Supplier Reconciliations In SAP

www.bestsapcbi.com

What is BEST Supplier Reconciliations?

Standard SAP does not include functionality to process supplier statements.

In business, supplier statements are processed nonetheless, and SAP clients are

forced to process supplier statements manually (ticking off paper statements!), outside

of SAP.

BEST is a fully integrated SAP add-on module that allows moving from manual, non

system statement processing to a more efficient, auditable, reportable system in SAP.

Simply, the benefits are all those associated with system processing rather than

manual processing.

BEST Accounts Payable

BEST in SAP

Supplier Recons

SAP

Creditors

Built In SAP For SAP

BEST Accounts Payable

The product has been certified by SAP Germany and conforms to SAP standards.

Standard SAP is not modified in any way. Never!

Use of standard SAP plug-ins to ensure seamless integration to SAP Creditors.

Additional custom screens and reports.

Upgradeable as conforms with standard SAP methodology.

Tried and tested functionality. BEST is already built. It works!

Multiple reference sites – SAP customers use BEST for their creditors!

Fits within current IT architecture -> same hardware, authorisations, transport and control

procedures, SAP support staff etc.

Some Reference Sites

BEST Accounts Payable

Statement Reconciliation Without BEST

BEST Accounts Payable

SAP

Creditors

Docs

SAP

Downloads

/ Interfaces

View SAP

Screen &

Retype

Non SAP

Tool.

E.g. Excel

Supplier

State-

ments Retype

Electronic

File

Manual

Matching /

Ticking

Manual

Recon &

Balancing

Print &

Sign

Manual

Approval

Save On

PC /

Network

Folders

Filing

Room

Ad Hoc

Fax / Email

To Supplier

Printed

Recons

Limited

Management

Reports

SAP

Key

Manual

Problems With Reconciling Outside SAP

BEST Accounts Payable

Costly (personnel time, printing, errors)

No system controls or audit trails.

Limited, cumbersome and inaccurate management reporting.

Risk of reduced cashflow, lost discounts, over payments, delayed payments, supply

disruption, etc.

Employee disruption.

Duplication of vendor master and transactional data in SAP and non SAP tool.

Reconciling Suppliers With BEST in SAP

BEST Accounts Payable

Suppliers

Electronic /

SAP PI /

EDI /

FTP /

iDOCs

Email

Our website / portal

Report

Approve

Pay

Match

in

Multiple Statement Formats

Send

statement

Calculate vendor accruals

Report matching statistics

Track missing statements

Reconciliation reports

for all vendors and

companies

Automatic matches

(advanced algorithm

ensures high rate)

Suggested and

manual matches for

exceptions

No more signing on

paper – approve

online

Multiple approval

levels and criteria to

structure creditor

department

Optional payment

block if no statement

match

Match all SAP!

• Open & Cleared

• Parked & Held

• GR/IR

• Invoice tools

(OpenText,

ReadSoft, eFlow

etc)

Recon report

Load into SAP

Store in SAP

OCR (using BEST

OCR or any other) of

paper, scans, faxes

OR

Fast “Copy and

capture” to SAP

Auto into SAP from inbox, e.g.

statements@yourcompany.com.

PDF and other formats.

Upload

spreadsheets

into SAP

Case Study Of Recon Processing Times

BEST Accounts Payable

Our website / portal

Statement Size Before BEST Time With BEST Time

Small – 5 Lines 30 Minutes 7 Minutes

Medium – 50 Lines 1 Day 20 Minutes

Large – 1000 Lines 1 Week <45 Minutes

Very Large – > 10 000 Lines 2 – 3 Weeks 2 – 3 Hours

Reference Site 1:

Statement Size Before BEST Time With BEST Time

Small – 5 Lines < 5 Minutes < 5 Minutes

Medium – 50 Lines 20 Minutes 5-10 Minutes

Large – 1000 Lines 1 Hour 10 Minutes

Very Large – > 10 000 Lines 1 Day 20 Minutes

Reference Site 2:

Why Is BEST Better Than Anything Else?

BEST Accounts Payable

OI (Open Item) or BF (Balance Brought Froward)

Online reconciliation approval

Option to block invoices for payment if no statement match

Send reconciliation (and remittance) to supplier.

Statement and reconciliation filed in SAP.

If no creditor match, also match to parked, held and GR/IR.

I.E. match to everything in SAP!

Calculate vendor accruals.

Matching rates.

Track missing statements &

approvals.

Match invoices

stuck in AP

automation tools

such as OpenText,

ReadSoft etc

Balance to supplier ledger.

Also to SAP payment / proposal Auto load

any statement into SAP: PDF, Excel, paper etc

Same SAP user logins,

authorisations, database etc

Why Reconcile In SAP?

BEST Accounts Payable

Our website / portal

Avoid risky and costly interfaces of vendor master and transactional data to non SAP

systems.

Match not only creditor documents but up the procurement chain in SAP:

Parked and Held

GR/IR (goods receipts with no invoice yet)

Invoices in process in VIM tools (Vendor Invoice Management) that interface to SAP

such as OpenText, ReadSoft, eFlow etc.

Option to block invoices for payment if not on statement.

Option to balance reconciliation to SAP payment (or proposal), not just supplier ledger.

Standard SAP creditor line item reporting shows reconciliation info.

Reconciliation report always real time as all data in SAP.

No printing or filing as:

Statement from supplier stored in SAP Content server.

Reconciliation approval in SAP – no more printing and signing.

Final reconciliation stored in SAP each month.

Accrual / provisions calculations automated in SAP.

Why Reconcile In SAP? (2)

BEST Accounts Payable

Our website / portal

Same existing:

SAP hardware and software – no new servers etc.

SAP user logins, so easy for users.

SAP Authorisation to control access, and audit trails in SAP.

SAP transport and control procedures.

SAP database and data back-ups.

SAP support staff.

Return On Investment

Improved System & Financial Controls.

Enhanced Reporting & Visibility.

Improved Productivity & Reduced Employee Costs.

Reduced Paper Handling Costs

Improved Supplier Relationship.

Cash flow Benefits.

Integrated To Standard SAP.

Simply, the product provides all the benefits of using a computer system over manual processing.

Many of the benefits can be expressed in monetary terms on further analysis of current processes, e.g.:

number of vendors, AP lines, statements, time spent by personnel etc.

Further business case analysis for client specific situation is recommended.

BEST Accounts Payable

ROI: System & Financial Controls

Consistent, system-controlled procedures in SAP.

Access controlled using standard SAP authorisation control.

Audit trail by user and time using standard SAP change history.

Multi-level statement approval system ensures that management policies are applied,

reconciliations are properly prepared and checked.

Does not interfere with standard SAP invoice blocking, so SAP “three way match”

functionality (invoice to GR and PO) can be used as intended by SAP.

Can’t duplicate match.

Only pay if system matched.

System ensures statements balance (opening balance plus all transactions must equal

closing balance).

BEST Accounts Payable

Back…

ROI: Enhanced Reporting & Visibility

Supplier reconciliation reporting that always balances, at any time, across any number of

suppliers and companies.

Understand total creditor’s liability, not only from your own accounts, but also from your

supplier’s viewpoint. System calculates accruals / provisions.

Statistics reporting of statements (not) processed and lines (not) reconciled by company,

vendor, clerk, period, document type, profit centre. Identify problem areas, set targets,

allocate workload.

Monitor unprocessed statements: not yet received, not yet balanced, not yet finalized, not

yet output (emailed or printed).

Payment cash outflow forecasts for various payment cut-off dates, compared to statement

balances.

As supplier statements now in SAP database, all manner of reporting becomes possible.

BEST Accounts Payable

Back…

ROI: Productivity & Employee Costs

Personnel time saving from electronic statement loading or fast online copy and match

feature.

Match not only to unpaid vendor lines but also to all possible SAP postings:

Previously paid items (in case vendor does not allocate payments correctly);

Parked and Held documents;

GR/IR (goods receipts with no invoice receipt yet;

VIM (Vendor Invoice Management) products such as OpenText, ReadSoft – or any

other product that integrates with SAP;

Linked customer items (for rebates or other).

Personnel time saving from automatic supplier reconciliation reports, that always balance.

Automatically email precisely balanced reconciliation reports to suppliers to reduce time

spent on queries.

More time to resolve exceptions.

BEST Accounts Payable

Back…

ROI: Reduced Paper Handling Costs:

Supplier statements stored in SAP – so don’t need to file.

Reconciliations approved in SAP – so don’t need to print, sign and file.

Finalised reconciliations stored in SAP for future queries – so don’t need to file.

Match to all SAP documents (unpaid, paid, parked, held, GR/IR, VIM) – so don’t need to

download any lists.

Reconciliations (and remittances if required) emailed from SAP to supplier. – no printing,

scanning etc.

BEST Accounts Payable

Back…

ROI: Improved Supplier Relationship

Proper, correct, timeous reconciliation reporting allows both you and the supplier to always

know what is unreconciled and where you stand.

Automatically emailing the reconciliation report to the supplier, that balances precisely to

the payment, in a well presented and consistent format will reduce queries and be highly

appreciated by your supplier.

Process every account, every month, accurately and timeously.

Give your suppliers better service, and they will give you better service – hopefully all the

way down the procurement chain.

BEST Accounts Payable

Back…

ROI: Cashflow Benefits

Options to aggressively improve cashflow:

Capture credit notes granted on the statement, but that your business has not yet processed – ensure

take credits and take credits earlier.

Focus your supplier’s attention on payments not yet credited, or claims / returns raised by yourself that

have not yet been credited.

Statement date as baseline date for payment terms.

Extend or avoid payment of invoices not on statement.

Mismatch tolerance payment term penalties.

BEST Accounts Payable

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ROI: Integrated To Standard SAP

Maximise your current SAP investment!

No new hardware or IT support staff or skills are required.

No complex interfaces to non SAP systems. Huge cost and risk.

No duplicate vendor masters.

No duplication of all creditors transactions (hundreds of thousands per month?).

You do not have to login to two different systems continually throughout the day.

SAP transactions are immediately and automatically reflected on the supplier reconciliation. No waiting for

interfaces to run.

Supplier statement fields can be maintained and reported within the standard SAP transactions:

Standard SAP creditor line item list

Standard SAP audit trails of changes

Standard SAP vendor master.

Standard SAP payment run (e.g. block unmatched invoices).

Standard SAP access control / authorisations.

Standard SAP transport procedure.

BEST Accounts Payable

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High Level Project Plan

BEST Accounts Payable

Phase M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6

Project Preparation

Design

Build

Testing (Integration/ UAT)

Data Prep/ Pilot Cutover

Training

Pilot Go Live & Support

Roll Out & Support

Project Close

While implementing BEST is not a large project,

the plan is well developed after many implementations at large organisations.

Standard timeframe is 3 months to Go Live, and a further 3 months to project close-out.

For brochures, customer case studies and more

please see www.bestsapcbi.com

Please contact us with questions, for a more

detailed demonstration or to discuss your

requirements.

Supplier Reconciliations In SAP