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Former Member

Invoice Monitoring system (IMS) was developed for business partners primarily vendors with a singular objective to enhance process transparency and release of timely payment to them.

IMS captures invoice data received from the vendors for on-line tracking of status of invoice.

Though SAP has standard sub module of Invoice Management System under its Supplier relationship management (SRM) module, our requirement is little different. So a customized application was conceived, designed and developed.

Purpose of the IMS is to enable the vendor to track his invoice through a link in SRM portal and help the relevant departments e.g. MM/FI/technical teams to have an overview of status of vendor invoices. This means to find out quickly and accurately where the invoices are stuck up. This is also the quick and easy way to manage and account for the invoices whether they are of material, service or Direct FI( Hospitals, Hotels etc) payments.

The easy interface enables both internal and external users to keep a watch on the status of the invoices and take appropriate action when time taken is more than normal.

The Basic process is as follows:

Vendor submits the invoices at specified Invoice desks complete with the PO No, his vendor code and email ID.

Reception Executives enters the invoice data in the IMS in SAP-ERP. An e-mail is triggered to the vendors specifying the tracking number. This number will be used later for tracking.

As subsequent documents e.g. GRV, SES, LIV, cheques are created in SAP system, the software solution automatically captures, interprets and understands information from incoming invoices. Once data has been captured, it is automatically matched against purchase orders in SAP.

A background process runs twice a day and updates the information in IMS tables. This helps in quick retrieval of data when IMS reports are run. This ensures fast system response with almost real time data.

Another background process runs and updates the information in SRM portal where a link is provided for vendors to check their updated invoices status.

Immediate, substantial benefits:

Through the IMS cockpit, top management can have summary report where they have full control of all the supplier invoices you have received. Where they are in the process, who has a specific invoice, how many invoices that have been pending for more than x days and so on.

In the end, it simplifies the entire process, from order to payment, through significantly improved internal control.

Change in Process:

Only a small change was required in the business process. Finance executive has to enter the tracking number generated in F-02, F-65, MIRO & MIR7 transactions in ‘payment ref' field in the header section. For ease of use, we have populated relevant tracking numbers in the F4 list.

Features:

Aging Report
Status report

The Aging report lists all outstanding/completed invoices, their age, and other pertinent data, essentially a summary report which gives pulse of the status across the office locations. The report is useful in monitoring and managing efforts on speeding up the accounts payable. This is a drill down report which will further show the details.

The status report is to find the current status of the invoices either individually or in group based on different selection parameter.

There is another special feature: If the Invoices are incomplete or have any sort of discrepancy, an executive can raise a disagreement/ objection in the system with his/her comments. His User-id and the date will be recorded. This status along with the comments will be shown to the vendors on the portal. Accordingly he/she can take appropriate corrective action and again submit the invoice.

We hope that our objective of timely payment will be fulfilled with the help of this program.   

 Following is the Invoice cockpit where one can have bird's eye view of the status. Different selection parameters e.g. company code, PO, vendors etc. can be used.

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Different selection parameters e.g. company code, PO, vendors etc. can be used for finding the status of the group of invoices.

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Above reports are drill down reports. Further clicking will take you to the detailed report.

Following is the Aging report where management can see which group of invoices are taking too long.

Above report too is drill down report. Following is the detailed version which shows all the relevant documents pertaining to the particular invoice.

Finally, following is the report for the vendors where they can see the status of their invoice through SRM portal.

 

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