Introduction - Purchase Invoice

Purchase Invoice Processing

AutoFORM Document Management for Purchase Invoices complements your ERP and Finance IT applications to create a fully integrated purchase invoice management system encompassing automated invoice data entry & archive indexing, onscreen viewing plus accelerated payment approval and query resolution.

Automated Purchase Invoice Processing
Organisations today are realising significant financial benefits from introducing AutoFORM Purchase Invoice document management and imaging solutions to automate purchase invoice processing.

AutoFORM adds the missing link to most finance and ERP applications: the ability to view documents onscreen - direct from the relevant finance ledger - enabling managers and staff to make more informed decisions and to complete more tasks in less time. Furthermore, AutoFORM eliminates the costs and difficulties associated with paper based manual invoice processiing at several key stages: manual keying in of invoice data into financial systems, budget coding, authorisation, query resolution escalation and payment notification. And of course with AutoFORM’s integral online archive, there is no tedious filing and no lost documents.

The Business Advantages

Why AutoFORM?
The advantage with AutoFORM is that the solution is entirely modular. Individual elements can either be used on their own or combined to provide a solution that meets all your needs, whilst providing the opportunity to enhance the solution with even more features in the future. Designed for both small and large companies, AutoFORM can provide a cost effective solution to meet your precise needs.

Document Capture
AutoFORM captures and automatically indexes all your incoming and outgoing, paper and electronic documents.

COLD Archiving: AutoFORM archives your purchase orders & other ERP documents as they are generated. No operator intervention required.

Capturing Email & Fax Content: automatically collects, indexes and archives invoices delivered to designated email or fax address.

AutoFORM Scanner Workstation: an easy to use PC interface, that helps the operator through the scanning and indexing process. Enables distributed scanning, eliminating the cost and time delays associated with forwarding documents to a central office.

AutoFORM PC & Email Document Import: append a copy of an email promising a credit note, or other associated PC document to the invoice, using automated indexing, dialogue indexing prompts or drag & drop techniques.

Automated Purchase Invoice Processing - XML: eliminate the tedium and errors associated with manual invoice logging and OCR. AutoFORM provides a variety of ways to automate data entry direct from your suppliers application output, using a combination of print portals and XML. AutoFORM uses XML to automatically processes the files so that they can be readily uploaded to your finance application and linked directly to paper documents.

AutoIndex
Indexes use purchase ledger codes Your purchase ledger already holds much of the information needed to create the search criteria indexes for your documents. For example the supplier name & address, VAT No, purchase order, the anticipated invoice value number and so forth. Rather than asking your operators to key in this information, AutoFORM collects it electronically. AutoFORM AutoIndex works with all the AutoFORM document import modules: COLD, SCAN, DRAG & DROP and XML.
OCR and barcode indexing is also supported.

Accelerated Retrieval
View document images from main application: As the indexing is entirely consistent with your finance systems, AutoFORM can create links between AutoFORM Archive and your application’s General Ledger, Purchase Ledger and Payment Status screens. So when your staff need to refer to an invoice to complete their tasks, all they have to do is click on the screen to see the relevant documents. This improves efficiency and productivity at every stage of the payment process.

Documents can also be viewed via AutoFORM’s webbrowser: Access to copy documents can be restricted to just those within a managers remit. Access to the webbrowser can be made via your network, intranet, a secure web portal.

AutoMatch
Automatically matches the purchase order to supplier invoice and presents both on screen for quick and easy comparison.

AutoNotification - Email or Workflow
Check invoices on screen: AutoFORM automatically emails each manager a "to do list" of all the invoices that they need to authorise,or action (or send a workflow message). All the manager has to do is click on the attachment or hyperlink to view each invoice across your intranet. This saves a great deal of time and effort all round, as no one has to dig out copy documents and invoices cannot get lost or their receipt denied.

Authorise Online - Identifies ‘Bottlenecks’
Authorise in less time with all copy documents available onscreen. Online authorisation - hold - reject either via your main application or from AutoFORM. Multiple authorisation levels can be arranged. Reduces progress chasing time and effort as AutoFORM automatically reports authorisations that have not been completed within pre-set time limits, allowing prompt investigation before the end of month rush.

Accelerate Query Resolutions
Reduces the time spent on payment queries, as all the supporting information is available on-screen to any manager that needs it (and not to those who don’t). Invoices can be electronically flagged for follow up allowing you to easily identify & escalate outstanding actions. Electronic notes can be linked and viewed with each invoice to maintain an auditable record of the query and agreed resolution.

AutoArchive for Audit
Documents and notes remain in the archive - even after payment - to assist with any later dispute or audit enquiry.
VAT and tax electronic archiving requirements can be met.

AutoPay
As invoices are authorised AutoFORM interacts with your main application to trigger automated BACS, Credit card and Cheque payments.Payment notification, dispute notices and other documentation can also be produced and sent by email, fax or print via AutoFORM Output Manager.

Look who uses AutoFORM Invoice

BOC Edwards — SAP R/3: Many of BOC Edwards European offices do not have a dedicated accounts payables office. As a result they tended to use local bureaus for the processing of international invoices but they were finding this both expensive and cumbersome to manage.
AutoFORM enables invoices to be scanned in the country of receipt and passed via their intranet to the central Crawley accounts office. With online authorisations and email communication, Crawley can now manage all the invoice payments for the whole of Europe, rather than just the UK whilst dramatically reducing costs. The whole process from invoice receipt to payment works in conjunction with their SAP R3 finance modules, enabling staff to refer to document images on screen as they complete their SAP tasks.

BOC Managers & Directors also value the ability to quickly view, check and authorise invoices on screen with the added ability of being able to drill down from their budget review screens and view the actual invoices that have been charged to their budgets.

Forestdale - Geac System21: As one of the UK’s largest privately owned Hotel Chains Forestdale’s Finance department is challenged with collecting and processing around 2,000 invoices per week from 18 hotels. AutoFORM gives Forestdale the ability to quickly view invoice images onscreen - direct from their System21 application, enabling the finance team to spend more time on checking supplier invoices and purchase orders rather than collecting and filing them. AutoFORM has also provided a number of additional facilities to automate purchase order to invoice matching, distribute invoices for authorisation and online invoice searches so that they can view invoices by product, area and supplier so that they can readily identify best value suppliers.

Elster - MTMS: As part of the Ruhrgas Group, Elster Metering (Luton UK)is the largest manufacturer of Water Meters in the World. Elster’s Document Management requirements were two fold: electronically print and archive all documents generated from MTMS and to scan incoming Supplier Invoices and Goods Received Notes for electronic storage and retrieval. This allowed the Customer Service and Finance Department to take immediate benefit of Document Management by reducing internal administration costs and improving information flow between departments, helping to increase response times to the Customer and Supplier base.

Open University - ROSS Systems: Handling, processing and managing the authorisation of over 15,000 purchase requisitions and the resultant invoices from several hundred managers in 13 regional centres was proving to be extremely costly. The laborious task of gaining purchase order and invoice authorisations by copying and circulating the relevant documents, then filing the originals, was time consuming - and time costs.

AutoFORM overcame the difficulties with its suite of document management and imaging solutions. Working in conjunction with the Open University’s Ross System, AutoFORM captures and manages every document from purchase requisition, to supplier invoice to credit note. This information can then be accessed by those that need it online (and not by those who don't) via a webbrowser. This empowers their staff with immediate access to information enabling them to make more informed purchasing & payment decisions and resolve queries in less time.

The Open University particularly chose AutoFORM for its speed of retrieval, which is powered by AutoFORM's intelligent indexing and search facilities: with over 8 years of purchase and payment records in the archive they can still retrieve records within a few seconds.

For more information how AutoFORM Invoice can help you improve accounts payables efficiency and productivity please ask for a copy of one of our case histories or demonstration disk.

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