Paperless AP Automation - The Basic Steps to Success
Thursday, May 13th; 8:45 - 9:45 AM
David Danner - Regional Manager
Metaflie - Business Services
Best Suited for Companies Processing 250,000-500,000 Invoices Annually
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Business Management & Organization
Overview # 220 - New Session
You don't need to go from zero to best-in-class immediately in order to enjoy the benefits of paperless AP automation. There are a number of well defined phases you can implement over time. During each step you will gain positive acceptance from your AP staff, finance executives, procurement and receiving - constantly adding significant efficiency and visibility to your procure-to-pay process along the way.
Payables Automation on a Shoestring Budget: Focus on Electronic Invoices vs. Scanning
Monday, May 10th; 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Clint Landman - President and Founder
Landman Consulting - Business Services
Best Suited for Companies Processing fewer than 250,000 Invoices Annually
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint / Case Study
Field of Study - Business Management & Organization
Basic # 225 - New Session
This facilitator will describe how a public company managed its manual AP function prior to implementing a Web-based, paperless solution. For years, the organization reluctantly persevered with zero visibility to payables. Accurate insight was only further mired by the daily influx of paper invoices. Data entry and management of paper created high labor costs, long approval times, as well as compliance issues. Fast forward to 2009, and you'll find a company completely revolutionized by AP automation. Invoices are received electronically and routed to the appropriate workflow within one or two days rather than 30 to 60 days. The streamlined process allowed for departmental reassignments, lower staffing levels, and reduced overhead, directly contributing to an overall cost savings of $1 million a year. Today, life is very different. Topics to include:
- Share four trends that Colonial's team identified in searching for a solution.
- Share why Colonial selected a software-as-a-service model for AP automation.
- Discuss impact of receiving electronic invoices versus scanning paper invoices.
- Share secrets on how Colonial had a 70 percent electronic invoice adoption rate within nine months.
Personal Identification Security with Tax Information Reporting
Tuesday, May 11th; 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Troy Thibodeau - Executive VP of Marketing & Client Development
Convey Compliance Systems, Inc. - Business Services
Best Suited for Companies Processing 250,000 - 500,000 Invoices Annually
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Business Management & Organization
Overview # 230 - New Session
A person's identifying number is sensitive personal information and a risk exists that this information could be misappropriated from a payee statement and misused in various ways to facilitate identity theft. In an effort to minimize this risk, the IRS has announced that it will now support TIN masking on mailed documents.
This session will discuss the parameters of the program, along with limitations currently proposed within Federal filing, and how the program impacts state filing. We will also discuss alternate methods of masking TINs through electronic and mailed form delivery.
Real World Best Practices for Accounts Payable Automation
Tuesday, May 11th; 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Allen Carney - VP of Product Marketing
Kofax
Jeff Lubbe - Corporate Finance Director
University Hospitals
Mary Anne Rait - Manager, Systems Training
Ryerson University
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Business Management & Organization
Basic # 235 - New Session
Across all businesses and industries, invoice processing not only represents significant overhead, but with financial reporting and regulatory compliance issues, the importance of vendor and contract management, cost controlling, and the need for tight cost and cash flow management. It also represents a business-critical part of a company's end-to-end value chain. This session is essential for finance managers and IT managers who want to learn about best practices for accounts payable automation as defined and certified by experts in this field that result in a solid return on investment. You will understand:
- The individual components that are required to automate each step of the invoice process.
- How the components integrate with your ERP system to provide real-time AP performance visibility and management.
Straight-Through AP Process
Thursday, May 13th; 10:00 - 11:00 AM
Jeff Joseph, CAPP, CPCP - Accounts Payable Manager
PPL Services Corporation - 20 AP Employees; Utilities Industry
Best Suited for Companies Processing 250,000-500,000 Invoices Annually
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Business Management & Organization
Intermediate # 240 - New Session
Hear how PPL Services Corporation, the shared services company for the PPL Corporation family of companies, automated its AP processes and the steps it took. The session will start at the beginning, with the implementation of a corporate card program, imaging, and changing policies; continue on to workflow, electronic approvals, OCR, e-invoicing for materials and services, and outsourcing phone and utility bills; and culminate with moving AP to supply chain and creating front office concept for non-order related transactions. This did not happen overnight, but PPL considers the time it took well worth the resulting straight-through process flow.
Swimming Like a Salmon in SAP Accounts Payable: How Moving Against the Flow Enabled Successful Creation of an In-House AP Solution
Monday, May 10th; 9:45 - 10:45 AM
Brian Shannon - Principal Process Strategist
Dolphin - Business Services
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Business Management & Organization
Intermediate # 245 - New Session
A heavily transaction-based process, Accounts Payable impacts cash flow daily, has significant risk potential, and is ideally positioned for standardization & automation. But do you need to send your process offshore to realize cost savings? Can an expertly designed in-house process compete with outsourcing?
Listen to how a large automotive supplier thought it was moving effortlessly downstream by choosing an outsourcing model as a means to reduce costs. However, the breadth and complexity of transactions at many foreign plants highlighted the need to take firmer control. Frustration was high with internal and external constituents, as the business was forced to adapt to a fractured process where thousands of invoices were lost monthly (yes, monthly), data entry was fraught with errors, and approval and exception handling routing mechanisms were cycle time exploders. Transparency into the process or any given transaction was simply not an option. The chorus for a new approach sounded loudly from Finance, Manufacturing and Purchasing Executives.
Discover how an in-house shared services accounts payable optimization project resulted in cost containment, optimized cash flow/credit, mitigated risk, and ultimately led to AP financial excellence.
A flexible solution set will be presented addressing fundamental business process optimization challenges - optical character recognition (OCR) tools to ease invoice data entry and image capture, the importance of invoice data verification and effective line item matching o purchase orders, and state-of-the-art approval/workflow processing and analytics. See how to build and promote a winning business case, including ROI metrics, benchmarking, process improvement intelligence, and alternate business models (centralization).
- Understand deficiencies and gaps with standard accounts payable processing and reporting.
- Understand some of the existing capabilities of your SAP landscape and how to complement those to fill the gaps.
- Review options for OCR, e-invoicing and imaging in the accounts payable process.
- See concrete examples of what your peers at other companies are doing to leverage readily available technology.
- View first-hand the power of visibility and status management for accounts payable.
The Case for Automating Tax Information Reporting
Wednesday, May 12th; 9:45 - 10:45 AM
Andrew Elvester - Solutions Consultant
Convey Compliance Systems, Inc. - Business Services
Best Suited for Companies Processing 250,000-500,000 Invoices Annually
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Business Taxes
Basic # 250 - New Session
While 1099 reporting is not nearly as obtuse as some other areas of the tax code, it can still challenge the resources of most organizations. For smaller firms, staffing and expertise deficiencies pose difficulties. The larger the enterprise and the more geographically dispersed its operations, the greater the exposure to a whole host of process-related issues. The good news, is that there has been significant advancement in technologies and services to automate the 1099 tax information reporting process - and many companies are taking advantage of these advancements not only to reduce the risk associated with improperly filing, but also to do so at a lower cost. This session will present the results of research on the tax automation process by PayStream Advisors, a leading research and consulting firm focused on finance and accounting best practices. Attendees will be presented with the findings of this research, including the benefits of tax automation and how it can help organizations increase compliance and efficiency, and improve their own customer service.
The Changing Landscape of Accounts Payable
Monday, May 10th; 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Marilyn VanZant - AP Manager
FFE Transportation Services, Inc. - 4-8 AP Managers; Transportation Services
Best Suited for Companies Processing fewer than 250,000 Invoices Annually
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Business Management & Organization
Intermediate # 255 - New Session
This session will provide insight into one company's journey from manually processing invoices to the automated accounts payable process the department uses today. Hear where the company started, where it is today, how it got there and the significant benefits received. The presentation will begin by covering:
- Getting started
- Writing a business plan and calculating ROIs
- Mapping processes
- Implementation
- Challenges faced and overcome
Also discussed will be the benefits achieved including:
- Greater staffing flexibility
- Better cash flow visibility
- Improved workflow management
- Better approval workflow - DOA
- Reduction in information requests
- Reduction in lost invoices
- Improved expense accrual accuracy
- Improved relationship with auditors
Whether you are just starting out or have already automated your accounts payable department, this session will provide real-life experiences and insight that all can use.
The Next Frontier in AP Technology - Impacting Cash
Tuesday, May 11th; 3:30 - 4:30 PM
Peter Stevens - Director of Marketing
Imagitek, Ltd. - Business Services
Best Suited for Companies Processing 500,000-700,000 Invoices Annually
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Finance
Advanced # 265 - New Session
By now everyone is aware of the cost savings that an imaging and workflow system can bring to an organization. Now it's time to move forward to the next frontier of AP technology. Learn how your organization can save five times as much money as it recognized from its scan and post system. Too good to be true? Attend this session and explore what most companies overlook in AP technology: effective cash management.
- Impact of spending vs. transactional savings
- Float vs. early payment
- Dynamic and opportunistic discounting
- How to work with suppliers and contracts
- Necessary tools
The Simple Solution to Refund Processing
Monday, May 10th; 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Gordon McGee - Director of Product Management
Sandy Dykstra - Product Manager Financial Services
CSG Systems
Dan Reiff - Senior VP
SourceNet Solutions
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Business Management & Organization
Basic # 270 - New session
For organizations that are challenged with processing a high volume of consumer payments, the impacts of refunds from deposits, overpayments, and rebate programs can be dramatic. While the concept seems simple, the processes that you need to have in place can be rather complex: one-time vendor master file updates to cut payments, returned mail handling, escheatment for unclaimed funds, due diligence, and unclaimed property reporting. Participants will learn how CSG Systems is using BNY Mellon's collaborative, low-cost, integrated, end-to-end refund processing solution to create and distribute refund payments, handle returns and comply with escheatment of unclaimed property.
The Top 5 Ways to Get Your AP Project Funded
Monday, May 10th; 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Steve Bennion - Director of Sales
ReadSoft - Business Services
Best Suited for Companies Processing fewer than 250,000 Invoices Annually
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Business Management & Organization
Basic # 275 - New Session
Many companies are challenged to increase productivity without increasing costs and to use employees in more value-added processes, especially in departments such as AP, traditionally known for tedious, manual processing. Luckily, process improvements remain within your means, as AP has consistently been one of the best places to find cost savings and quick return on investment. Many best-in-class AP departments have realized increased visibility, better audit capability and compliance, increased efficiency, and reduction of time and effort with AP reform. But of the many possible initiatives, which makes best sense for your company? Join this discussion of "the top five ways to get your AP project funded" to learn how you should prioritize these and build the proper business case to obtain approval within your organization to move forward with a new AP project initiative. Presenters will review successful initiatives to achieve operational efficiencies in accounts payable, such as data capture and OCR, workflow, e-invoicing, document management and archives, and other components of process improvement. This session will ultimately help you to identify which initiative makes sense for your company and how to prioritize initiatives. You will get a real-life sampling of these solution alternatives, and learn how to measure the impact of these solutions and how to build a business case for them to ensure your AP project is funded and achieves operational success.
The Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid in Accounts Payable
Monday, May 10th; 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Nick Adams - Regional Manager
Basware, Inc. - Business Services
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Business Management & Organization
Intermediate # 280 - Updated session
Every day you hear about best practices for this process or that, but little mention is given to the mistakes or problems at the root of these best practices. This session will discuss the common mistakes made in accounts payable, as well as how to prevent them and how to build a business case for your organization's expanded use of e-invoicing and invoice automation. Learn how to use today's technology to improve business practices and profitability and reduce your accounts payable mistakes. Topics for discussion will include:
- Spending more to process an invoice than the invoice amount.
- Being a call center for vendor and internal requests.
- Manually entering data in your ERP.
- Missing discounts and incurring late fees.
- Having no visibility into unrecorded liabilities.
- Not understanding cash flow requirements.
Top AP Technologies to Consider and Why
Thursday, May 13th; 10:00 - 11:00 AM
Mark Colwell - Market Advisor
PayStream Advisors, Inc. - Business Services
Best Suited for Companies Processing fewer than 250,000 Invoices Annually
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Finance
Basic # 285 - Updated Session
The need for cost containment and enhanced productivity has encouraged organizations to look for new ways to cut expenses. Many CFOs are turning to the AP department to reduce costs and increase visibility. An effective AP department can be a cost savings and financial decision-making support center - with the necessary tools. AP automation solutions are gaining attention as effective tools, demonstrating quick return on investment, cost reduction, and effects on cash management, including increased visibility into accruals. This session will explore the results of PayStream Advisors' newest research on imaging and workflow, IDR/OCR, e-invoicing, discount management, and outsourcing. Attendees will learn:
- Types of AP automation solutions currently available.
- Ways your peers are optimizing their AP operations.
- How to benchmark your operations against similar businesses.
- How to select a solution that will allow you to gain more visibility into the AP function, improve AP processing, and, if necessary, optimize the use of working capital.
Using Integrated Workflow Technology to Automate Accounts Payable
Thursday, May 13th; 10:00 - 11:00 AM
Tom Nelson - CFO
Petro-Hunt, LLC
Beth Trammell - President
Full Circle Systems
Kevin Neal - Product Marketing Manager
Pam Doyle - Director
Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. (Moderator)
Presentation Style - Moderated Roundtable Discussion
Field of Study - Finance
Advanced - 290 - New Session
This presentation will examine Petro-Hunt LLC's phased approach to electronically managing its lease records, accounting documents, and invoice approval processes. It will analyze the organization's transition to paperless by documenting the projects that were implemented, lessons learned, and benefits being realized. By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Gain significant improvements in invoice tracking, timeliness of payments and payment control environment.
- Reduce file room footprint and associated costs.
- Reduce off-site storage and audit costs.
- Enable centralized forms processing and enterprise-wide access.
- Understand and document the workflow of invoices.
- Document the approval authority for each person in your company.
- Get the proper equipment and training to operate efficiently.
- Recognize the benefits of document imaging.
- Learn best practices on expanding imaging to areas outside of invoice processing.
Using Metrics and Benchmarking to Drive Your AP Automation Strategy
Wednesday, May 12th; 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Sush Koka - Research Director
PayStream Advisors, Inc. - Business Services
Best Suited for Companies Processing fewer than 250,000 Invoices Annually
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Business Management & Organization
Intermediate # 295 - New Session
With everyone tasked to do more with less, how do you accomplish your goals with limited staff and nonexistent budgets? Evaluation of the people and processes in place are the true keys to transforming your P2P organization. PayStream has identified a number of key performance indicators that help organizations evaluate their invoice and payment management, travel and expense, and discount management processes. This model serves as a recommendation for organizations to follow in improving their own P2P operations by closely analyzing the entire approval-to-payment process from the following areas: costs, quality, effectiveness, productivity, strategic alignment, and employee- and supplier-specific issues. In this session, PayStream's research director will share her experiences at building a simple dashboard to monitor and drive your invoice and expense management improvement process.
Using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for Payables Automation
Tuesday, May 11th; 3:30 - 4:30 PM
Michael Praeger - CEO and Co-Founder
AvidXchange, Inc. - Business Services
Best Suited for Companies Processing fewer than 250,000 Invoices Annually
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint / Case Study
Field of Study - Business Management & Organization
Basic # 300 - New Session
This facilitator will describe how a public company managed its manual AP function prior to implementing a SaaS solution. For years, the organization reluctantly persevered with zero visibility to payables. Accurate insight was only further mired by the daily influx of paper invoices. Data entry and management of paper created high labor costs, long approval times, and compliance issues. Fast forward to 2008, and you'll find a company completely revolutionized by AP automation. Invoices are received electronically and routed to the appropriate workflow within one or two days instead of weeks. The streamlined process allowed for departmental reassignments, lower staffing levels and overhead directly contributing to an overall cost savings of approximately $1 billion a year. Today, life is very different. Topics to include:
- Being able to compare, identify and understand the various functions and processes within your AP department.
- Being able to discuss ways your organization can leverage an automated system.
- Hearing and being able to outline how manual and automated processes have a global impact.
- Hearing and being able to describe the latest trends and advances within the automated AP industry.
Zero to AP Automation in 45 Days or Less
Tuesday, May 11th; 2:15 - 3:15 PM
Laura Williams - Director of Centralized Accounting Services
GateHouse Media
Tim Schmandt - VP of Business Process Management
Datrose
Michael Cichy - Director of Business Process Consulting
BancTec
Presentation Style - Traditional PowerPoint
Field of Study - Business Management & Organization
Intermediate # 305 - New session
Is it possible to undertake an AP automation project, have it up and running in less than 45 days, exceed business expectations, and realize an exceptional return on investment? Attend this session to learn how Williams and her team at GateHouse Media did just that and crossed the finish line with AP automation in less than 45 days. You'll learn about:
- New tools and refined methodologies driving rapid deployment in AP automation.
- Business drivers that led GateHouse Media to implement AP automation.
- How a methodical discovery and design process enabled rapid deployment.
- Benefits achieved from the Gatehouse Media AP implementation
- AP Automation (A-F)
- AP Automation (G-O) |