Optimising the Invoicing Process

  • Streamlined accounts payable operations
  • Improved dispute resolution
  • Significant cost savings


Objectives
A European-headquartered retail group wished to introduce greater efficiency, productivity and cost saving into its processes for handling disputed supplier invoices in its home operating country.  The company were looking for a solution that would capture incoming invoices, process them to be decision-ready, and then input those invoices into the company’s accounts payable system.

The Pitney Bowes solution
Pitney Bowes implemented an outsourced Invoice Process Automation service for the retail group across three sites.  On each site, incoming supplier invoices (arriving in a wide variety of formats) are captured, sorted, classified, digitised and entered into a central incoming document workflow application.

Once digitised, key data pieces are extracted from the incoming invoices.  They are then automatically indexed and rendered into a standard format that is compatible with the group’s accounts payable (AP) system.  The invoices are then entered in the AP system in a decision-ready form, allowing invoice disputes to be resolved more quickly and efficiently, while also consuming less internal resource (and cost) in the process.

Over the course of a year, 6.5 million pages of supplier invoices are processed by this front-end inbound invoice management workflow. The retail group attributes strategic significance to this facility, including tracking and reporting capabilities, regarding it as the first major building block of an eventual e-invoicing system across its supplier community.

Results
The retail group has realised significant cost savings in disputed accounts payable processing as a result of the Pitney Bowes service.  Disputed invoices are resolved more quickly, and the resources required to resolve each dispute dramatically reduced.  Overall, the Invoice Process Automation service has made a significant contribution to the optimisation of outstanding invoice settlement and reconciliation processes.

Benefits of Invoice Process Automation

  • Inbound disputed invoices of all types processed, decision-ready, into a correct input format for internal AP systems.
  • Cost/resource reduction achieved through productivity and automation gains from digitised inbound document flow.
  • Improved disputed invoice settlement periods.
  • Additional reporting and reconciliation benefits.

Client profile
Originating in Europe, this retail group is now a major player across the globe, with operations spanning 35 countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America.



 

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