The project for the client was focused on the complete agenda of supplier invoices – digitization of their reception and circulation in the company, including compliance with all the requirements imposed by the Czech and European legislation. Last but not least, it was necessary to find the most suitable platform that would allow seamless integration of new functionalities into SAP and ERP system used by the client.
The project covered the following areas: receipt of electronic invoices by e-mail, ISDS input or direct electronic exchange of documents; conversion of paper invoices into electronic form; data extraction from the invoice; storage of signed electronic invoices into DMS data repository; availability of scanned image of each invoice directly within the accounting system; assurance of electronic invoice workflow among individual verification and approval levels up to the accountant, including communication among users; transfer of information from extracted invoices for cash flow planning.
The solution by IXTENT consisted in: implementation of the SAP Vendor Invoice Management module (OpenText); adaptation of financial accounting and warehouse management modules including logistics, modifications of SAP Content server for use as (SAP) Document Management System, modifications in SAP workflow, extension with Optical Character Recognition component (Invoice Capture Center (ICC) by OpenText), extension with Document Pipeline (OpenText) – a tool for working with documents (conversion, signing, archiving, etc.).
Solution scheme:
Functionality under SAP Incoming paper invoices are scanned upon reception. Then, together with the invoices received as e-mail attachments and data messages or through EDI, they are archived in the SAP Content Server repository and marked with a unique 30-digit identifier. Subsequently, they are sent to SAP VIM, where they are marked with a 12-digit processing number (DP – Document Processing number). Extraction of data from invoices takes place after transmission to the ICC, where data such as supplier number, address, currency, date of issue, taxable performance date, and other items are extracted. The document is returned to SAP VIM after processing. This is followed by the extracted data validation against the invoice image and subsequent processing of exceptions (checking for discrepancies or missing data). One of the last steps in the process is the comprehensive invoice approval. Once all the requirements are met, the document is posted in corresponding standard SAP transaction.
The benefits of the solution are:
- savings up to 50% of internal human resources costs (thanks to the automation and robotization of the process, employees can be transferred to more skilled work; the return on investment is very fast – approximately up to 12-14 months),
- minimizing the risk of human error (when rewriting data),
- speeding up and streamlining the entire document workflow process.