ERP, a PO is generated within the system and faxed or emailed directly to the vendor through FastFax. No copies of the PO are required – every document within the purchasing process is archived within the IntelliChief system.

The company also activated the Receiving function within their ERP that’s integrated with IntelliChief, which allows the company to scan a packing slip at Receiving. AP no longer must wait for the physical slip; once it’s scanned it becomes available electronically via IntelliChief to all authorized users. When an invoice arrives (whether via fax, mail or email), it’s captured by IntelliChief and made available via their ERP screen, often with touchless, straight-through processing, eliminating data keying. Users can retrieve all related AP documents quickly on the screen together, making the 4-way matching process a snap. Also, there are no more checks to print, copy and file, as IntelliChief retains copies of each payment’s documentation, through automated capture and archival.

If a snag ever arises within the purchasing process (IE. the quoted price on a PO doesn’t match the price on an invoice), IntelliChief makes it easy to resolve the issue, through item cross-reference normalization. There’s no more walking paper across the building; instead AP simply forwards the item within IntelliChief’s process-specific workflow to the proper parties to resolve the issue. The best part, said the DBA, is that “all transaction documentation history is organized and stored in IntelliChief, making it very easy to archive and retrieve any aspect of any transaction, with all the steps and notations added in workflow retained.”

Automated Cash Flow Improvement

The DBA feels that IntelliChief has fundamentally changed the way the company conducts business. Most of their AP filing cabinets are gone. Everything and everyone are comfortably more efficient, helping to add dollars to the company’s bottom line. According to the DBA, “IntelliChief has really streamlined the invoice matching process and approvals, and payment scheduling, greatly enhancing our cash flow. We’re also benefiting from vendor discounts for the first time in our company’s history and finding them to be significant in our case. The multi-pay errors are virtually non-existent now.”

The Future

With IntelliChief, the company now operates a paperless Order-to-Cash operation. While they haven’t had the system in place long enough to fully calculate its payoff in this area, they’re already benefiting from on-screen visibility to order projects that they, and all their colleagues involved in fulfilling each order, haven’t previously had. The days of running between departments to retrieve, review, add notations and secure approvals are over. The Shipping Department is also better equipped to work with Customer Service, with both having real-time access to each order’s status. Any customer-requested order documents may be sent to them directly from IntelliChief by email or fax.

When asked if they would recommend going paperless with IntelliChief to other companies, the DBA responded, “Absolutely! Get rid of the paper – it will immediately save you time, money and frustration!” They also said that for most people letting go of paper was easier than had been expected, and that the few who struggled were convinced after just a few days, as they realized how easy it was to retrieve a document from IntelliChief. The DBA stated, “the IntelliChief search function is as intuitive as an Internet search engine. Whether the documents are linked to their ERP or they’re stand-alone items created within IntelliChief, the system makes it very easy to search for and access them right away. We’ve moved in the right direction – away from filing cabinets.”

AP Automation Actuals Calculator

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Tim Nissen | AP Automation Actuals Calculator.

Using your actuals to discern if AP automation makes fiscal sense for your company, allows you to know for sure if it’s worth the pursuit. Will it also add value to your ERP system investment?

Now there’s a convenient way to find out. IntelliChief ECM’s AP Automation Actuals Calculator factors all cost savings related to moving from manual to automated processing in your environment, utilizing verification and validation from your ERP’s tables.

The calculator includes all aspects of AP processing, comparing your costs projections from years’ 1-5 of automation’s implementation. You’re able to see where AP Automation’s efficiencies affect your organization, providing guidance for process automation optimization when mapping your workflow, in-tandem with ECM system integration with your ERP.

Costs calculated include:

  1. AP Statistics and Measurements – In-depth analysis of invoice sources and formats, quantities, data capture methods, resource/storage/labor cost (internal and outsourced), late payment fees paid and early pay discounts available
  2. Hard Dollar Costs – Determining manual processing actuals
  3. Staff Time – Often the hidden expenses associated with AP processing – time and cost of employee/contract staff in processing tasks, encompassing invoice printing, ERP/business system keying, approval routing, exception handling, data conversions, resolving duplicate payments, researching internal and vendor inquires, audit preparation, tracking and reporting on all activities.

Purchasing and Receiving’s related costs also are factored, including these department’s labor cost of transactional documentation workflow routes.

Once these figures are entered, the Calculator progresses to both hard dollar savings/gains and efficiency savings for each year 1-5, per line item allocation. It provides a comparison of your current costs to what they would be in an automated environment.

With these calculations completed, you’ll know what impact AP Automation will have for you. If the outlook’s favorable, the data accumulated will be foundational for your business case.

For your free Calculator, contact IntelliChief.

The YMCA Central Maryland Selects IntelliChief Accounts Payable Automation

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IntelliChief, a provider of automated document management and workflow enterprise content management (ECM) solutions, announces The YMCA Central Maryland selects IntelliChief Accounts Payable Automation. Upon vetting three industry-leading ECM systems, The Y chose IntelliChief for non-PO invoice processing, as they migrated invoices and data from their previous ECM. Their qualifications included a system integrated with their Stock, Garber and Associates (SGA) enterprise resource planning system (ERP), with retrieval and invoice data import for verifications and validations. They needed document capture capabilities to eliminate printing and scanning, decreasing ERP keying by increasing touchless straight-through processing, with workflow mapped to their specific processes to expedite reviews and approvals. The system needed to be scalable to expand into other departmental areas.

VP of Finance and Controller Jeremy Trimble commented, “we went through a very thorough analysis of options and feel great about the selection of IntelliChief. They met and exceeded all our criteria. We are thrilled about this new partnership.”

IntelliChief ECM provides a smooth, robotic process automation (RPA) transition from costly manual document management and workflow functions. Its industry-awarded AI-powered document capture enables users imaging capability of any paper or electronic format, indexing contents and validating with data in their ERP and line of business applications. It optimizes interdepartmental process workflow, with real-time analytic visibility through desktop and mobile access.

IntelliChief’s enterprise automated document management usage spans Accounts Payable, Purchasing, Sales Management, Customer Service, Human Resources-HCM, IT, Legal and Logistics/Distribution.

For IntelliChief ECM information, contact IntelliChief.

The YMCA Central Maryland is among the largest Y Associations in the U.S, providing service to over 350,000 people throughout the central Maryland region. They are a charitable, cause-driven organization working for community well-being, operating across over 100 sites with a focus on Youth Development, Healthy Living and Social Responsibility.

How Risky is Risk – a Case for Enterprise Content Management

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Tim Nissen | How Risky is Risk – a Case for Enterprise Content Management.

According to the International Federation of Accountants, the ever-changing business landscape of new technology and fluctuating markets, positions accounting and finance professionals to have the most significant impact on enterprise risk management (ERM) within their organizations. With this opportunity to support value creation and preservation over time, they’re primed to contribute to both fiscal and operational aspects of ERM initiatives. The most prevalent identified need: enabling business system integration and interconnectivity to break down siloes across the organization for sharing information timely and cost-effectively. Workflow automation is a stable step towards ongoing reduction of capital and earnings risk.

How risky is risk – a case for Enterprise Content Management (ECM) begins with fixing the ERM problem of interdepartmental information silos, inadvertently created by lack of automated information management to enable staff to transcend departmentally-enclosed environments. Transactions – purchases and orders – is where this need is particularly evident.

Both Accounts Payable and Order process automation have reached functional, cost-effective scale through ECM. This technology enables all transaction-related information to be captured from native paper or electronic files, formatted to uniform image files for archival and automated workflow – interdepartmentally. With ECM integrated into a company’s ERP and line of business systems, this squarely addresses the silos, enabling staff to share timely, conveniently and cost-effectively from any location. Data is verified and validated between systems, with touchless, straight-through processing.

Reducing costs associated with processing and filing vendor invoices reflects AP automation’s impact, streamlining company workflow processes. It increases visibility into the invoice approval and exception handling through visualized analytics, ultimately mitigating late payment fee risk, while increasing early payment discount achievement through payment scheduling optimization.

By automating sales order processing, an organization benefits with faster order processing, while improving accuracy and lowering costs. Process control and visibility of orders routed for review, approval or exception handling is expedited. These aspects lead to a decrease in Days Sales Outstanding. Another multidepartment ECM benefit – improving Sales and Customer Service experiences for clientele, and for staff managing each account, bolstering customer retention and up-sell/cross-sell opportunities.

The International Federation of Accountants recent survey of US businesses concluded that 70 percent of them didn’t have a complete ERM process, though had a growing sense of urgency to discover and counter risk. A cost-beneficial step is AP and Order process automation with ECM.

For further information, contact IntelliChief.

Baseball Hall of Famer Tony La Russa Keynote Speaker at IntelliChief User Conference

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IntelliChief™, a leading provider of enterprise content management (ECM) solutions for Global 2000 companies, announces baseball Hall of Famer and 3-time World Series winner, Tony La Russa as the Keynote Speaker for Intelligence ’19, the first annual IntelliChief User Group Conference to be held in Boston from June 9th to June 12th at the Marriott Long Wharf.

La Russa, the third winningest manager of all time; only the second Major League Baseball manager to win World Series in both leagues; and the only All Star manager to win on both sides, won three consecutive American League championships and the 1989 World Series title with the Oakland A’s, three National League championships and the 2006 and 2011 World Series titles with the St. Louis Cardinals. He holds a Juris Doctorate from Florida State University and speaks fluent Spanish.  Tony is currently the Vice President, Special Assistant to the President of Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox and with his wife, Elaine are founders of the Tony La Russa Animal Rescue Foundation headquartered in Walnut Creek, California.  The charitable foundation is dedicated to saving abandoned and injured animals, running programs to bring animals to abused children, hospitalized patients, seniors and shut-ins.  He is well-respected and among the top leaders in all professional sports.

La Russa will speak on Business Leadership Qualities of World Series Teams. This lively, interactive discussion will span the gamut of parallels between sports and business from measuring success and setting strategies to overcoming obstacles and motivating team players.  Tony, with a lifetime of baseball experience and a keen sense of humor, will not just entertain the conference of business executives, but touch on topics and subjects relevant to baseball and business fans alike.

Intelligence ’19, is a premier user conference of IntelliChief customers gathered to learn, network and grow with other IntelliChief users and executives. The conference will provide the opportunity for IntelliChief executive and leaders to share insight, knowledge and best-practices with IntelliChief customers while providing the perfect environment for customers to collaborate with fellow executives, peers and implementers of the highly regarded IntelliChief software. Focus of the user conference will be on Accounts Payable Automation, Sales Order Processing, Human Resources management and the streamlining of other mission-critical business process, tightly integrated with key ERP systems.

Contact IntelliChief for more information.

Accounts Payable Automation 4-Way Matching

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Tim Nissen | Accounts Payable Automation 4-Way Matching.

Here’s a peer’s view of Accounts Payable Automation 4-way matching. If a company’s needs extend beyond an Invoice to PO to Receiver match, this will resonate.

This US-headquartered company, with operations spanning North America and Europe, found their paper-based processes were the decision driver for AP Automation. Time and cost associated with ERP data keying and manual workflows dictated a need to automate Accounts Payable, and other back-office processes where advantageous.

After a year of multiple enterprise content management (ECM) vendor reviews and system vetting, IntelliChief was selected based on:

  • Enterprise expansion capability throughout their organization
  • Integration with their ERP and line of business systems.

Their Accounts Payable operations were spread globally and consolidated at their California headquarters. The 4-way matching process consisting of Invoice to PO to Receiver to Quality Inspection Sheet. This forth component was a deciding factor in their ECM choice. “IntelliChief demonstrated the flexible capability to achieve our specific 4-way match, something other systems could not,” commented the Controller. “They proved equally adaptable to our needs throughout, accommodating all of our specific processes.”

The company had frequent repeat vendor orders. IntelliChief removed considerable time and cost through a high straight-through processing rate; the majority being completely automated from document capture to workflow. This created a touchless environment where no ERP keying or other human interaction was needed. With ERP lookups for vouchering, validating and supplementing key data between systems, IntelliChief’s rules-based business process automation workflow, mapped to their specific practices, enabled quick reviews and approvals.

The company utilized an AI aspect unique to IntelliChief: cross-referencing table algorithms to normalize data among systems, matching variables to maintain accuracy.

Their previous processing staff consisted of 3 full-time and one contract employee, has been reduced by half, freeing the others to concentrate on strategic operations.

Their ancillary benefit of AP Automation was in related vendor fees. “We were able to eliminate both outsourced digital imaging and physical storage services, creating considerable, ongoing cost savings,” their Controller relayed.

They found additional benefit with IntelliChief’s Implementation and Support. A strong partnership formed quickly between the company’s staff and the IntelliChief team. “IntelliChief’s Implementation team perfectly configured the system to our specific process environment, and their Support staff has always been responsive and helpful. Their people work well with ours, and we appreciate that,” commented the Controller.

AP Automation Justification Calculator for JD Edwards

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Tim Nissen | AP Automation Justification Calculator for JD Edwards.

Determining if AP automation is a project worth pursuing is primarily based on projected cost savings achievement. This is both a post-installation, near-term consideration, and one spanning subsequent fiscal year projections. While there are many industry average figures in circulation, they don’t provide you accuracy based on your specific business environment.

What’s needed is an AP Automation Justification Calculator for JD Edwards.

IntelliChief has created one, and it’s comprehensive. This tool’s objective is factoring all cost savings related to moving from manual to automated processing in your environment. It encompasses all aspects of AP processing, allowing you to add your related costs from years’ 1-5 of implementation, providing a true ROI projection. With this data, you’re able to see where AP Automation’s efficiencies affect your organization, providing guidance for process automation optimization when mapping your automated workflow, in-tandem with ECM system integration with your JD Edwards ERP for vendor and order information verifications and validations.

The AP Automation Justification Calculator for JD Edwards sections encompass:

AP Statistics & Measurements – Covering aspects of invoice receipt modes, quantities, data capture methods, resource/storage/labor cost (internal and outsourced), late payment fees paid and early pay discounts available.

Hard Dollar Costs – Quantifying budget allocated to manual processing.

Time Spent Per Person – Assessing appropriated time and cost of employee and contract staff in processing tasks, including invoice printing, ERP/business system keying, approval routing, exception handling, calculating data conversions, filing, resolving duplicate payments, researching internal and vendor inquires, audit preparation, tracking and reporting on all activities.

These extend from Accounts Payable into Purchasing and Receiving, encompassing labor cost of all workflow routes of transactional documentation.

Once these figures are collected and entered, the Calculator progresses to both Hard Dollar Savings/Gains and Efficiency Savings for each year 1-5, per line item allocation, comparing your current costs to automation’s. This is the awakening – do the numbers equate value of AP Automation for you?

Then calculations shift to ROI for AP Automation, measuring years’ 1-5’s returns if you implement an automated environment.

With these calculations completed, the AP Automation project decision becomes a clear choice, and equitable for prioritization. The data accumulated will be foundational for your business case.

 

  • For a video overview, see AP Automation Justification Calculator for JD Edwards here.

 

Doing JDE AP Automation the Integrated Way

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Tim Nissen | Doing JDE AP Automation the Integrated Way.

Here’s how doing JDE AP Automation the integrated way works, processing of 2-way matching (Invoice to PO) and 3-way matching (Invoice to PO to Receiver) with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and World.

Utilizing Oracle Gold Partner and Quest Oracle Community Sponsor IntelliChief ECM’s system, processing occurs in both initial document capture and in workflow, providing real time integrated JD Edwards database validations with automation’s speed and accuracy.

In-tandem with IntelliChief, information from JD Edwards is utilized to perform matching. IntelliChief keeps track of the PO quantity open and the Receiving quantity available by saving needed information when an Invoice line item is matched to a PO/Receiver. This can be set to identify by PO Number, Item Number/ID, Unit Price, Line Total, PO Quantity Ordered, Receiving Quantity, or two Miscellaneous fields of the user’s choice.

IntelliChief includes multiple Match Methods, where receiving quantity qualifies exact match, based on first in, first used, or a combination of both. It includes options for a Variance percent, amount and type for the Invoice to PO fields (Unit Price, Line Total, Quantity).

Matching features of Unit of Measure and Price normalization capability simplifies processing of standardized orders (Ordering Quantity vs. Invoiced Quantity). Part Number cross-referencing increases accuracy when obsolete numbers are referenced in the Invoice. Both increase touchless processing.

With IntelliChief, this touchless, straight-through processing significantly reduces information keying into JD Edwards, saving time and cost, enabling visibility to receive early payment discounts, while avoiding late payment fees.

This presentation illustrates doing JDE AP Automation the integrated way: //bit.ly/2XK0RI8.