Mastering Invoice Management: A Comprehensive Worksheet

Invoice Management in a Connected Ecosystem: 

Paying vendor invoices on time isn’t solely about processing and remitting payments. The entire process is interconnected with various departments within an organization. Addressing vendor inquiries and resolving invoice errors and payment disputes is a significant yet often overlooked aspect. Innovations in accounts payable and supplier management automation make it easy for businesses to harness the benefits of effective vendor performance management. Contract analytics can aid in invoice management by automating invoice processing, tracking invoice status, identifying and minimizing disputes, enhancing cash flow visibility, and providing data-driven insights for negotiation and decision-making. 

Discover how here: https://youtu.be/VtiSU4zBwjo 

Determine ROI of Accounts Payable Automation on ServiceNow; Measuring impact on KPIs

AI-enabled IT Vendor Invoice Processing Workflow on ServiceNow

Projected vs. Actual Spend Visibility with ServiceNow PPM + Aavenir Invoiceflow

Simplifying Invoice Audits and AP Processing [IOFM]

Simplifying Invoice Audits and Reviews with AI-enabled Solutions

Thrive Networks drastically streamlined invoicing and expense management with Aavenir Invoiceflow

About Company

Thrive Networks delivers next-generation managed services for optimized business performance while eliminating internal resource constraints and staffing worries. It offers fully customizable strategic services to customers with a technology advantage on all aspects of IT infrastructure, including strategy, cybersecurity, cloud and cloud migration, collaboration, networking, disaster recovery, compliance, and more. 

Client’s Invoice Management Challenges

Thrive is acquiring new companies, which is significantly increasing their invoice volume and an overwhelming workload for the AP team. The challenges grew with a lack of defined processes, inefficient expense tracking, poor mapping, and more.     

Manual Invoice Management  

As the business grew and transactions multiplied, the number of invoices received also rose, making it more challenging to handle the influx efficiently. The sheer volume of invoices overwhelmed manual processes and traditional systems, leading to delays, errors, and inefficiencies in processing. 

Moreover, suppliers and partners used diverse formats like PDF, paper, or electronic formats like XML or EDI. Each format has its structure, fields, and requirements, making standardizing the invoice processing workflow challenging. This lack of standardization hinders automation efforts and increases the risk of errors during data extraction, validation, and integration with accounting or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. 

Lack of Visibility 

The inability to track the blocker at invoice processing stages poses a significant challenge. This lack of clarity made it difficult to identify and monitor the specific bottlenecks that caused delays or errors in the process, leading to inefficiencies and potential financial losses.  Consequently, Thrive needed help to achieve optimal efficiency and accuracy in their invoice processing systems 

Further, the manual process of mapping invoices to general ledger (GL) codes was a redundant exercise and highly repetitive, leading to financial inaccuracies. Thrive struggled with small-spend invoice processing that affected cash flow and vendor relationships. The AP workflow lacked a standardized structure and needed to be aligned with predefined business rules, resulting in inefficiencies and delays. 

Aavenir revamped our invoice processes. It elevated processing efficiencies with streamlined workflows and powerful AI in place. We are now free from manual invoice processing and exhibit smoother collaborations. Now even large volumes of invoices from different sources seem fine to us. 

The Solution: Aavenir AI-enabled Invoice Management Solution for Thrive Networks 

Aavenir streamlined the invoicing and expense management on ServiceNow for Thrive by tapping into their ERPs, i.e., GP, and offered an edge to transparency and tracking with defined workflows.   

Leverage the usage of AI  

Aavenir’s intelligent AI engine enabled Thrive to manage large invoice bundles in a single document. Aavenir Invoiceflow AI automatically extracts individual invoices from the bundled paper and generates a separate invoice. Now, each invoice can undergo a complete review and approval cycle independently.   

A defined workflow is set for processing invoices of different types and credit memos for smoother and quick approvals. In addition, the automated invoice processing system has reduced the manual effort of bifurcating invoices with redefined cycles.   

Integration with ERP system for higher transparency  

Aavenir Invoiceflow has powered Thrive with clear and complete visibility of invoices, their status, and lifecycle for each department and every approver involved.  

The invoices approved in Aavenir Invoiceflow are automatically pushed to the Microsoft Dynamic GP system so that invoices can be tracked, and payment can be disbursed in GP. After the disbursement, the system fetches payment modes from GP, and payment disbursement notifications or emails are sent to Vendors with payment details.    

Intuitive Invoice Management Dashboards 

AP Managers can see pending, approved, and paid invoices and identify bottlenecks in invoice processing for enhanced tracking of expenses paid. In addition, the robust reporting and customized dashboards secure confidential and relevant invoices that store critical business information. This further ensures that only authorized personnel have access to relevant invoice data.  

Task Automation  

Aavenir Invoiceflow automates the monotonous task of reviewing, mapping and approving invoices by shifting to a completely paperless invoicing process for Thrive. The solution has improved the efficiency of their AP team and reduced the timelines for vendor invoice approvals.   

Key Results 

Is your organization experiencing similar challenges? We can help you simulate how AI-enabled, automated invoice processing can make your invoicing cycles seamless & error-free. BOOK A DEMO>>

CFO Efficiency Management Checklist

CFO Efficiency Management Checklist

The CFO makes sure contracts are regularly reviewed and updated as needed. Solid controls, appropriate processes and procedures, checklists, and periodic audits are crucial for effective AP management. An AI-enabled accounts payable automation solution is the key to foster strong vendor relationships, monitor key financial metrics and continuously improve invoice approval processes 

To know more, access this checklist by completing the form and clicking “Download Now.” 

Simplifying Invoice Audits and Reviews with AI-enabled Solutions

Despite following rigorous processes to streamline invoice receipt, scan and match them with POs and follow approval processes, you may not be ‘audit-safe.’ Auditors identify potential financial fraud, scam attempts, and compliance discrepancies against contracts. Accounts payable audits (AP audits, i.e., invoice audits and reviews) share the moment of truth of improper information and accuracy against contracts that can cost companies millions of dollars. 

A study by the Aberdeen Group found that a company’s average cost of overpayments can be over $100,000 per year. A manual invoice audit can cost anywhere from $50 to $200 per invoice. Post-audit follow-ups also incur additional costs, such as time spent on resolving discrepancies, supplier negotiation, and legal fees. 

Disconnected Source-To-Pay processes and manual invoice processing can lead to:

At Aavenir, we understand the need to implement a comprehensive invoice audit and review process that aligns with multiple functions across the enterprise.  

Watch our exclusive webinar to see how Aavenir’s AI-driven Invoiceflow solution connects across Source-To-Pay processes and boosts efficiency, financial control, vendor relationships, and compliance, reducing the risk of fraud.      

The session is designed for CFOs, VP Finance, AP managers, Legal, Contract Management, and Procurement teams interested in 

American Seafoods Group (ASG) dynamically improved its invoice processing and automated manual tasks to nullify errors with visibility into workflows

About Company

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.

Client’s Invoice Management Challenges

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”.

The Solution: Aavenir AI-enabled Invoice Management Solution for Seafood Processing Company 

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.   

Defined mailbox for each company 

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.   

Leverage the usage of AI – Extraction & Mapping 

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. 

Transparency in invoice processing 

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.  

Task automation  

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.  

Key Results 

The quick implementation of Aavenir Invoiceflow built on ServiceNow enabled American Seafoods Group with remarkable results in a short period.  

Is your organization experiencing similar challenges? We can help you simulate how AI-enabled, automated invoice processing can make your invoicing process seamless & error-free. BOOK A DEMO>>