The City of Topeka, Kansas will soon continue an ERP implementation that was put on hold more than a year ago for financial reasons. Despite the mayor’s objection to the project, the city council was able to overturn his veto.

According to an article published in Topeka Capital-Journal, Topeka’s mayor vetoed purchasing a Lawson ERP system in September 2007 and again in April 2008. When work on the project picked up again in May 2008, the then district attorney filed a lawsuit claiming the purchase violated the city’s cash-basis law. A judge agreed.

Assessing the Larger Value of a Broad Platform
BY STEVE SMITH

Today virtually every organization recognizes the value of eliminating manual accounts payable processing to gain the efficiencies that automation brings. If any were not convinced, the recent economy and its affect on financing costs should be enough to erase any doubt.

Answering and researching vendor calls can be a time-consuming and often difficult task for the AP department. Whether a vendor is asking ‘Did you receive my invoice?’ or ‘When can I expect payment?’ answering these questions is a necessary part of vendor relations, but it takes an AP employee away from processing payables.

There is an alternative. With Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Interactive Web Response (IWR) systems, the above questions and many others can be answered without an AP staffer at all.

Like all business functions, it’s possible to handle an organization’s accounting functions manually. However, most businesses understand that accounting software packages make the job far more efficient.

Implementing a new accounting system can be stressful. There are a variety of missteps that organizations can make which are capable of derailing the entire project. Fortunately, PC Magazine recently compiled a list of 10 steps for setting up accounting software that can serve as a valuable guide.

Health Care AP must-see: Secrets for successful payables automation in Health Care!

Invoice discounting is a great way for organizations to improve cash management while maintaining strong vendor relationships. For many companies, it may be the key to surviving the current economic uncertainty.

Traditional invoice discounts, which are usually proposed by the seller, involve paying an invoice early (usually within ten days) for a slight discount. The most common discount terms are 2/10 net 30, meaning the buyer receives a 10 percent discount for paying on the tenth day.

Telecommunications billing is a complex and dynamic area with large volumes and great potential for lost dollars through overpayment. With all the phone companies and systems, services and taxes, plus the constant change that defines the industry, telecom is often considered a prime candidate for outsourcing.

But in order to manage telecom billing well, outsourcing is not necessarily the only answer. In fact, Rob Keough, telecom analyst for Aquila, says his company can maintain better control over the telecom budget by managing it in house.

The traditional belief that a comprehensive business solution like an ERP system needs to be running inside the organizations' walls to be effective is becoming a thing of the past.

During the last couple of years, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model has been gaining momentum with small and medium-sized companies. Saas, where the solution is managed by the provider and the user accesses it over the Internet, is ideal for businesses unable to commit considerable IT resources to a project.

Invoices are treasure troves of valuable data. With everything from product descriptions to contract terms, invoices feature a wealth of vital information that AP can leverage to improve the organization’s procure-to-pay cycle.

Unfortunately, many departments are not doing this. Mining data from a paper invoice is a daunting task. It requires organizations to devote staff resources and time to a job that doesn’t help pay the bills any faster. The key to getting access to this data is to go electronic.

Comprehensive business process automation covering procedures from the issuing of a purchase order through payment of the invoice is referred to as "procure-to-payment" technology. Procure-to-payment or purchase-to-payment (P2P) technology solutions automate all or most of the significant procedures from the point that a purchase order is issued through payment of that invoice via an integrated system. Such systems typically incorporate visibility into the process and capture of business intelligence.