Implementing a Centralized Accounts Payable

Controlling Accounts Payable operations across multiple locations is a real challenge for many companies. The challenges escalate when the company is in a growth phase. With more locations, more vendors to pay and more customers to invoice and collect from, companies often operate in a decentralized model, managing receipts and payments from each location. This means duplicated functions and nearly duplicated effort and cost.

This was the scenario for The Salvation Army, which has over 500 ministry units and/or retail locations across Canada including The Salvation Army’s Canadian Thrift Stores in Canada.

The Challenge: Decentralized Accounts Payable

On a daily basis, The Salvation Army receives over 900 invoices or approximately 18,500 every month. 30% of these invoices arrive in the mail as paper invoices while 70% arrive as email attachments.

Invoice processing at The Salvation Army was decentralized with invoices being sent to over 500 different physical locations. These invoices would be approved locally or forwarded to one of four finance offices in Canada for payment. Archived invoices were imaged in one location and paper filed in the other three. This approach was time consuming, costly and difficult to control.

The Solution: Centralized Accounts Payable

After a comprehensive tender, evaluation and selection process, Octacom was recognized as being “the right fit” for The Salvation Army, providing a full front end AP automation service for their invoices, including exception management.

Invoice Receipt and Processing

1. Mailed invoices are centralized and managed by Octacom through a PO Box service

2. Emailed invoices are directed to Octacom for receipt, acknowledgement and validation

3. Invoices are scanned and processed for header data capture, vendor validation and automated ministry unit and GL coding for PAD invoices

4. Invoices are seamlessly uploaded to Business World to kick off a digital and automated approval process

5. Octacom provides front end exception management, notifying vendors of invoice rejections and loading certain exception types to Odiss™ for review and action

6. Octacom provides reporting on invoice processing and exceptions

Exception Portal Management

Odiss™ Document Management Software for Exception Management enables a centralized Salvation Army AP team to review exception invoices, edit, annotate and route for appropriate action internally or to vendors. These invoices can be annotated, deleted, returned to the vendor or simply approved through the portal.

ERP Upload

Octacom’s integration with The Salvation Army’s Business World Platform allows for automated upload of processed and validated invoices, for The Salvation Army to then run various workflow approvals prior to payment.

The Results

The Salvation Army achieved their goal of creating a centralized AP process and has been able to greatly reduce the hours and efforts that were required in their paper-based environment and are benefiting from the associated savings.