We have dedicated several posts to talk about the main features of SAP Invoice Management by OpenText. This time we will focus on how the product helps Accounts Payable departments in reconciling invoice and order lines.
In a typical SAP system, this is a manual process that is carried out from MIRO, and it is an arduous and slow process.
So, what solutions can automate this process?
SAP Vendor Invoice Management by OpenText makes this process fully automatic, reducing the time spent by the department to a minimum.
The standard fuctionality of the producto is base don a complex process that tries to assign the invoice line base don the order information. Thanks to the power of the OCR, with artificial intelligence in its latest versions, the system has all the necessary information to cmpare the data obtained from the invoice with the existing order in SAP, being able to relate its lines to achieve its automatic determination.
This process is not only aplicable to invoices received on paper and managed by the OCR, but it also applies to any existing input channel such as IDocs.
The benefit of this automation is clear, the process is faster and more efficient, reduces the effort required by the employee to enter the invoice in SAP and minimizes the workload of the Accounts Payable and Finance departments.
The automatic link between the invoice and the order data can be divided into steps:
STEP 1. MIRO’s proposal for an invoice:
SAP Vendor Invoice Management by OpenText allows to set two preferences for the determination of items, which can be done base don the delivery note or the order as preference. This preference establishes what is the first data that will be taken to execute the MIRO proposal and compare it against the lines and amounts of the invoice.
The recommendation is to use the delivery note as the first preference, because if it exists, it is the most accurate reference that can be used in any match scenario.
In any case, this is only a preference, and if the delivery note is not specified or recognized by the OCR in a document, then the order will be taken to execute the MIRO proposal.
STEP 2. Comparison between the MIRO proposal and the invoice data
Once the system has the MIRO proposal, it makes a comparison between all the lines of the proposal and the invoice data. It tries to find a unique match for each invoice item by comparing it with the MIRO proposal base don criteria such as: unit price, quantity, amount, etc.
If the system i sable to find only one correct match for each line, then it automatically fils in all the information in the item so that the invoice is ready to be posted. If the invoice does not match, it is sent for your review and troubleshooting.
Based on our experience, we have developed a customized logic much more complete than the one provided by the product itself as it covers more scenarios that those contemplated in the standard.
We have made SAP Vendor Invoice Management by OpenText more accurate when it comes to recognizing lines, reaching our customer automations close to 75%.
If you are interested in knowing more about our automation packages, contact us, we will be more than happy to help you out.
