inSTREAM™ for Accounts Payable provides the ‘hub’ through which all your goods receipts and invoices can be received and processed, minimising the need for human intervention and delivering Guaranteed Perfect Input to your finance systems.
How it works
You can choose how you want to receive your supplier invoices. By post, paper, email, fax or EDI.
By post
You can process these at your premises (wherever they are) using our inSTREAM™ Client software. It’s easy to configure with a scanner and you can upload invoices directly into the inSTREAM™ Service Platform. Alternatively this task can be outsourced to our Service Centre and we can handle them for you. This can involve collecting your invoices from your premises or directly from your local Royal Mail sorting office. We can also arrange for a PO box to enable all supplier invoices to be delivered directly to the Service Centre. Whatever you choose, your invoices will be handled within our highly clinical and automated Service Centre. We’ll handle the receipt of post, opening, preparation and scanning of all supplier invoices and documents in your accounts payable process and upload them for processing into the inSTREAM™ Service Platform.
By Email, Fax and EDI
Invoices received by email(& attachments), fax and electronic data streams can be processed directly into the inSTREAM™ Service Platform.
Regardless of whether the invoice was received on paper, email or fax all invoices become electronic transactions when they are handled by inSTREAM™. The first step in processing each invoice is to recognise it and apply your business rules to process it correctly.
inSTREAM™ accurately identifies the documents and key data, automatically extracting the data essential to your process. This key data is then checked, validated and matched against other sources of data including the original purchase order and goods receipt note to ensure that it meets all your criteria. If inSTREAM™ cannot guarantee the accuracy of the key data then it requests the assistance of an operator. This is called Resolution handling and it can be carried out by your own staff, our Service centre staff or a 3rd party organisation.
Decision Making
If approvals are required as part of the process then key data and supporting information can be automatically sent to decision makers by their preferred media such as email, mobile, web or even within your current ERP system. Regardless of their location and whatever their preference, they have the option to Approve, Decline or refer their decision quickly. Following your business rules, multiple approvals may be required but if timing is an issue, Celaton’s Interactive Workflow will retrieve an approval request from an absent employee after any period of inactivity and resubmit it to an alternative decision maker to avoid process delays.
Data Delivery
With the supplier invoice validated, matched and approved, key data can be sent to one or multiple ERP systems. This can also include a link to the original invoice and GRN documents along with a compliant audit trail.
Digital Records Storage
Every invoice, goods received note or document, along with a complete audit trail can be automatically stored as part of the process within Celaton’s Enterprise Document Management system on-line. These documents and data can be accessed from with your ERP system or by authorized users with a web browser. They are available for as long as your business rules define and can be retrieved by word or phrase just as easily as if were search ‘Google’.Furthermore, many customers have approval from HMRC to destroy their paper supplier invoice records as all this data is stored in a compliant and easily retrievable solution.
Visibility
Your business rules are adhered to and every aspect of your process is managed and monitored by inSTREAM™ which provides realtime views and performance against service level agreements. Regardless of whether you monitor progress in realtime, inSTREAM™ maintains a detailed, and auditable record of every steps, ensuring compliance and data integrity.