Invoice Management

• There is a dedicated team in charge of the daily processing of incoming invoices in your company.
  A task, which today, is still a very manual, time consuming, time critical and expensive activity. Did you know you can significantly increase your efficiency rather easily while saving costs?
• Optimising the management of your incoming invoices can also improve the relationship with your suppliers.
  After all, the processing of your invoices can lead to expensive, time consuming and annoying disagreements. Did you know that the error margin can be limited up to 3 per 1000?

Incoming Invoices Solution Overview

• eXbo reroutes your supplier invoices to its scan centre which has a major impact on delivery time and costs.
• eXbo scans your incoming invoices daily. Via innovative OCR technology, the data, which are normally retyped, are automatically recognised.
• Our team of specialist operators checks these data by correcting missing or wrong items.
• After processing, you will be provided with both the digital image of the invoice and a validated data file. You will receive these data in the electronic format of your choice within a contractually defined period.
• The data file is now ready to be uploaded in your ERPpackage for further accounting purposes.
• You are also given the following options:
  • The possibility of using a highly user-friendly workflow to approve your invoices.
  • Dematerialisation of your paper invoices in an online electronic archiving system (according to the legislation in force , paper documents may be destroyed).
  • The comparison of received invoices with existing contracts, orders or delivery notes already integrated in the ERPsystem).

• Cost savings and increased efficiency thanks to automation of standard processes.
  • No more manual booking and encoding, no more copying tasks, no more physical distribution or archiving.
• Full traceability.
  • Automatic archiving makes all invoices always available in just a few mouse clicks. The approval process happens via e-mail or online, which allows for immediate checking of each invoice. Invoices can no longer be lost and are always available.
• Greatly reduced lead time.
  • This automation greatly simplifies the accounts payable process. The lead time for the complete processing of an invoice is considerably reduced, resulting in better cash flow management.
• Improved relationship with your suppliers.
  • The error margin for processing is significantly improved; the approval and payment procedure will be more efficient, which results in less time spent on the follow-up of disagreements. Fast and efficient processing allows you to benefit from a reduction in cash payments.

Case Study Invoice Management

Increased organisational efficiency and cost savings with eXbo invoice management.

• Summary

  Challenge

  Our customer is an international group with HQ in Belgium receiving 14.000 invoices per year from its 3 working companies. The processing of the invoices was a decentralised manual and thus expensive process, which needed to be automated and optimised. Furthermore the company also wanted the invoices to be centrally available in digital form.

  Approach

  eXbo redesigned the invoice processing flow and implemented an outsourcing solution. All supplier invoices were rerouted to a PO box daily emptied by eXbo. eXbo's scan centre scans the invoices, captures the data, and prepares the data for integration into the customer's SAP system. The invoices are approved via an online approval system and documents are made available in a digital archive.

• Background to the customer

  Our customer is an international company regrouping her activities in 2 branches. It recently created a 3rd branch with a substantial real estate portfolio (residential, commercial, industrial and offices).

• Who was involved
  • De Post: supplier invoices are sent to a dedicated PO box and transported to eXbo.
  • eXbo: invoice scanning, data capturing and translation, archiving and sending information to customer.
  • Customer: preparing SAP software for invoice data integration, communication of new PO box address to suppliers, reducing/reconverting accounting FTEs.
• The problems and how we tackled them
  • Rerouting and transporting invoices to eXbo scan centre

    Customer communicates PO box address change to suppliers.

    De Post/eXbo organises a daily transport to its scan centre to start automation process.

    Our customer doesn't need to focus on a non-core activity.

    Reception and transport of invoices are efficiently managed at lower costs.

  • Digitalisation of documents

    eXbo scans the invoices and captures the relevant data.

    The data is validated by our specialist team, leading to a maximum error margin of 0,03%.

    The data is sent to the customer for integration in their SAP system.

    Data capture is automated and made available for further efficient processing and consulting.

    Data are sent to SAP system of customer for further processing.

  • Data Integration in SAP and document management system

    The relevant data per invoice can be integrated in SAP.

    Online approval system.

    Reporting and tracking for efficient management:

    • Disputes can easily be refuted by track & trace.
    • Bottlenecks are identified.

    Invoices are 24/7 available.

    Invoice processing is optimised and greatly reduced in costs.

    Documents can be accessed from various locations and by various stakeholders.

    Improved relation with suppliers and cash payment reduction possible due to faster payments.

• Outcomes and impact

  Customer can fully focus on core activity.

  Elimination of hard copies.

  Invoicing process efficiency is boosted.

  Overall organisation efficiency is improved by availability of documents.

  Potential for cash payment reduction.

  Major cost savings are realised.

  Before	After
  Total yearly cost of invoice processing:	Total cost 1st year of new solution:
  210.000 EUR	162.250 EUR
  Savings 1st year : 33%

  For reasons of confidentiality the calculation was based on a fictitious number of documents. For a more precise calculation of what you can save with this solution, eXbo is more than happy to look at your particular situation and make a savings estimation.

• What could we have done better?
  • Add other subsidiary to flows to increase centralisation, automation and savings.
  • Improve workflow monitoring.
• Next steps
  • Automate other document flows to take even more advantage of automation.
  • Evaluate process regularly.
  • Combine integration of electronic and paper invoices via the CertiOne Platform, a B2B consolidator platform from our sister company Certipostthat that allows you to exchange data with suppliers and customers guaranteeing authenticity whilst keeping integrity. This offers a unique solution for secured translation, integration and archiving for paper and electronic invoices.
• Key learning points - 100 words

  Major cost savings by digitalisation due to outsourcing, automation and full variable costing.

  Faster data processing results in cash payment reduction.

  Webbased archive and track & trace:

  • Always have all documents a few mouse clicks away.
  • Identify and reduce bottlenecks for invoice approval.

  Other areas can always be improved – look further for other document flows to optimise your business.

• Further information

  For more information, please contact Peter Hooghe, Document Management Consultant, peter.hooghe@exbo.be,
  02/276 2046.

*For reasons of confidentiality the calculation was based on a fictitious number of documents.