Introduction Utilizing an organizational design that includes the role of the global process owner for an end-to-end process area, such as Purchase-to-Pay, is considered a best practice by many companies.  However, the manner in which global process ownership is configured and carried out can vary significantly between companies, with such issues as the level of […]

Introduction At major corporations across the globe, the Purchase-to-Pay process can be very complex; involving thousands of suppliers and employees who represent many different departments within the company.  While the shift to an end-to-end process design has helped to break down the company silos, standardize operations, and streamline the overall process, ensuring that the “customers” […]

Introduction Segmenting Accounts Payable work activities to identify those that would be best supported by a call center or help desk has been a design element for the majority of Shared Services organizations, with resulting benefits including improved visibility of problems and issues, and higher levels of satisfaction from internal customers and external suppliers.   However, […]

Energy costs are one of the largest expense categories a company has, which makes it a priority to understand and manage utility-related data.  Yes, if the lights were out last month at one of your company locations, you probably need to pay the electric bill; however, the process of managing utility payments is more complicated […]

With several innovative cloud-based software solutions designed specifically for the Purchase-to-Pay process now available, companies have the opportunity to leverage advanced functionality without a large IT investment or a complex implementation project.  Such providers as Ariba, Coupa, and Taulia are growing rapidly as companies continue to migrate to these extremely powerful and flexible solutions, and […]

The pervasive use of local manual checks for everything from employee recognition awards to urgent vendor payments has been the nemesis of Accounts Payable organizations for decades.  Difficult to control and manage, and costly to administer, the hope was that with the introduction of improved processes and efficient centralized payment systems, the need for local […]

Dealing with the many complex issues surrounding the procurement of services is a challenge that every company faces to one degree or another.  Often, the solutions implemented in this area of Procure-to-Pay are workarounds that may accomplish the task at hand, but are filled with manual processing and less than ideal controls.  Even with the […]

Decades ago, when Accounts Payable processors manually completed the three-way match of a paper invoice, purchase order, and receiving document, it was considered a courtesy for a supplier to provide a monthly statement of account activity, detailing outstanding invoices and credits.  With the move towards automation and reduction in processing errors and mismatches, paper statements […]

As a part of government compliance requirements in the United States, reporting for Form W-9 (Request for Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and Certification) and Form 1099 (Miscellaneous Income) crosses multiple functions, including Master Data, Purchasing, Accounts Payable, Tax, and General Accounting.  With so many functions involved in the process, there is often no clear owner […]

Shared Services organizations can, and should, play a critical role in managing and maximizing working capital. While collaborating with Procurement on vendor terms and Treasury on cash management is a common practice, one obvious solution that is often overlooked is the manner in which the invoice due date is calculated. Recently, Peeriosity’s iPollingTM functionality was […]