Automated Approval Workflow
Reduction in Processing Cost
American Seafoods Group (ASG) is the world’s largest at-sea processor of Wild Alaska Pollock, with its high-quality products distributed globally since 1988. It also holds the largest Wild Pacific Hake (Whiting) allocation. . They were one of the pioneers who helped revolutionize how fisheries are managed in the United States. Today it produces up to 150 MT of seafood daily.
Until now, American Seafood Group, as an organization, used to manage 24000 invoices manually over the year. The invoices received through emails were scanned, printed, signed, and approved. The invoice process was cumbersome and involved much paperwork. In addition, numerous manual interventions resulted in issues such as invoice matching errors, discrepancies, more extended approval, and delayed payment cycles, leading to strained supplier relationships.
Moreover, the process involved multiple departments (individual companies of ASG) and members without much visibility of timely approvals and supplier payments. The invoices were sent manually to various departments and people involved in the processing cycle. With the involvement of multiple stakeholders, the probability of duplicate invoices was always high. Also, there was a waste of time in the absence of defined workflows.
Key Challenges include:
“Aavenir Invoiceflow has improved our efficiency with seamless vendor collaboration, zeroing duplicate invoices, and manual invoice management. Integrating the SAP accounting system has further enhanced accrual reporting and timely payments, giving way to supplier discounts. - Accounts Payable Team”.
Aavenir streamlined the invoicing and AP processes on ServiceNow for ASG by tapping into their ERPs, i.e., SAP & operational software AMOS.
As a result, we kicked off the systematic approach for ASG, where all invoices will hit the mailbox and get automatically mapped according to the information.
Aavenir created mailboxes based on the company and vendor/department mapping. The invoices received are routed automatically to the AP Team and department heads. The AP team will check the coding and cost allocation on Invoices before sending them out. The double-check system assures everything that goes to the supplier is discrepancy-proof with quicker approvals.
The Aavenir's intelligent AI engine simplified processes by capturing information on a particular invoice. It allowed automatic extraction and update of multiple line items and fields to map them as relevant. Further, assigning the invoice to a specific user group reduces manual entries and human errors. In addition, the touchless processing and data extraction streamline the invoice approval process for ASG.
Aavenir Invoiceflow has powered ASG with clear and complete visibility of invoices, their status, and lifecycle for each department and every approver involved. It ensures that the correct invoice payment goes to each supplier without over or underpayment—the automated invoice processing solution checks for duplicate or delayed payments. Further, the automated 2-way matching identifies disparities.
Aavenir Invoiceflow automates the monotonous task of reviewing, mapping, and approving invoices. There is a minimum human intervention with the three implemented workflows, which revolve around PO/NON-PO based and one customized workflow, mainly covering the invoices for operational services/purchases.
The quick implementation of Aavenir Invoiceflow built on ServiceNow enabled American Seafoods Group with remarkable results in a short period.
