Accounts Payable Processing

Tricom’s Accounts Payable Outsourcing Services Provide Centralized Control over Payables and Other Best Practices While Reducing Costs by 25% to 50% annually.

Most finance organizations spend a large part of their finance budget on processing Accounts Payable.  This is largely due to the manual effort required to enter invoices into the accounting system and, if applicable, match those invoices to purchase orders and receipts.  Yet while Accounts Payable is critical to ensure that authorized invoices are paid accurately, it is often not managed to world-class standards due to the time and expense required to implement best practices.

Is your organization utilizing Accounts Payable Best Practices to stay in control?  If you can answer YES to the following questions, you probably are. 

• You know how many invoices you receive on a monthly basis
• You have defined and well-documented business rules for matching invoices to PO’s and receipts and approval levels that are followed explicitly by managers and Accounts Payable staff
• You catch all duplicate invoices and have very small tolerances for invoices that do not match the PO or receipt
• You know the number and dollar value of outstanding invoices (liabilities) before they are approved or matched
• You know how many of your invoices do not match the PO or receipt and why
• You know which of your managers have invoices in their inboxes waiting for approval and their dollar value
• You receive invoices centrally and route those invoices to the managers that know whether the invoice is accurate, no matter where the manager is physically located
• You have images of all invoices and can look them up on the web quickly and easily, eliminating time spent filing and retrieving invoices
• You let your vendors look up into invoice information and payment status on the web to reduce the volume of phone calls to our staff

If you answered no to any of the above questions, you should consider Tricom’s Accounts Payable Outsourcing Services.  Tricom’s Accounts Payable Outsourcing Services provide the following benefits: 

• 25% to 50% annual A/P processing cost savings without capital investment
• Greater, centralized control over payables across the enterprise, irrespective of physical location
• World-class quality and accuracy from Tricom’s ISO 9001-certified service centers, ensuring accurate matching to PO’s and receipts and elimination of duplicate and erroneous payments
• Real-time tracking and reporting of all payables from the time they are received from the vendor through disbursement, for client employees and their vendors
• Reporting of A/P matching exceptions by vendor and exception type for improved procurement and vendor relations
• Automated routing of payables for approval by business unit managers irrespective of location, enhancing control and manager productivity
• Elimination of the headache of recruiting, hiring and managing clerical staff
• The ability to focus on strategic, pertinent finance issues instead of non-value added activities such as A/P

Tricom’s Accounts Payable Outsourcing Services Provide Significant Benefits:

25% to 50% annual A/P processing cost savings without capital investment

Tricom’s use of advanced workflow and imaging technology, best practices and high levels of quality ensure that we process all clients’ Accounts Payable efficiently and accurately.  And because our service platform sits on top of our clients’ accounting systems, we can leverage your existing infrastructure, without any capital investment on your part.

Greater, centralized control over payables across the enterprise, irrespective of physical location

Tricom changes the billing address to our PO Box and we scan and enter invoice information generally within 24 hours of receipt.  We then electronically route it to the appropriate managers for review and approval utilizing our web-based workflow, so the people who know whether something should be approved or not can authorize it:  Centralized control with decentralized approval.

World-class quality and accuracy from Tricom’s ISO 9001-certified service a center, ensuring accurate matching to PO’s and receipts and elimination of duplicate and erroneous payments

At the start of any client engagement, we define detailed business rules around invoice matching and approval.  Our workflow software utilizes these rules to route invoices for approval, ensuring that invoices are approved by each and every manager necessary, and checks for supplicates and other potential overpayments.  For invoices matched to PO’s and receipts, our college educated team members follow all matching rules and handle any exceptions.  Any invoice can be electronically routed to any member of our client’s management for review if needed.

Real-time tracking and reporting of all payables from the time they are received from the vendor through disbursement, for client employees and their vendors

From the moment we scan an invoice we start tracking its status and date and time stamp it at each step of the process, providing immediate and complete visibility of all payables using our web-based reporting system.  The system reports to client management any information on the invoice (dollar amount, vendor, date, etc.), step in the process, who approved it and when, any exceptions by line item and type (price discrepancy, quantity discrepancy, etc.), inbox status (so you can see which managers are “sitting” on their invoices), and sums all outstanding liabilities for the company.  This system is secure yet accessible over the web by all client employees and vendors when approved by our clients.

Automated routing of payables for approval by business unit managers irrespective of location, enhancing control and manager productivity

Any invoice processed can be routed electronically to any employee’s “InBox”.  Employees can log into their InBox over the web securely, view the invoice, image the invoice information, change the account coding as necessary and approve or reject it.  If approved, it is automatically routed to the next manager for approval based on the business rules identified at the start of the engagement.  This method provides for superior control over the process by management while dramatically reducing effort in approving and tracking invoices.

Elimination of recruiting, hiring and managing clerical staff

Managing a clerical staff that typically has high turnover and requires extensive training is generally a headache for most financial managers and takes time away from other priorities more important to the business.

The ability to focus on strategic, pertinent finance issues instead of non-value added activities such as A/P

One of the most significant benefits our clients report is the increased focus on important issues affecting the business instead of spending valuable time managing the Accounts Payable process and the clerical staff.

No Risk

Tricom’s Accounts Payable services can be piloted in one location or for one vendor before being rolled out across the enterprise.  And if for any reason you want to discontinue using our services, just change the billing address on your invoices and you are all set.

Implementation and Continuous Improvement

Implementation of Tricom’s Accounts Payable Outsourcing Services can be accomplished in a matter of weeks.  Our proven methodology has resulted in many happy clients.  Our implementation process consists of:

• Defining and documenting with our client the detailed business rules for Accounts Payable processing for both service (non-PO) and PO-based invoices, including matching rules and authorization levels
• Modifying our process and workflow screens as needed to track all pertinent information for our client.  For example, a client may wish to track payables by spend category.  Since we control our software, we can quickly add a field to a screen to capture that information.
• Changing the billing address on vendor invoices
• Piloting the process in one segment of the business
• Rolling out the service across the remainder of the business
• Tricom-Client meetings every 3 months afterwards to continually improve the process and work with vendors to improve their invoicing

Our process ensures a smooth implementation, high quality and low risk results.