ACCOUNT PAYABLE SERVCIES

Accounting Payable Services

The Business Challenge:

A regional credit union group was struggling with inefficient manual account payable (AP) process that were time-consuming and resulted in approval and reporting bottlenecks. Sometimes credit union processed 400+ invoices using cumbersome, manual data entry procedures. The paper-based workflow required review and approvals from department to the department before an invoice getting fully approved for payment. It leads to the time lost waiting for paper copies of invoices to physically reach their destinations. Secondly, the human error was rampant which in turn delayed approval. And the intensive manual workloads required a bloated AP department with high labor costs.

At the end of the day, the credit union was saddled with late payment fees and payment discrepancies. It leads to a general lack of transparency between departments and decision-making was fragmented instead of being cohesive. As a result, the cost to process invoices was approximate $27 per invoice jeopardizing their ability to maintain competitively-priced loan products aimed at cost-conscious borrowers. Then they decided to engage Bikham and their expertise at streamlining business processes for leading companies around the world.

Points for consideration:

  • Weeks to Process
  • Rampant Inefficiency
  • Little Visibility Intro

Bikham’s Solutions

Bikham proved to be a perfect business partner. We are working closely with the credit union to fully understand their Account Payable (AP) challenges so that they could tailor a solution that was easy to implement and cost-effective.

The credit union group opted for application hosting, leveraging Bikham’s AP automation know-how to improve their process without having to hire trained IT personnel or make large capital investments in software. Bikham handled the complete end-to- end rollout for a reasonable implementation fee that covered initial programming of the solution to the credit union’s group specifications.

This new solution accepts scanned invoice files and a vendor master feed from the credit union for improved data accuracy. It also checks for data integrity and verification into key index fields which further integrates the information feed into their ERP system. Credit union AP processors and approvers can tap into critical features such as 3-way matching where PO requisitions are matched with invoices and receipt of goods sold all via the web.

We offer easy to configure real-time dashboards, reporting, preset approval alerts for authorized users and intuitive exception identification & adjustment. The system recognizes and handles them intelligently. It also handles credit memos and adjustments with dynamic business rule functionality.

Results

With Bikham’s Account, Payable Connected automation solution. The credit union group shortened the paper-based process from nearly a month to a matter of a few days, and significantly reduced the opportunity for human error and cut the cost to process an invoice by more than 50%. It improves cash flow position which enabled them to re-shift their strategic focus into other areas such as portfolio and customer service innovation which further enhanced their market position. It also allowed them to offer competitively-priced products coupled with ample credit limits for borrowers.

Add-on Points to remember:

  • Dramatic Efficiency Gains
  • 50% Lower Invoice Cost
  • Improved Collaboration