OverviewFinance organizations are charged with reducing costs, improving performance, achieving regulatory compliance, increasing visibility and enabling the corporation’s strategic initiatives — all at the same time. The fundamental issue is not whether a company should strive for these goals but how well it can accomplish them. A strategically engineered transformation of processes that cuts operational costs and minimizes financial risks obviously requires serious consideration.

Evidence suggests that the core solution to the Finance challenge lies in optimizing workflow processes to improve overall speed, efficiency, control and visibility of operations. Optimization is a function of finely choreographed automation and best practice workflows expertly applied to a set of processes. Automation effectively meets the AP goals of effective cash management, transparency, process efficiency, rapid closing, productivity and minimizing of threats to compliance posed by fraud and errors.

To gain complete and clear visibility throughout the entire AP flow, organizations must minimize paper handling and tightly integrate AP processes with their ERP systems. Integrating document capture and workflow with an ERP system sets the foundation for complete and clear visibility. Ideal AP automation solutions provide

• Early visibility through the centralized, front end capture of all invoices (in all formats) into the ERP system, thus accelerating the recognition of liabilities;

• Optimized resource utilization to identify and address process bottlenecks and reduce cycle times;

• Complete audit trails of every step and participant in a process; and

• Proactive issue identification such as alerts that allow management to resolve potential problems quickly.

Accounts Payable Automation Solutions from Kofax

“AP professionals who have installed imaging and workflow technology are now agreed that these systems pay for themselves in a relatively short time through savings in labor and storage costs… In large AP departments, headcount can be reduced by substituting electronic data capture for manual data entry… Often just as valuable, are the savings that can accrue from faster search and retrieval, error avoidance, and automated approval management… Any AP manager can look confidently for a return on investment when planning an imaging and workflow initiative.” — IOMA’s AP Department Benchmarks and Analysis 2010 report

The Solution: Accounts Payable Automation Solutions from Kofax

It Starts at the Source with Automatic Invoice CaptureWith Kofax Capture and Kofax Transformation Modules, AP is optimized along the entire invoice lifecycle. Invoices are captured and digitized at the point of receipt and transformed into process ready information.

At the heart of this invoice capture engine in intelligent recognition (IR). A quantum leap over decades-old OCR/ICR and forms processing approaches, IR technology enables the automatic extraction of invoice data based on keywords, knowledge of the expected data format and the data’s position relative to other data items. The key technology elements of IR are

• Supplier detection,

• Data extraction using learn-by-example techniques,

• Online learning to enable the solution to keep track of changing invoice layouts and new suppliers, and

• Robust data validation, in particular matching of invoice data to PO data held in the ERP system.

Classification, extraction of metadata down to the line-item level, and validation ensure the highest data and processing accuracy. The detection of invalid invoice data during the capture process helps to significantly reduce risk and ensures that only accurate information is submitted to the ERP system.

Kofax continues to lead the industry for capture driven business process applications such as invoice automation. The majority of Global 2000 companies rely on Kofax to decrease the costs associated with invoice entry processes. By automating what were previously labor intensive, error prone and time consuming tasks, Kofax significantly reduces labor costs, improves information quality and accelerates business processes.

Optimized and Best Practice AP Processes: MarkView for Accounts PayableKofax MarkView for Accounts Payable is proven in the world’s largest organizations to deliver the most efficient and streamlined AP processes, enabling the complete transformation of AP departments. With built-in workflows that encapsulate the industry’s best finance practices and seamless integration with Oracle and SAP ERP systems, MarkView for Accounts Payable addresses key challenges faced by Finance departments globally and enables AP organizations to reduce operating costs, increase visibility, improve AP processing speeds, strengthen internal controls and maximize cash flow.

With MarkView for Accounts Payable, all invoices are managed with a single, consistent, best practice process that is fully integrated with the ERP system, provides complete and clear

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visibility and helps accelerate an accurate period-end close. After Kofax Capture and Kofax Transformation Modules capture and extract the invoice metadata, MarkView associates it with the ERP record, automatically manages the transaction with highly efficient workflows that route each invoice to the appropriate reviewers (along with all related backup information), and maintains a detailed audit history trail. This expertly designed approach successfully manages, optimizes and turbocharges end-to-end financial processes while facilitating SOX compliance and self-service audit support.

Strengthened Controls and Reduced CostsKofax significantly enhances the Accounts Payable internal controls environment through process simplification, standardization and centralization, leveraging the ERP and workflow systems to establish preventative practices. With more than 25 years of experience working with Global 2000 companies, Kofax solutions have enabled the world’s largest organizations to quickly and successfully deploy AP automation solutions across all lines of business while enhancing internal controls and reducing costs.

The bottom line: With a well chosen investment in Kofax AP Automation solutions, organizations can completely transform Accounts Payable processes to reduce costs, increase visibility, strengthen controls, maximize the use of cash and reap a tangible return on investment.

Kofax plc (LSE: KFX) is a leading provider of capture driven business process automation solutions. Our integrated AP automation solutions streamline invoice capture to increase speed and reduce data entry costs, and leverage best practice workflows to expedite invoice review, coding and approval.

For more information, visit www.kofax.com