Automation beyond Accounts Payable in SAP

In addition, late payment penalties will be easier

to avoid. Furthermore, since automatic invoice
processing generates a clear audit trail, it will only
take a moment for fnancial controllers to check any
invoice.
Give Maverick the Boot
A clear and distinct workfow provides the right
conditions for taking control over the procurement
process. AP and purchase order automation provides
excellent means to obtain well-structured purchases
and deliveries. Theres also the possibility to let the
system generate complete and correct purchase or-
ders. It becomes easier to uncover bottlenecks and to
identify expensive ineffciencies such as Maverick
purchases.
Those companies that choose to automate both
the purchase order generation and the invoice
processes will win several advantages! Benets
include automated workow, greater control
over expenses and elimination of Maverick
spending. Choosing to automate just one of the
two processes will only save a fraction of the
time, costs and resources normally associated
with fully automation.
Standardize and Automate Workow
The purchase requisition is created digitally and
passed on for approval. When the requisition is
authorized a complete purchase order can be auto-
generated in SAP. The following steps include
order acknowledgement, advance shipment notice,
delivery note, goods received note and fnally the
supplier invoice. At every one of these steps, auto-
matic checks are carried out against the purchase
order. It gives the possibility to adjust information
where necessary so that the documentation is always
correct. There is also the possibility to use the sales
order information in the updated purchase orders to
automate remittance advice generation. The whole
process can be fully automatic and the only time that
manual handling is required is when the numbers
dont match.
Correct Cash Flow Statements
AP process automation results in an increased vis-
ibility and greater control over expenses. By collect-
ing all the information in one place makes it easy to
put together timely and accurate reports to support
the cash fow statements. It gets easier to maintain
a cash budget and consequently to sustain business
operations.
Decrease Procurement Costs
The pre-negotiated, discounted prices from regular
suppliers are stored in the system. In that way its
guaranteed that the price thats actually being paid is
the price that the parties agreed on and nothing else.
ReadSoft Review Author: Jonas Hedlid
Maverick purchase a purchase done without guidelines
and outside the existing agreements.
A recently made investigation in the US shows that Maverick
purchases in average are 35 % more expensive than compa-
rable negotiated prices. In addition to that they lead to sub-
stantially increased costs for the purchase to pay process.
Web interface
Theres no need for a SAP license to create a requi-
sition. That can easily be done via a ReadSoft web
interface and requires no in-depth knowledge of
SAP. Authorized suppliers also have web access to
the process status of their invoices.