Case Study

Accounts Payable Automation

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Details

 Industry: Engineered Materials Provider

 

Rogers Corporation was experiencing rapid growth and their AP department couldn’t keep up. They were struggling to keep track of invoices and were threatened with late notices and service cancellations. Recordsforce was able to implement an accounts payable automation solution which reduced labor costs to process an invoice from over $10 to less than $2 each. We helped them get their vendors paid on time, improving vendor performance and created a 100% disaster recovery plan for their important documents.

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    Analyzing The Problem

    Rogers, a leading engineered materials provider, was experiencing a period of rapid growth. This expansion meant their accounts payable department simply could not keep up with the increase in volume of inbound invoices. They struggled to maintain their 5-10 day turnaround policy, and in some cases, ended up losing invoices. This inability to keep the increase in volume under control caused the department to miss opportunities for quick pay discounts, and sometimes ended up having to pay late fees. Some services were even shut off for not paying on time due to lost invoices and slow approval processes.

    Additionally, Rogers did not have a system in place to effectively process email invoices, which were becoming more and more common at a rate they couldn’t keep up with. Staff ended up printing each invoice, which they readily acknowledged was not an efficient way to process them, but they didn’t have the resources to design and execute a better alternative.

    Accounts Payable Invoice

    Creating A Customized Solution

    Rogers chose to outsource their invoice boarding process to Recordsforce. The first step was to establish a PO box, email account, and fax number for Rogers to direct all vendor invoices. Today, the process is as follows:

    1. Recordsforce digitizes all paper invoices and prepares them for data capture. Emailed invoices are separated from their emails and formatted for processing. Faxed invoices are brought in the same way as emails.
    2. When the documents are ready, automated data processing is performed, extracting data from each document automatically. 
    3. These results are fed to human workers who review results the machine marked as “low confidence.”
    4. Once all the data is verified, the results of that effort are fed into a PO/Packing Slip/Invoice Matching System that produces perfect matches, quantity exceptions, price exceptions and manual non-PO approval workflow.

    The data passed to Rogers for import into PeopleSoft includes all invoice images and all of the header (Invoice Number, Vendor Name, Invoice Date, Total, PO Number, Vendor Number, Terms, Currency, Tax, Freight) and footer (Line Number, Quantity, Description, Price, Extended Price) as well as any status indicators, (Perfectly Matched, Non-PO, PO # Non-Match, New Vendor, Quantity Non Match, Price Non Match, etc).

    Recordsforce implemented a same day processing policy for all invoices received. This meant that all invoices received by 2pm EST each day were indexed and sent to Rogers by 8pm that evening.

    Rogers was also provided access to their own private online invoice exception management system. This allowed Rogers and their vendors to resolve processing issues via the internet in an organized system that tracks the status of all exception invoices.

      Instant Results

      Thanks to Recordsforce, Rogers now has their email processing and invoice volume under control. The accounts payable department is now able to focus on improving the business, not just treading water. Their automated process has resulted in happier vendors while eliminating the problems of late fees and the threat of cancellations. Rogers’ partnership with Recordsforce has also greatly improved their quality control – invoice data accuracy has increased to 99%, and 99.5% of invoices are now processed on the same day they were received.

      Additional results from Rogers’ partnership with Recordsforce are as follows:

        • Reduced labor cost to process an invoice from over $10 to less than $2 each.
        • Eliminated late notices.
        • Helped vendors get paid on time, improving vendor performance.
        • Took advantage of more quick pay discounts.
        • Eliminated threat of service cancellation due to lost invoices.
        • Fewer payment issues with invoices because of better quality data entry.
        • Eliminated duplicate invoice issue.
        • Eliminated paper from A/P department.
        • Increased visibility into invoice metrics.
        • Created 100% disaster recovery for invoices, a critical document for potential IRS audits.
        • Provide easy digital access to invoice images inside Peoplesoft.

          Best exception report I’ve ever seen – awesome job team! So proud of you guys!
          Melanie G., Accounts Payable Associate III, Rogers Corporation

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