Automatic processing of accounts payable using JobOrder Match

“Originally it was all about working in a simple and rational way,” says Peter Ammann, IT Project Manager at EM’s Zurich head office. We were looking for a solution to be able to centrally reconcile material invoices with orders and detect any discrepancies sooner. “Header data reconciliation” was on the list of requirements. The retail specialists would have settled on reconciling just the basics, namely creditor, order and invoice number and total amount including VAT, if a Swiss sales partner had not introduced them to JobRouter® and demonstrated the reconciliation of line item details using the JobOrder Match module. Suddenly the option of fully automated invoice processing was on the table. A dream scenario with the deluge of incoming invoices they receive every year.

It is well known that the path to your dream destination can sometimes be a rocky one. For the Swiss, whose homeland is dominated by alpine terrain, tackling the challenge pragmatically was second nature. The journey focused on transforming processes from decentralized to centralized, across 10 locations, and in German, French and Italian.

They took stock to prepare for digitizing the invoice verification process with JobRouter®. What are the supplier interfaces? Which employees have which roles? How should orders, and differences, be checked?

Scanning software and an external service provider were selected to scan invoices; the basis for JobRouter® being able to do a good job when processing paper documents. Pilot sites were picked out and milestones set: Step 1: The most important suppliers first. Step 2: Increase volume. Although the project team was in the starting blocks before the end of 2014, it was decided not to make the switch until the beginning of the new fiscal year.

In the pilot locations, the mountains of paper invoices have become smaller because the majority of them are already handled by the scan service provider. The data from the document headers and details are transferred via interface to JobRouter®. What used to require many industrious hands and sharp eyes now runs automatically through JobRouter® and upstream checking rules.

Put in simple terms, the JobRouter system combines the invoice data with the order data from the enterprise resource planning system, carries out the required checks and automatically starts the booking process and payment run if they are a 100 percent match. “Automatic (shadow) processing is the ideal process that would have been inconceivable years ago. At the moment, we're managing 80 percent," says Ammann happily, but immediately adds: "That's still unsatisfactory. We hope to be able to raise this to 90 to 95 percent. For us, the degree of automation is the yardstick for the success of the project".

JobOrder Match ensures that you can concentrate on the incorrect invoices in the time you have gained. The module automatically passes them on to the responsible administrator for clarification.  With a difference in the amount, for example, the dialogue clearly indicates the incorrect item, works out the differential amount and displays the original document at the same time.

Success can be measured. IT Project Manager Peter Ammann says: “We have better quality with digitalization. At the same time the throughput times from order reconciliation to booking and payment of invoices can be significantly reduced. ” There’s not any specific analysis yet on the time and cost savings, be it man hours or archiving costs.

However, it’s already clear now how JobRouter® literally brings in the cash: cash discounts can be taken advantage of to a greater extent thanks to the time advantage. Terms of delivery can be controlled better in terms of compliance and also negotiated. “Central purchasing now has access to current prices, discounts and volume and an invoice’s status at any time. We can negotiate better now,” adds Samuel Neuenschwander, Head of Accounting. Both interview partners are very confident in terms of more advantages, once the remaining EM locations have been switched to the digital process. The French and Italian dialogs are currently being defined and the operating instructions are being translated for colleagues.