Cloudx's 7 Best Practices to AP Automation II

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authorabrief note on the

Chris Cosgrove is VP of Sales &Marketing at CloudX. He helps clients

transform burdened processes within their

businesses to boost productivity, provide

visibility and create value for them. Chris

has had over 10 years of Financial

Services and Technology Sales

experience. You can follow him here:

The Author

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Table of Contents

Copy from one

its plagiarism.Copy from two

its research.-Wilson Mizner

2 - Authors

3 - Table of Contents

4 - Introduction

6 - Piles of Paper

8 - Paper in Payables

11 - BP #1 -Stop Pushing Paper

15 BP #2 Juicing The Data

20 BP#3 - Fork in the AP Road

24 BP#4 Special Delivery - Data

26 - BP#5 - Centralized Powerhouse

28 BP #6 Break Performance

Barriers

31 BP#7 Right People on the Bus

33 Conclusion

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Introduction

Dear Reader:

Thanks for taking some time to read this eBook. We have written this to help youunderstand the best approach to AP automation available to you as you plan andexecute organizational changes from a technology and process perspective withinyour Accounts Payable organization. Our experience in this space is deep,having consulted with, designed, and implemented solutions for manyenterprise level, best in class organizations. In building automation systems for

many clients, we have seen a breadth of challenges and barriers to implementingtechnology solutions and as such, wevebeen privileged to secure a unique vantagepoint as an advisor and service provider to companies who are trying to achieve valuethrough similar endeavors. With that said, one of the biggest factors that is impactingpeople and companies across the globe, is the rise of cloud based computing.

The public is eagerly embracing cloud technologies because they alleviate the barriersto entry that had existed for many organizations. No longer will companies who havebeen on the fence in terms of technology adoption, hold out from investing in systemsthat can truly benefit their businesses. Large capital expenditures will no longer beneeded to obtain impactful business outcomes. Dedicated IT staff to support projectinitiatives will be less of a requisite as more data, administration, and support isshifted to cloud based data centers. Most importantly, the software licensingmodel, with its basis for renewal, support, and increases will be pushed tothe side in favor of transactional pricing models that are far more clientfriendly, affording them use based billing and promoting volume discounts.

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Introduction

We hope that you find this useful as an overview to the best practices wevegleaned over the years and we welcome your feedback. Our goal is to giveyou insight into information that can help you create a platform forinnovation within your businessso you can maximize the benefits of a wellarchitected and executed Accounts Payable automation solution. If you havefurther questions for us about topics within this eBook, you can reach out to us atwww.http://insight.cloudxdpo.comor via our LinkedIn profiles.

Thanks again and we hope you enjoy!

Best,

The CloudX Team

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Piles of Paper

Paper has been a medium for conveying information for millennia. Thepaper making process is largely credited with being discovered by the Han Dynastyin China around 105 AD. Prior to this papyrus scrolls were used as a means todocument information in Roman, Greek and Mediterranean cultures. The wordpaper itself is a derivative of the Ancient Greek word papyros, a reference to the

Cyperus papyrus plant. In the ensuing centuries, the use of paper progressed,growing exponentially during the 15th century courtesy of the invention of theGuttenberg press and the newfound ability to mass produce paper based textswithout necessitating manual transcription.

Ironically, much of how business process is driven in the 21st century isanchored in the examples with which history provides us. It makes sensetoo; paper is inexpensive, reproducible, relatively easy to distribute, and familiar.However this precedent has been challenged with the advent of personal computing,networking, mobile devices and now cloud technologies. There are faster, easier,less costly, more reliable, and safer means to convey and transmit data than paper.The difficulty in making a business environment paperless exists as a reality formany organizations as core processes are still mired under heaps of paper andantiquated processes.

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Piles of Paper

We are human, always have beenalways will be.

However, the more data is stored in servers and online, we as humans need tosee it, read it, and use that information. Paper and paper formatted information,digital or real world, will remain with us. We should embrace this rather thanchase rainbows of turning the human experience into a data driven computermodel and we communicate via the document, and that is usually in theform of paper.

So, the challenge becomes what is the best way tomanage this in the context of Accounts Payable?

We communicate via

the document,and that is usually in the form

of paper.

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Paper in Payables

Werentwe promised paperless a long time ago?

Accounts Payable could be categorized as one of the most broken and paperburdened processes with the various supply chain documents that are involved.A quick study into this subject reveals that common components to mostAccounts Payable processes include Purchasing, Receiving, Employee Expense,and Invoice Documentsmany of which are retained physically and processedmanually. Other organizations attach their own documents to this process torecord, distribute, and post their payables in addition to the document typeslisted as a means of internal control.

While various organizations have made efforts to image these documents toreduce the sheer volume required to store them and to facilitate their retrievaland later reference, many have gone about this in less than optimal ways and

have not generated true business advantage from their efforts. The primaryissue to not achieving business advantage from Accounts Payable stemsfrom two components: lack of speed and accuracy in processinginvoices and a need for improved visibility to invoices in process.

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Paper in Payables

Here is a great snapshot of the primary pressures forcing organizations toconsider Automation initiatives within AP:

AP Automation in a Networked EconomyAberdeen Group, 2012

So what then is the best approach to handling paper and image basedinvoices ? Is it invoice automation? Electronic Data Interchange(EDI)? E-Invoicing?Procure-to-Pay(P2P) ?

The answer to that question is certainly not Onesize fits all.

Certain industries and organizations have established high levels of EDI adoption andas such, it is certainly one of the most efficient means to processing procurement andsettlement transactions. Other companies are faced with challenges to adopting EDIdue to a lack of resources or a plethora of vendors and inability to mandate theadoption of that technology by their suppliers. E-Invoicing certainly has it meritsthough for many suppliers, little has changed except that the invoices they now submitare in an electronic PDF format, whereas before they were submitted as paper.

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Paper in Payables

So, for these reasons, we believe that the most straight forward and efficientapproach lies in Invoice Automation due to how quickly meaningful andimpactful change can be affected and the relatively few barriers to adoption.With that said, we deal with some of the natural questions that arise aroundthese issues in our Resource Library, here.

In the ensuing pages, well address the best approach to expediting and

approving invoices within a typical AP process including the following steps:

Physical scan and intelligent capture of data from paper or imageinvoices

Data cleansing, validation, & routing based upon process type (PO vs.Non-PO)

Data assimilation within workflow or ERP system to drive process

velocity and outcomes

Dynamic visibility and data utilization to monetize working capitalopportunities

Archival, retrieval, and audit improvements

the most straightforward

and efficient approachexists in Invoice Automation

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Stop Pushing Paper

Best Practice #1 Stop Pushing Paper & Convert Your Invoices toElectronic Format

In recent years, there have been marketplace trends driving suppliers to provide

their invoices to their customers through electronic means. Some companies haveadopted more sophisticated means of consummating transactions with theirclients through EDI integrations or E-Invoicing platforms. Despite theseadvances, paper remains the dominant means by which invoices are submitted tosuppliers. A recent Paystream Advisors study, Invoice & WorkflowAutomation Adoption Benchmarking Survey Report indicates thatnearly 59% of invoices in the market are still sent in paper format. Also,many companies still manage email, fax and e-submission invoices just like actualpaper that arrives from the mailmanprinted out or managed and keyed in just

like a paper invoice. The ramifications of that are profound for organizations thathave done little to nothing to facilitate the smooth processing of thesedocuments.

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Stop Pushing Paper

Another interesting trend for Accounting and Finance organizations is thecentralization of processing duties to a Shared Services Environment. As muchas 60%, according to the Accounts Payables News Survey of 2012, ofresponding organizations indicate that they are now receiving theirinvoices in a centralized facility. Key benefits to doing so are fairly obviouswith decreased errors in entries, faster processing, and better visibility andmanagement of the process being the most prevalent. This can be challengingin an organization that has many divisions and a broad geographical footprint,though it must be said that centralization of this function is pretty much a

requisite to effective management of the entire AP process.

With that said, the first step to optimal paper based invoice processing involvesfunneling all invoices to an intelligent capture engine using Optical CharacterRecognition (OCR) for document classification and data extraction upon theirreceipt. In the absence of a centralized shared services model this is feasiblethrough distributed capture technologies, though we would certainly advocatethe efficiencies gained by having all remittances routed to a centralizedprocessing facility for tighter control of the paper conversion process. Highspeed mail openers and production scanners can efficiently convert the paper to

image format in a secure environment.

the first stepinvolves

funneling all invoicesto an intelligent capture engine

upon their receipt

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Stop Pushing Paper

If for some reason, an organization has an operational imperative to receiveinvoices at a field level, say in the case of a retail environment, it is possible to

convert the paper at the field locations through the use of desktop scan devices,multi-function, and even mobile devices. In most cases a 300 dpi Tiff file outputis all that is required to capture the data contained on an invoice document withaccuracy and most scan technology today can easily handle that.

Other electronically submitted invoices mentioned above can be routed andcaptured whether they are emailed, faxed, or electronically uploaded. Shareddrives and hot folders can be monitored and ultimately used to obtain theinvoices contained therein.

The primary take-away here is that by converting the invoices to data atthe outset of the process, you set your department up for maximumeffectiveness by moving from a data entry role to an empowered datamanagement role.

State of the Art AP Automation The Accounts Payable Network, 2012

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Juicing the Data

Best Practice #2 Juice the data out of invoices with intelligent capture

CAPTURE APPROACHES: ZONAL/TEMPLATE, INTELLIGENTOCR has been available in the technology community for some time and there havebeen multiple iterations and approaches to its use, some better than others. Initialusers of OCR often had little success in driving high levels of automation due toinconsistent or poor results of recognition, though in recent years, advances in imageprocessing engines have made this technology reliable and effective. Several of themore common approaches to OCR include Zonal and Template driven OCR. Bothwere good ways to get into the OCR game, though they have been outmoded bynewer technologies.

In short, any vendor or technology that used zonal and template is old technology.Very old. Free form recognition canreadevery page much like we humans do andsort, name and read everything on the images.

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Juicing the Data

Zonal OCR looks for data on a page within a specified zone orregion of the document,which is outstanding for structured documents

that have a repeatable template. The downside to this approach is thatwhen data on a document is moved to another area within the document,the Zonal OCR approach fails to capture it. As you can imagine, this hasrepercussions for AP organizations that may be using this approach asinvoice structures may be changed by suppliers at their whim, creatingchallenges to consistent processing.

Template driven OCR operates in a somewhat similar approachthough with more guidance from the OCR users. In this case

templates are created by users to match the way documents are structured.This is a painstaking process that takes an extensive period of time to setup and administer. In an AP context, templates are typically created pervendor, as most vendor invoices are not identical. This becomes particularlychallenging when your organization deals with a high number of vendors orwhen the vendors make changes to their invoice structures. Also, eachtime a new vendor is brought on as a supplier, an invoice template must becreated in order to process their invoices requiring continued administrativesupport from ancillary staff.

Automating Payables in the SME MarketPaystream Advisors, 2012

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Juicing the Data

The most advanced OCR technologies involve what is called Layout

and Learning technology. In this way the Intelligent Capture layerof the OCR engine is trained to intuitively look for keywordsanywhere within a document and to associate the values next tothose terms with the term.

In the case of invoices, common terms such as Invoice Number, Invoice #,Invoice No., and the multiple expressions of that terminology are defined andenhanced as more invoices are processed through the recognition engine.The learning improves over time and has subsequently to very high levels ofaccuracy within this OCR approach that requires far less manual interventionthan its technology predecessors. This logic is applied to all the necessarydata elements required to drive a streamlined process based upon eachclientsneeds.

All of these approaches can successfully convert an electronic document fromits native format to a document that has its data elements indexedaccurately. None of these however, have 100% accuracy inrecognition, and so, it is our belief that these approaches require aquality control component to improve the data integrity and

thereby make it entirely usableas we will look at in the next chapter.

The crux of the decision matrix lies in getting what you paid for with a TCOtotal cost of ownership perspective. The more sophisticated the technologyusually has a higher capital investment. Lesser technologies have a lowersticker price but come with far more labor and IT staff involvement for yearsto come.

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Clean Up the Data

Best Practice #3 Cleanse the data with a validation process toachieve 100% data integrity

Once an invoice is imaged and run through the Intelligent Capture process the

data fields captured off the invoice should be brought to 100% integritythrough a human validation component. OCR boasts accuracy levels between95-98% according to most major OCR software companies. However, ourthought is that when dealing with high volume and high dollar amountinvoices, accuracy in this area is critical. By deploying a validationcomponent, and managing to low confidence characters you caneffectively and efficiently audit the results of the OCR that the engineis unsure what to do with.

For instance, if an OCR engine captures a 0 as a O or a 1 as an l, then byrunning these characters in question through this verification component youcan easily get your data to a highly usable status. This can truly boost APprocessor productivity as these steps can greatly reduce or eliminate the dataentry required by so many organizations and elevate the AP clerks from clericalduties to more strategic responsibilities by creating more opportunities topursue vendor relations, discounts, and other strategic areas.

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Clean Up the Data

Most major process outsourcers will include this QC component as anintegrated and vital part of an efficient front-end processing system. If thisarea is unaddressed in your capture solution, you must know that by defaultyou will be exposing yourself to unnecessary process risks that could otherwisebe easily averted.

This graphic shows how an effective QC process can manage charactersin question post OCR

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The Fork in the Invoice Road

Best Practice #3 Take the fork in the Invoice Process Quickly-Straight-Through (PO) vs. Automated Workflow (Non-PO)

Invoices can be reduced to two primary categories:Purchase Order (PO) based Straight Through Processing GoalNon-Purchase Order based Automated Workflow Processing Goal

The processing of each has two distinctly different requirements and as suchgreatly impacts accuracy, cycle times, and posting for payment.

PO based invoice processingis fairly direct and is typically accomplished byway of a 2/3 way match against Purchase Orders & Receiving documents.

In terms of advancing the process via Invoice Automation, once the headerinformation is captured and verified off the invoice, key elements of data canbe used to track, prioritize, and drive the invoice process. Fields like VendorName, Invoice Number, PO Number, Due Dates, and Terms can be quickly

identified and leveraged to establish priority in processing queues. A bestpractice to rapidly moving invoices through process stages involvescapturing the PO number off the invoice and performing a reverselook up to your ERP system. This step can eliminate a timeconsuming manual process instantly and expedite the posting of PObased invoices.

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The Fork in the Invoice Road

Further detail on the invoice, especially line item detail can be extracted toautomate the matching process that typically follows in most APdepartments. The two or three way match still occurs manually in manyenvironments, though most ERP systems (and certainly the major playerslike SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards, Dynamics, etc.) have the capability ofperforming auto 2/3 way matching. With the additional data set of line item

detail captured and associated with the header information above, it ispossible to accelerate the processing of PO based invoices by pushing thedata into the ERP system. The optimal data release is an 810 EDI Filetransaction, effectively rendering your paper based invoices as EDI therebyimproving process velocity and providing near real time visibility to invoicedata.

In some cases PO based invoices will also require a manual approval androuting process, especially with high dollar amount invoices based upon theapproval policies of an individual organization, though this is tends to be theexception and not the rule.

We also recommend that wherever possible AP departments pushfor higher adoption rates with respect to PO based invoices. It canbe challenging to mandate that change internally, but from acontrols and straight-through processing perspective, the result isworth the effort.

The optimal data release

is an 810 EDI filerendering your paper as EDI

improving velocityand visibility to invoice data.

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Non-PO & Workflow

Non-PO invoice processing typically requires a manual, workflow-drivenapproval and GL coding process. Many organizations rely on inter-office mailas the means by which these invoices are routed to the correct approvers.This tedious process can also require postal or courier services driving upcosts and slowing down speed.

One of the underlying assumptions to transforming this process isthe implementation of an automated workflow solution for fast andaccurate routing of Non-PO invoices.

The best approach to handling Non-PO invoices lies in extracting theheader information off the invoice and capturing necessary datafields to correctly route the invoice to the appropriate approver. As

an example, items as basic as To: or Attn: with departmental or individualnames can be utilized to accurately route invoices to the right recipient. Otherapproaches involve routing Non-PO invoices based on vendors and theircorrelating processors/approvers. An example of this could be that all W.B.Mason invoices get routed to Bill in Office Services, or all CDW invoices getrouted toJanein IT.

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Non-PO & Workflow

The GL coding process can also be automated as part of the captureprocess. For example if your organization has default GL codes that areapplied by vendor that data can be applied after the capture process. GLCodes can also be presented in a personalized manner to coders, i.e. thecoders see only the codes that theyretypically working with versus the entirechart of accounts.

In some cases, multiple levels of approvers are required, as determined byeach companysindividual Financial approval rules. In an electronic workflowscenario, these items can be quickly addressed and appended with anynecessary notes or comments to the stakeholders in the approval process.After the invoice has been cleared by the right approver, the invoice data can

be passed from the workflow to the ERP system also as an 810 EDItransaction (as a best practice).

The other pivotally important component of the Non-PO approval

process is the General Ledger (GL) coding aspect.

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Data Delivery to ERP

Best Practice #4 Deliver Invoice Data to your ERP Electronically,not Manually

Once the invoice data whether PO or Non-PO is pushed to the ERP, the

transaction can be closed and cleared for payment. Itsimportant to note thatwhile EDI is the most efficient way to move the data into the ERP, there areother feasible formats that work well including: XML, CSV, & Flat Files.

For some companies, especially in the SME market, integrating a technologysolution to a back end, ERP system can be challenging. Many companies useniche or homegrown systems that have integration barriers, though leadingAP service providers typically have information exchange utilities to deliverdata to legacy systems seamlessly. This certainly is of relevance asPaystream Advisorsdata suggest that 46% of the SME market runstheir business on proprietary systemsas indicated in the ensuing graph.

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Data Delivery to ERP

At this point the heavy lifting of the transaction is done and the invoice imagehas been converted to indexed and usable data which is driving the processforward. After this point of the process most use of the invoice data is oriented

around reporting and audit purposes, and should be stored in a cloud baseddocument management system. For additional ease on AP processors, theinvoices should be image enabled out of the ERP system that they will primarilybe utilizing. This will prevent screen toggling and save them processing time.

Automating Payables In the SME Market Paystream Advisors 2012

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Centralized AP Powerhouse Processing

Best Practice #4 Powerhouse AP Centralize invoice processing

This may seem like an obvious step, but it is essential to creating a highperforming AP department. In recent years, the centralization of AP duties hasbeen a focus for many companies, as there are a myriad of productivityenhancements, efficiencies, and controls gained by adopting this approach. Thereason we mention this is that even today in 2012, many companies still havedecentralized, regional processing of AP, and as such are not getting the benefitsafforded by having this function under one roof.

Centralization of AP The AccountsPayable Network Survey, 2012

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Centralized AP Powerhouse Processing

Typical gains from centralization include:

Standardization of process methodologies and controls

Expedited audit and invoice retrieval processes

Fraud prevention gains

Expedited routing and approval times

Reduced headcount

Ease of implementing new technology/process

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Breaking Performance Barriers

Best Practice #6 Prioritize invoices with Discount Terms for Payment& Break Existing Performance Barriers

Once you have gotten the above mentioned points in place, you are set up foran efficient and profitable AP process. By improving the latency of invoiceprocessing along with obtaining dynamic visibility to the invoice data, you can

focus on monetizing discount opportunities to make your organizationsworkingcapital actually work for you.

Many people laud the benefits of AP invoice automation for its cost reductionvalue, but the bigger financial component that does not get enough attention isthe profit a successful initiative can throw off by way of captured early paymentdiscounts. Recent data from Aberdeen Group suggests that companiesthat deploy an AP dashboard to highlight and prioritize invoices withterms, have increased their early payment capture as much as 23%compared to companies without dashboard capabilities. Theopportunity herein is a fundamental metamorphosis of the APdepartment from a back office support function to one of high strategicvalue as a disciplined profit center.

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Breaking Performance Barriers

Early Settlement Discounts Accounts Payable News Survey, 2012

Heresa great visual to consider about early payment discount capture.The question that needs to be addressed and resolved is this; What percentageof invoices with early payment terms are you capturing and how muchcan you improve that metric?

As a benchmark to this graphic, Aberdeen Group suggests in its AP InvoiceAutomation in a Networked Economy, May 2012, thatBestIn Classcompanieswho have deployed AP automation actually capture over 90% of invoices offeredwith discounted terms.

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Breaking Performance Barriers

Taking this thought process a little deeper, you can see the financial impact onhow strategic early payment effectively yields compelling gains for Finance &

Treasury departments alike.

State of the Art AP Automation- The Accounts Payable Network, 2012

Achieving 37% gains in any financial market is difficult from aninvestment perspective, though in AP the gain exists on a daily basisand is of an arbitrage nature, making it a no-brainer to pursue ingreater volume.

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Get the Right People on the Bus

Best Practice #7 Winning in AP Automation requires gettingExecutives and Departmental Managers on the Bus

It should be noted that through AP invoice and workflow automation,significant wins are achievable at both the Management and Executivelevels.

Management level concerns with the following items are addressed:

Improving invoice entry accuracyElimination of manual processesIncreasing employee productivity

Executivesfind pursuing AP automation initiatives are compelling as they:

Yield opportunities to improve profitability through cost reductions

and captured discountsPromote compliance standardsProvide dynamic financial insights and eases fiscal reportingcapabilitiesEmpower treasury management that was infeasible prior toautomation

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Get the Right People on the Bus

Automation initiatives can be complex and affect these core areas:

ControlsProcessesSystemsPersonnel

Without executive sponsorship, departmental managers wontbe empowered ordriven to innovate and challenge the status quo.

Without departmental management and project execution, executive leadershipwill be powerless to implement change and unable to position their businessesfor operational improvements.

The key to synthesizing the goals at both of these levels is tounderstand that a successful AP automation initiative readily

addresses the primary concerns for all levels of leadership in theFinance organization. In fact, there are few opportunities that are ascompelling to pursue from an internal improvement perspective, asautomation in AP is rapidly becoming the rule and not the exception.

a successful AP automation initiative

readily addressesthe primary concerns for all levels

of leadership inthe Finance organization.

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Conclusion

Also, if you are wondering how your departmentsstacks up from a process efficiency or cost to processan invoice perspective, we invite you to participate ina free AP assessment with CloudX.

Wellprovide you a complimentary detailed report worth thousands that gives youinsight to how you compare to industry benchmarks along with highlighting risksand opportunities in your process coupled with an environmental impact

assessment around your AP process here.

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About Us

We provide you with all the speed, functionality, reporting, and process

improvement tools of both AP Automation and e-Invoicing (and a lot more) butwithout the burden to you, your IT staff, your IT infrastructure, your vendors,and we process invoices faster than any of our competitors with a lower CPI(cost-per-invoice) than anyone else.

We think our model is both straight-forward and effective and we call itdocument process outsourcing.

We manage the entire process of scanning, OCR, QC, exception processing,workflow, and data release to your ERP system. If you want to scan that is finewith uswelljust lower our price. We are flexible and want to do what makesthe most sense for your organization.

We improve your AP Organization with visibility, through excellent tools anddashboards. Your IT and technology maintenance involvement from day 1 of GoLive is almost zero. We are live in 3-6 weeks. Our technology platform is in thecloud so you never manage the invoice processing technology, any of it, at all ever. Our startup costs are minimal, enabling us to deliver hard savings withoutthe big capital outlay and our pricing model is transactional. Our transaction

charge to you will be a fraction of what your current costs are, enabling you tosee immediate returns in addition to all of the other strategic benefits ourservice offers.

= SIMPLE

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Watch Xavier in AP gofrom Doom to Boom

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About Us

We think giving us a chance to prove the CloudXadvantage is a no brainer. We have the best technology in thecloud and we can get your organization live in 3-6 weeks. You will never manageor pay for any of the technology you use, instead accessing the system via theWeb.

Thatsour business model and weresticking to it.

We have been working with big and small companies and doing basically one

thing for them, every time: we help them get better byimproving their process not making them conform toour own.

For more information about CloudX, please visit us at www.cloudxdpo.comorcall us at (860) 787-5323.

= SMART

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