Many companies struggle with the management and control of their purchase process.

There are many stakeholders in the purchase cycle. “Who is responsible for what” is often muddled between layers of multple business processes and the various roles employees play.

It’s not that roles may be unclear about purchasing policies, but rather a lack of transparency by design. This is particularly relevant in organizations that are reliant on paper-based processes, or when their ERP does not have the ability to provide flexible approval workflows.

As a result, organizations are looking to optimize the purchase process to improve accountability as well as visibility. This can be done with automated Request to Pay.

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Automated Request to Pay Workflow Roles

With Request-to-Pay automation, all of the stakeholders in the purchase cycle have a visible role to play. Visible in the sense that any relevant activity can be seen in real time – what changes were made, when they took place, and who made them.

The roles in a request to pay workflow include the following:

Requestor – asks for the goods and services
Approver – approves of the expenditure
Purchaser – acquires the goods or services
Receiver – receives the goods or services ordered
AP Staff – ensures that payment is made

The Automated Request to Pay Process

  • The person requesting the goods or services completes a digital purchase requisition.
  • The purchase is approved by an Approver, and the software changes the requisition to a digital PO.
  • The digital PO is delivered to the Purchaser, who places an order with the supplier.
  • Delivery of the product or service is acknowledged by the receiver and a goods receipt is recorded in the system.
  • The supplier sends an invoice for the goods sold. If it is a paper invoice it is scanned and A.I. intuitively identifies the vendor and all of the relevant data. The software also scans electronic invoices and extracts relevant data after identifying who the vendor is.
  • The software automatically does intelligent PO matching. If the invoice, PO, and goods receipt match, the invoice is routed directly to the ERP for payment.
  • For exceptions, the invoice is automatically routed to the approver to review. The exception is in an information “packet” that holds the invoice image, PO, goods receipt, and notes. Approvers see the information in an email or mobile browser.
  • Once approved, the vendor receives payment and this information is recorded by the ERP.

Find out more about Rillion AP Automation here.

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