AP Outsourcing Case Study
Background
- Global leader in process equipment solutions processing over 8,000 invoices per month over 20 global locations in North America, Asia, and Europe.
- Paper-based approval process: Would copy the invoice, send the original to approvers, and wait for invoices to be returned. Lack of visibility into invoice status caused late payments to vendors.
- Client would process PO invoices in their ERP system and rely on the Purchasing department to run a report to resolve any exceptions. They were unable to quantify and measure exceptions to implement process improvements to reduce them.
- The disbursement cycle took about one full week to complete and due to client’s paper-based process with many invoices on people’s desks it was difficult to capture the value of invoices in
process extending month end close.
Solution
- Using IQ’s proprietary Archimedes system, client was able to track invoices through the process, subsequently reducing lost or misplaced invoices and reducing rush or late vendor payments.
- IQ developed processing rules and tracking capabilities, using Archimedes, to report on exceptions and gather data to improve the process improvements that reduce the number of exceptions.
- IQ used Archimedes to build a custom accrual extract, allowing client to capture at any time all in-process invoices for accrual purposes for a rapid month-end close.
- Using best practices and process efficiencies, IQ cut the disbursement cycle to one day.
