Procure-to-Pay Processing

Procurement and expense management have become increasingly important measures of sustainable business success. For many organizations, the lack of a process automation strategy and visibility into the procure- to-pay cycle has a major impact on the bottom line.

The traditional procure-to-pay cycle encompasses all activities from procurement of goods and services to receiving invoices and paying suppliers. Each of these areas is labor-intensive and costly — involving the processing and distribution of large numbers of documents. Even the smallest errors can make the process inefficient, quickly draining available capital and resources.

Automating procure- to-pay document processes delivers business advantages through increased efficiency and cost control. Focused and skillful management of the procure-to-pay cycle can improve relationships with vendors and free capital for core business-building activities.

Procure-to-pay automation gives companies a competitive advantage by:

Tightening integration and collaboration with vendors Increasing transaction-processing accuracy Reducing transaction-processing costs Shortening financial settlement cycles Optimizing payment terms Enabling faster and more successful dispute resolution Providing continuously updated documentation to support compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements and internal controls

Automated e-purchasing benefits

Esker solutions help businesses reduce purchase order processing costs by up to 60% and PO processing time by as much as 95%. Procurement accuracy improves and employees shift from paperwork to productivity. This helps companies get the right goods and services on time, the first time.

Esker customers have been able to:

• Reduce PO processing time from 20 minutes to 1 minute
• Cut fax costs by 65% using Esker on Demand services
• Reduce PO processing costs by $1.00 per PO, resulting in $250,000 in annual savings
• Reassign 1 full-time position formerly dedicated to printing and send 1,000 POs per day
• Save 400+ labor hours per year
  
  

Accounts Payable automation benefits

AberdeenGroup research has found that electronic invoices cost 68%–76% less to process. Esker solutions deliver these savings by optimizing the process of entering vendor invoices and getting approval. With the ability to receive and check invoices automatically, organizations improve Accounts Payable efficiency and increase process control.

Esker customers have been able to:

• Reduce errors resulting from manual keystroke entry and hand-matching
• Reduce the payment cycle from 45 days to less than 10 days
• Cut vendor invoice processing time by 75%
• Streamline the process of entering one vendor's 350+ weekly invoices and more than 1,600 line items from 48 hours to 4 minutes
• Gain direct cash benefits as a result of paying vendors faster and earning on-time discounts