Overview
Have you ever heard of a company with 100 locations receiving over 300 telecom invoices? With some of those locations receiving invoices from different carriers for the same service?
We have.
Some of our customers came to us in just that circumstance: receiving boxes of invoices on a monthly basis that bogged down their A/P, with no real view into what they were paying for. While most companies are not in such a severe situation, partnerTEL's A/P Optimization is a solution for companies that want to get control of all of their contracts, while implementing a invoice review and bill payment strategy that will help them demonstrate compliance in their process.
Service Consolidation
This is the "heavy lifting" of the process. partnerTEL will analyze your invoices, services and locations and combine your services under the fewest carrier contracts as appropriate. This allows you to gain the best rates through volume billing, while streamlining contract management and bill payment.
A/P Optimization
partnerTEL's A/P Optimization service is far more than just invoice receipt, approval and payment. The process (outlined below) not only provides savings throughout the payment lifecycle, but also offers the transparency and segregation of duties that helps organizations maintain compliance surrounding their A/P.
Invoice Receipt, Scanning & Archiving
partnerTEL can receive invoices in any format. Paper invoices or mailed media will be sent to a secure lockbox that is checked twice daily, while EDI is processed in real-time. Once received, invoices will be immediately sorted, scanned and indexed. Images are archived at a secure, redundant facility, and can be accessed via our secure, web-based portal.
Note - most companies will experience an immediate ROI by simply eliminating the flood of paper invoices and the costs associated with processing them.
Data Capture
To ensure accuracy and virtually eliminate all errors, partnerTEL employs a dual-data entry methodology. Under this process, two accounts payable professionals independently key data into our system, and an auto-merge utility only accepts the data that is identical to the respective field.
Approval / Exception Workflow
Applying your business rules, acceptable variances and exception criteria, partnerTEL can replicate your internal A/P approval process, with complete visibility into all transactions via the portal. Invoices flagged as exceptions, or those that cannot be matched to an account, will trigger an e-mail to a designated user for resolution or further audit. Those that meet pre-determined criteria can either be sent directly to the Payment Processing stage, or trigger an e-mail for customer-initiated approval.
Expense Mapping & Reporting
For department-level reporting and budget forecasting, general ledger codes can be added to insure that expenses are tracked to an associated department or project. Reports can be generated based on those codes, vendor, payable date and amount, approver or other criteria.
Payment Processing
For customers seeking an end-to-end solution, partnerTEL can even initiate payment for those invoices that have been approved. Payments can be made via check, wire, ACH or EDI. Reconciliation reports will be provided back in a format that allows for easy upload or import into your incumbent A/P system.
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