Guide To Source-To-Pay Automation: Streamlining Your E-Procurement Process
E-Procurement Process
The process of e-procurement, that of electronically facilitating the purchase and sale of goods and services, is often complex and time-consuming. The procurement cycle of any organization directly affects its bottom-line, as well as its overall success. By implementing automation and proper system for source-to-pay, your organization can reap the rewards of an efficient purchasing strategy. This guide will provide an in-depth overview of how to use source-to-pay software to streamline your e-procurement process from purchase request to end-to-end invoice payment.
C-Suite Overview
The return on investment achieved through initiating source-to-pay automation can be extremely beneficial to business. With automated e-procurement, your organization will be able to focus more on strategic procurement and facility operations, while at the same time, receive savings in the form of decreased costs and improved accuracy. As procuring external goods and services must be done in timely and efficient manner to ensure the companies success, choosing the right source-to-pay software is crucial.
Opting for source-to-pay software will enable your organization to take advantage of seamless systematic processes and more modernized means of managing payments and procurement. Automation of vendor and supplier management ensures greater visibility into the purchases and their associated costs, and provides the opportunity to negotiate discounts with suppliers. Not only this, but it also provides improved accuracy since automated systems can no longer suffer from human mistakes or yield to the pressure of deadlines, thereby enhancing the performance of the procurement team and the energy of the organization overall.
Step-By-Step Guide
1. Research the Software: Start by researching different source-to-pay software options. Consider the Softwares ability to integrate with your current systems, its level of user-friendliness, the quality of customerservice it offers, and other features that your organization may require.
2. Set up the Software: Once the software of choice is identified and the contract is signed, integrate the source-to-pay software with the other systems in your organization. This integration should allow for some automatically filled-in fields within all the steps of the purchasing process, meaning that personnel and suppliers will no longer have to manually fill out unnecessary paperwork.
3. Configure Parameters of the Software: Next, you can determine the vendor and supplier requirements, preferred purchase and payment methods, and the system?s security parameters. This includes the set up of vendor payment terms and payment schedules.
4. Manage Requisitions and Approvals: Automated source-to-pay software enables users to manage the purchase requests and their associated approvals. This means that users can easily provide real-time information of purchase orders in addition to tracking requisitions and their lifecycles.
5. Utilize Invoicing Capabilities: Once goods and services are received, personnel can manage the invoicing process. Source-to-pay software makes it easier to check the accuracy of invoices, manage their payment schedules, and offer greater visibility of vendor payment details.
6. Analyze Finances: Finally, to make sure the purchase process was successful, the automated system can provide analytics into the overall financials of the organization. This includes the ability to identify cost savings opportunities and track vendor payments.
Conclusion
Choosing the right source-to-pay software can directly affect the success of your organization. By enabling automation and integrating it with the other systems in your organization, you can take advantage of features such as requisition management, invoice payment details, and cost savings opportunities. Utilizing source-to-pay software will allow you to streamline your e-procurement process, as well as provide more efficient and time-saving method of managing payments and procurement.
