Avanquest Accounts Payable Plus (AP+)

In every organisation, Accounts Payable (A/P) departments are challenged with cutting operating costs, while ensuring invoices are promptly paid and mishandling does not compromise hard-earned business relationships. According to research conducted by the Hackett Group, manual A/P processes are costing companies on average £2-£4 per invoice and reducing employee productivity by 50% (cited ft.com).

Accounts Payable Plus (AP+) from Avanquest Solutions is a single ‘start-to-finish’ solution, enabling organisations to benefit from a compelling ROI, together with measurable business efficiency improvements for the Accounts Payable process. Individual products already exist to capture, store and route data, but until now no one has offered the power of an end-to-end solution. The Accounts Payable Plus solution uses several best of breed products to:

Capture: Most capture tools operate on template basis, which require structure and will not work with 1000s of differently structured invoices. However, AP+ employs an intelligent capture tool which can extract invoice data automatically from any invoice, learning and storing information as it goes. This allows collection of data to be truly automated and ERP accounts system to be updated, without manual entry.

Manage: Holds all relevant documents and facilitates delivery and comparison of documents. Allows quick search and access to documents for processing, and audit. This negates the need for paper storage, whilst supporting compliance.

Process: Action needs to be taken on invoices - AP+ will automatically match invoices to PO and/or POD documents, compare values and escalate exceptions to other areas of the business. This greatly reduces process times and mistakes.

Issues in the Current State

There are a number of challenges related to A/P invoice processing, including:

• Errors associated with manual data entry in accounting systems
• Slow turn-around time due to manual routing, processing, and sign-off procedures involving individuals in different departments
• Inefficiencies due to time spent gathering physical documents in order to match invoices with purchase orders, contracts, and accounting system records (with the occasional need to contact the supplier for additional information or documentation)
• Inability to maximise financial benefits associated with payment schedules (such as discounts for early payments, or avoiding late fees for tardy payments)
• Risk of document loss or damage, as documents are received at multiple input points and may be routed or classified incorrectly
• Costs associated with manual document routing, shipping, couriers, storage, etc.
• Inability to easily audit invoice processing and payments to match up document flow with the accounting system