Challenge
A global leader in bio-based technologies and engineering, offers a range of sustainable solutions in bioenergy, high-purity water, critical process equipment, breweries, and industrial wastewater treatment. Despite its vast global presence with over 1000 references across 100+ countries, the client faced significant challenges in its accounts payable process. The company processes 8000 invoices monthly, engages with 6,000 active vendors from a pool of 17,500, and employs over 2,000 individuals, including a dedicated accounting team of 20. The primary challenges included managing multiple complex business rules, handling error-prone tax codes, enduring a 100% manual process that led to frequent errors, lacking tracking mechanisms, missing preventive auto controls in critical steps, experiencing poor interdepartmental communication, and having no unified dashboard for tracking critical business SLAs. This complexity and inefficiency resulted in a lack of detailed financial insight necessary for key business strategies.
Solution
To address these challenges, Exela implemented an end-to-end Accounts Payable Invoice Processing solution. Exela's proprietary technology was deployed to fully automate the key processes involved in invoice handling, from scanning and data extraction to validation and creation of SAP-compatible outputs. The project scope included establishing a workflow in P2P-BancPay, providing access and training for the client’s users, routing documents for exception clearance and approvals, ingesting cleared and approved documents into SAP, archiving documents in DocDNA for the agreed retention period, and handling the payments process within SAP by Exela team members. This comprehensive solution was designed to accommodate the client's specific business rules and exceptions, streamlining operations and increasing efficiency.
Benefits
Increased Efficiency: Automation significantly reduced manual tasks, decreasing processing time and boosting overall efficiency.
Cost Savings: The manual process costs, along with errors and exceptions associated with paper invoices, printing, and mailing, were minimized, resulting in substantial savings.
Improved Accuracy: Automation enhanced the accuracy of the accounts payable process, avoiding payment discrepancies and delays.
Faster Processing & Payment Cycles: The solution accelerated the payment cycle, reducing bottlenecks and enabling timely payments, which in turn improved vendor relationships.
Improved Visibility & Timely Reporting: Real-time visibility into invoice status, payment schedules, and cash flow was achieved, along with the ability to generate reports and analytics for insightful decision-making.
Enhanced Control & Compliance: Automation ensured adherence to internal policies and external regulatory compliance with consistent approval workflows, segregation of duties, and comprehensive audit trails.
Strengthened Vendor Relationships: The prompt and accurate payment ensured by AP automation reduced inquiries and disputes, fostering better supplier communication.
Enabling Process Standardization: Exela's expertise in designing optimal process workflows identified and eliminated deviations, ensuring a harmonized process.
Analytical View of Data: Leveraging analytics, the client could uncover bottlenecks affecting operations and identify areas for growth, such as DPO analysis and critical vendor payment analysis.
Upstream Process Analysis: Comprehensive analysis of upstream processes helped identify and improve the root causes of longstanding pain points within the company.
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