Nine arguments for your IT department
Digital accounts payable processing with Microsoft 365 & SharePoint Online.
By d.velop
Do you want to get your IT department excited about digital accounts payable processing?
The benefits of accounts payable processing for both users and companies are clear to see. Have you al- ready read the tips for project planning in the white paper and now want to get on with it? Want to con- vince your colleagues, too? The nine arguments for your IT department below will help you eliminate any reservations and get your staff excited about the in- troduction of accounts payable processing:
1) Accounts payable processing is quick to introduce and integrate. Added value through standard processes.
Invoices arrive by mail, e-mail or fax and are available in the corresponding “mailboxes”. The path taken by accounts payables is the same in many companies. In fact, it is the same in nearly all companies. That is the very reason why this process is so suitable for digitization.
The implementation period is short because digital accounts payable processing is a standard process. The company invoice cycle is improved significantly.
Standardized interfaces to Microsoft Dynamics NAV and AX, infor, Sage and other ERP systems ensure accounts payable processing seamlessly integrates with your ERP, FA or MM system.
A finely adjustable authorization concept and an integrated workflow system ensure releases are carried out promptly and only by authorized parties. Release authorizations can be granted up to the level of the invoice amount, which means the invoice must be released by another authorized party after a stipulated threshold value. The invoice workflow automatically makes sure the invoice reaches the correct releasing party.
2) You can continue to use existing hardware.
To digitize paper invoices, you will need the following hardware if you do not have it already: a scanner or a multifunctional device. The scan components can be delivered with your solution and can be used for both centralized and decentralized scanning.
The contents of the invoices are read up to item data level using an invoice reader and are compared with the master data in the ERP system. That makes sure the documents and the information read can be seamlessly transferred to the system.
3) Reliable compliance with regulatory provisions.
While processing electronic invoices—either scanned or in their original form—legal rules such as retention periods, etc. must be complied with. d.velop accounts payable processing and SharePoint Online provide the basis for complying with legal framework conditions. Thanks to electronic invoice receipt and the associated invoice workflow, you do not need to worry about accounting. Every step in the process is documented. The results of the release workflow can also be saved as a PDF document and stored alongside the accounts payable.
With Microsoft Cloud technology, you can also ensure GoBD-compliant document retention. Procedural documentation that describes the process in detail is required for this purpose. Subsequent attestation from the auditor can then authorize you to destroy your paper documents.
4) All the components for digitally processing accounts payables come from the one source
Scanning, classifying, integrating, controlling and archiving – all the software components you need to digitally process accounts payables come from one company at d.velop. That means you can be sure that all the components work and collaborate flawlessly with each other. More than 7,500 customers already trust in software solutions from d.velop.
5) You can map the entire purchase to pay process
Digital accounts payable processing is only one element in a complete purchase to pay (P2P) process. For a complete electronic process from purchase to payment, d.velop offers additional solutions for rounding off the P2P process digitally. For instance, where applicable, the purchase requisition process can be mapped through digital supplier dossiers.
In addition, using ERP interfaces as a basis, the generated order can automatically be transferred to SharePoint Online. The subsequent automatic creation of an order dossier then provides the basis for storing any follow-on documents, such as e-mail correspondence regarding the order, goods receipt slips and even invoices for the order itself.
6) Simple customizing through graphical user interfaces
Digital accounts payable processing is a largely standardized process. However, if the standard workflow template ever has to be extended due to customer-specific requirements, the solution includes a comprehensive customizing guide. You can use this customizing to adapt release processes simply by changing a few parameters. At the same time, you can also create completely new release workflows for special cases. You can control amount-based release levels, for instance, just by selecting a checkbox. You can also set additional parameters for the workflow process logic, such as:
Buyer group determination for invoices with an order reference;
Behavior in the event of duplications;
E-mail notifications in the event of escalations;
Uploads of additional documents for the invoice using simple customizing;
A dual control principle for verification.
7) Microsoft and web technologies are used throughout
From an IT perspective, maintaining a large number of different applications and retaining expertise can often be challenging. It can therefore be important to utilize existing platforms as strategically and diversely as possible.
MS Office 365 can be just such a platform. The use of Outlook, Word, etc. means that Office 365 is often already in use within the organization. The E3 plan can be used to license and use additional tools such as Teams, OneDrive or SharePoint within the company.
With that in mind, a software solution should ideally embed into this existing architecture. This “embedding” should be visually smooth and should feel good for the end user. In contrast, from an IT perspective, the embedding should be minimally invasive and should take the form of microservices to ensure the existing Office 365 installation on the tenant is not negatively affected. In the d.velop solution, all the documents are stored in your Office 365 tenant in SharePoint/Teams. The workflow and corresponding scanning components are loaded to SharePoint as cloud services.
8) Interaction with the ERP system takes place via standardized interfaces
The connection between accounts payable processing and the ERP system is an essential component for optimally structuring the invoice workflow. Standardized interfaces in the ERP systems and the corresponding equivalent in accounts payable processing create smooth communication between the systems and ensure a clean transfer of data and documents. In addition, they make it possible to add sensible functions to the ERP system.
9) You can view the statuses of the release processes at any time, and they are transparent
Which workflows are in which status? With a large number of invoices, it is important to keep an overview of all of them. Accounts payable processing offers continual logging by default so you can view the current processing states at any time, as well as information about who released what and when. However, you can use this function only if there has been legal coordination and a release concerning data protection at your company.
In combination with an ERP system, there are even more possibilities for monitoring the entire purchase to pay (P2P) process: an overview is provided that lets you view all the workflows in the P2P process at a glance. You can view the respective process and processing statuses and, where applicable, the current processors directly. Cash discount traffic lights, direct document views and immediate access to SAP documents such as invoices, purchase orders or business partner master data are other elements of the analysis monitor that make the user's work easier.
Learn more
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Microsoft 365 Integrations
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White Paper “Nine arguments for your IT department”