Canon Business Process Services Shares Accounts Payable Best Practices to Reduce Costs and Cycle Time, Streamline Payment Processes
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As the first quarter of 2013 draws to a close, one goal that many enterprises have for the rest of year – particularly those that manually process invoices – is to improve their accounts payable (AP) function.
The key reason: now CFO’s expect more than operational excellence from the AP function. Once considered a back-office cost center, AP has evolved into a strategic business enabler charged with helping to reduce costs, strengthen compliance and controls and ensure that payments are efficiently processed and reported.
To accomplish these responsibilities, the AP function must streamline the invoice process, leverage new technology, and implement best practices such as outsourcing non-strategic work and migrating from paper to digital workflow. Canon Business Process Services, Inc. spotlights three of these best practices to consider for 2013:
Streamline the invoice process to reduce cycle time and cost – When working with a service provider to improve the invoice process, the organization can begin by leveraging the provider’s experts to enhance the procure-to-pay (P2P) process. This includes centralizing the receipt of paper invoices and scanning them either in the company’s locations or in the provider’s facilities. The provider should validate each invoice against the organization’s master data to ensure that only valid invoices enter the organization’s ERP system. This can significantly reduce the work associated with duplicate or invalid invoices.
Leverage automation to reduce errors, improve productivity, and lower cost – One option with this best practice is to work with a service provider that offers standard and scalable invoice automation platform that can be integrated with virtually any ERP, ECM, and P2P system. Automating data capture/conversion, invoice validation and workflow can significantly reduce invoice processing time. Automation can also dramatically increase productivity – from processing 1,000 to up to 10,000 invoices per AP worker per month.
Implement consistent workflow to improve compliance and controls – This best practice helps ensure compliance with regulations such as Sarbanes Oxley. If deciding to team with a service provider, an organization should consider a partner that can implement consistent workflow processes designed to help maintain accurate records. By overcoming gaps in tracking, accessing, and updating data, such workflow processes help clients avoid compliance issues.
For more information as well as to download the case history, Extreme Makeover for Accounts Payable, which details how a major cosmetics company revitalized its payment process, visit www.cbps.canon.com.
About Canon Business Process Services
Canon Business Process Services, Inc. is a leading provider of managed services and technology that enable organizations to improve operational efficiency while reducing risk and cost. Experts apply quality management principles and tools such as Six Sigma® to advance performance to a higher level. The company offers services including BPO, imaging, records management, print, mail and eDiscovery, and is an IAOP Global Outsourcing 100 Leader in 2013 for the seventh consecutive year. Based in New York City, Canon Business Process Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc. Learn more at www.cbps.canon.com or follow us on Twitter.
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