INVOICES 5-5
The world’s most popular gateway
to electronic invoice processing
Can your company afford the traditional, manual handling of supplier invoices? It is a slow, costly process. With the tools and systems for electronic invoice processing available on the market today, you can lower the costs by 30% or more.
Several independent studies have shown that the cost of processing an invoice manually is between $20 and $60, and that by implementing electronic invoice proces-sing, potential savings of 25 to 50 percent can be realized. This translates to annual savings of $100,000 or more when pro-cessing volumes of approximately 20,000 incoming invoices per year.
What is electronic invoice
processing?
There are many ways for invoices to arrive: in envelopes, by fax or electronically as email attachments, XML interchange, or EDI. Still, they should all enter the same system and be processed in the same way. This can be accomplished by handling all invoices electronically
In an electronic system, all information of interest on invoices is captured, veri-fied, and validated automatically. It is then coded, authorized, and approved by your accounts payable staff. A workflow will distribute invoices to the correct persons in the correct order.
Approved invoices are booked (or posted) to the correct account, paid and archived. And, since an image of each invoice is saved along with the automatically captu-red information, all authorized personnel have immediate on-screen access to every invoice in the system.
One of the main advantages of electronic invoice processing is that you can pinpoint an invoice in the flow at any time. This will enable you to take timely action in case
anything goes wrong. In some companies, turnaround time for invoiceshas been redu-ced by as much as 75%
Why invest in electronic invoice
processing?
Bottom line impact
• Cost of manual keying eliminated • Cost of verification and validation
dra-matically reduced
• Lower registration and allocation costs • Cost of personal copies eliminated • Archiving costs dramatically reduced • Cost of late-payment penalties
elimina-ted
• Decreased cost of write-offs • Availability of early pay discounts • Additional business benefits Better control
• Staff free for more productive and rewarding tasks
Electronic invoice processing is extremely profitable
• Fast and accurate financial statements • Fast and simple access to any invoice • Fast and accurate responses to invoice
inquiries
• Improved supplier relations • Less workload on in-house mail
What does INVOICES do?
INVOICES is the world market-leading input software, providing proven superior information capture, validation and verifi-cation. It will integrate seamlessly with all major ERP software, financial systems and workflows.
Being an important part of ReadSoft’s core business, INVOICES is continuously developed and enhanced to handle all new input format variations, business rules and legal requirements, as well as new feature requests and other customer requirements.
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In a reliable and easy-to-use process, all invoices are handled the same way, regard-less of how they arrive. INVOICES offers unrivaled capabilities here: All formats (such as XML documents, hardcopy, digi-tal images, faxes) delivered by all kinds of media (such as Internet interchange, enve-lopes, email attachments, web transfers, and fax machines) are streamlined into a single process for capture, validation and verification.
In order to simplify verification and work-flow-oriented activities, a digital image is available for each invoice throughout the entire process. This image is subsequently archived along with the invoice information.
XML, email, paper or fax – all invoices are entered
into the same process
Handling XML variations
Although there are numerous different XML invoice standards, INVOICES will handle the input and create a neat digital image for use in the subsequent process. Converting paper to data
Although IT develops rapidly, paper invoi-ces will continue to exist for some years to come. Consequently, INVOICES offers the best software on the market to digitize your invoices and provide high quality extrac-tion results.
Reading digital images and PDF docu-ments
INVOICES extracts information from all major image formats (TIFF, PNG, JPG, etc.) as well as the commonly used docu-ment format PDF.
Catching a fax
Fax images are automatically imported by means of a link to the company fax server. The subsequent process is the same as for all other digital images.
In order to simplify verification and workflow activities, as well as to provide legible archive material, INVOICES creates a readable image from each XML invoice.
INVOICES is designed to automatical-ly learn where to find the information of interest on the invoice and to crea-te a Knowledge base for each supplier. Consequently, the extraction of informa-tion from them becomes even faster and more precise with time.
You don’t even have to
sort your invoices
Suppliers and buyers are identified and compared with data imported from your financial system. The type (general expen-se or purchaexpen-se order) is detected, as well as whether it is an invoice or a credit note. This information is the basis for the auto-matic sorting that saves a lot of time and work in the initial stages. This sorting also leads to faster information extraction, since the correct parameters and business rules are automatically selected.
Built-in support for
regional variations
To simplify setup, INVOICES comes equip-ped with ready-to-use sets of country-spe-cific parameters, including VAT rates, date formats, currency characters, etc. Business
logic, for example to validate dates, VAT, and sums, is also part of the profile. As a consequence, INVOICES can be used in production directly after installation. You can, of course, add or adapt any para-meters to suit your business requirements.
Automatic purchase order
matching
INVOICES handles line items, which is a prerequisite for automatic purchase order matching. Thus, if you integrate INVOICES with your purchase and financial systems you can substantially increase the value of your electronic invoice processing.
Automatic control of sums,
VAT amounts and more
INVOICES can make a number of controls automatically, for instance:
• Does the sub-total in a line item row cor-responds with the number of articles and unit price?
• Are VAT rates and amounts correct? • Is the due date reasonable?
• …
If everything is correct, the invoice may be transferred without further manual inte-raction.
Personal inboxes ensures fast
and accurate verification
Where discrepancies are found, invoices must be manually verified. INVOICES provides each operator, or group of ope-rators, with a separate inbox that contains only those invoices that they are authorized to handle. In this way, work can be distri-buted to multiple operators, and the risk for unauthorized access is minimized at the same time.
All the information your financial system requires –
automatically, reliably and fast
PAYMENT ARCHIVE Sorting Mail, email, web, fax ERP/ FINANCIAL SYSTEM WORKFLOW Interpretation INVOICES INCOMING INVOICES Paper XML Image EDI Verification ERP Validation P&Q check Allocation Authorization PDF
ReadSoft DOCUMENTS for EDI
is the easiest way to send and
receive invoices
ReadSoft DOCUMENTS for EDI is a business solution that provides a simple way to exchange documents by means of secure email. The sender part of the solution, EZ-OUT, is perfect for your supp-liers who currently send paper invoices. This is briefly how it works:
When your supplier prints an invoice from his usual invoicing software EZ-OUT creates an email and attaches a digital image of the invoice. Where legislation requires it, this automatic process can include encryption and digital signatures. INVOICES receives EZ-OUT email auto-matically, avoiding printouts, envelopes, postage, mailroom handling and scanning. You can find more information on this sub-ject at www.ez-out.com.
INVOICES, combined with the integration, workflow, and archiving solution of your choice, provides a solution well adapted to your business needs and requirements, including everything needed to get you up and running, and saving, as soon as possible. And, unless you require special features or have tricky business rules, “as soon as possible” could mean within the hour of installation.
However, we start by sitting down with you and any partner involved to analyze your present situation from all relevant angles. This is the only way all parties can be certain that what we offer is the com-plete solution best suited to automate your invoice processing.
Benefit from quick installation, dependable operation,
dedicated services, and a rapid return on investment
Apart from software and hardware recom-mendations, our offer will include installa-tion support, operator training and a ser-vice contract proposal, but should the need arise, our Professional Services can offer much more – today, tomorrow, next year, or whenever you feel that changes in your business environment require changes in your invoice processing solution.
ReadSoft Training –
delivering knowledge,
developing competence
Well-prepared personnel is critical to the effective operation of your business. ReadSoft Professional Services provides a systematic training program to get your personnel functioning efficiently. Our experienced instructors teach you to use our products to your best advantage, com-bining hands-on, focused teaching meth-ods with high-quality, globally-consistent training materials.
ReadSoft Support – your
assur-ance for continuous productivity
We understand that your invoice process-ing solution is vital to your business, so we focus on providing comprehensive support service, staffed with dedicated personnel whose goal is to help keep you up and
running. We offer a number of different levels of support, from our basic support to more individualized services that give you greater availability and faster lead times. No matter which level of support you need, you enjoy the benefits of local access to our ReadSoft Support experts, and can feel secure in the knowledge that our team is there to help you.
ReadSoft Project Management
& Customization – dedicated to
meeting your unique requirements
Our software’s extensive built-in func-tionality is more than sufficient to meet the primary needs of our customers. For more specialized solutions, you can take advantage of our project management and customization services. Our skilled project managers and software developers will deliver your solution using industry-stan-dard, quality-assured project processes. You get results that are on budget, on time, and according to your specifications.
ReadSoft Document Automation Services Platform
Our services take you smoothly through every phase – from analysis to full-capacity production, and beyond.
INVOICES significantly improves your bottom line
The best way to prove the business benefits we
offer is to listen to our customers
“In the early test phase, INVOICES convinced us it was the best choice due to its high interpretation rate, its flexibility with regard to integration with our systems, and its user-friendliness.”
Christian Grüneberg, responsible project leader, IS-Energy, Germany.
“We are very excited about this project and we have four objec-tives: to reduce manual and repetitive tasks that do not con-tribute with any added value; to speed up the invoice process and the workflow within the company; to reduce the errors; and finally, to save costs.”
Patricio Cisneros, project manager, Unycop, Spain.
“We are always looking to push back technology barriers and after extensive research, we realized that ReadSoft could deliver the cutting edge solution we require.”
Adam Sims, Head of Finance, BASF Plc, UK.
“We chose ReadSoft for their service-minded approach and for their good reputation on the document capture market. With INVOICES, we anticipate several key benefits, such as a sub-stantial productivity increase and better working conditions for the staff in the accounts department as they can now focus on tasks with higher added value.”
Frederique Torres, Financial Director, Acta, France.
ThyssenKrupp, Germany:
“We are very satisfied with the results”
ThyssenKrupp AG is the management holding company for the international steel and capital goods group ThyssenKrupp. With their new invoice processing system from ReadSoft, they have taken an important step into the future.
It only took 25 working days to switch from manual handling to the automated INVOICES invoice processing system. Now, two employees in Düsseldorf process 30,000 incoming invoices annu-ally using ReadSoft’s document-automation software. To check and approve invoices, INVOICES was integrated with ThyssenKrupp’s SAP® system. The integrated workflow software controls the
incoming invoices and accelerates the release process. The stan-dard software was adapted to the unique needs of ThyssenKrupp AG. A special feature of this solution is that invoices with missing data are still posted. Missing information such as the cost center can be added later when reviewed. Then the posting is manually corrected and released into the workflow process.
Handled within the SAP interface
The integration software allows the captured data to be processed directly within the familiar SAP environment. As a result, the invoice processing system is complete at ThyssenKrupp AG. The invoices are scanned, information is extracted and compared with existing master data, and then it is sent directly to the SAP® R/3®
system. Thanks to the integration, accountants have continuous control of every stage in the invoice process.
“We are very satisfied with the results”
Michael Ackermann, Central Department Manager of Group Accounting at ThyssenKrupp AG, comments:
“We established contact with ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG, which had also chosen ReadSoft’s invoice processing solution. We were able to share helpful project experience. We are very satisfied with the results and see every day how economical electronic invoice processing is. A basic condition for us was that the new software should adapt to our release and validation processes and not visa versa. ReadSoft met this criterion.”
Increase your business efficiency with tools from
the leading provider of Document Automation.
The benefits are substantial and immediate.
ReadSoft in a nutshell • Market leader with more than 4500 customers worldwide, including both global enterprises with cross-organizational systems and local companies specialized in a particular market or industry, as well as a large number of governmental bodies. • Operations in 16 countries and approximately 300 partners providing expertise in 70 countries. • Listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange since June 1999. • Fifteen percent of revenue is invested in Research & Development every year; close collaboration with various research institutes. • Close partnerships with prestigious global partners. Cooperation with prominent consulting firms. • Delivers software in several languages. • Voted “Best of AIIM” five times at the world’s largest document management convention, AIIM, in the United States. R ea dS o ft A B r es er ve s t he r ig ht to c ha ng e a ny fe at ur e o r f o rm o f s o ftw ar e b eh av io r w ith o ut p rio r n o tic e. 5-5 07 09
ReadSoft—always at the forefront of innovation
We take pride in being the innovators of our industry. Our Research & Development team is a major part of our company and we spend a substantial part of our revenue on inventing and improving new technology, according to our customers’ needs.
ReadSoft DOCUMENTS – a modular software platform
This full-scale system incorporates five Automation Areas: Capture, Understand, Manage, Integrate and Interchange. It is based on a flexible structure can be adjusted to fit your specific business requirements.
ReadSoft also offers a range of business solutions based on the ReadSoft DOCUMENTS platform. These are pre-configured solutions to automate specific document type or business applica-tions. A business solution includes tailored services such as con-sulting, training and support. Today, we offer business solutions for Forms, Invoices, Mailrooms and Document EDI.
