Basware, the leading provider of purchase-to-pay solutions, has today launched Basware InvoiceOut, a process outsourcing service designed to fully automate key aspects of the Accounts Payable (AP) function.
Combining Basware's process expertise with the leading invoice automation solution, Basware InvoiceOutTM drives efficiencies by externally managing labour-intensive elements of a businesses' invoice handling process. The new service helps companies achieve world- class AP performance levels in a rapid timeframe, with the lowest total cost of ownership.
Basware InvoiceOut is a service that brings together three core components of what are often disparate elements in an Accounts Payable operation - access to resources that can be scaled up and down based upon business need, best practice process expertise and a flexible, on demand technology infrastructure. It provides businesses with access to highly skilled professionals that take over the labour-intensive and routine processes that impede agile financial decision making.
The service includes daily invoice related tasks such as dispute management to handle any discrepancies with the invoice as well as supplier engagement to ensure disputes are resolved quickly. Invoices are validated to ensure each invoice contains the required data needed to achieve the highest levels of automatic matching to purchase orders, and monthly process reporting is proactively undertaken to ensure continuous improvement across the invoice handling process.
It offers packaged processes for speeding up the transformation from paper to electronic. This includes immediate conversion to 100% electronic invoicing, along with sophisticated automatic invoice validation, matching, posting and workflow. Non-core activities to Accounts Payable, such as the scan & capture of paper invoices and accounts payable IT infrastructure are outsourced to enable in-house teams to focus on higher value activities.
Underpinning this service is Basware's market-leading AP technology. InvoiceOutTM includes Basware Invoice Automation - a globally recognised solution for AP automation, along with infrastructure hosting that proovides a robust, easily scalable and cost effective accounts payable IT environment. Businesses using the Basware InvoiceOutTM service also benefit from gaining access to the global Basware Open Network, enabling electronic purchase-to-pay message exchange within an open environment which connects 320,000 active buyers and suppliers.
According to the 2010 Lost in Transaction research, commissioned by Basware, invoice scanning / data entry is the most time consuming (38%) and error prone (41%) part of invoice processing. 7% of invoices contain errors and managing these exceptions in-house costs companies time and money, and can result in late payment fees and missed early payment discounts. Incoming invoices need to be validated and in some cases invoices need to be rejected, returned or cancelled. By outsourcing the invoice handling process, businesses can remove this often resource-heavy component, enabling in-house professionals to focus on higher-value cash management activities, designed to drive profitable growth of the business. By adopting Basware InvoiceOut, businesses that struggle with resources and infrastructure to manage sophisticated invoice automation processes can expect to see a rapid solution deployment, leading to immediate time and cost savings and faster response times to invoice exceptions.
Esa Tihilä, Senior Vice President, Basware comments: "Since the global economic downturn, businesses have been under pressure to improve profitability and top line growth. With time and cost savings opportunities largely exhausted, companies need to look to streamlining their internal processes. Basware InvoiceOut is a logical extension of our service portfolio and has been designed for any mid-size or large business that is seeking an efficient and effective Accounts Payable function. Basware's InvoiceOut service enables organisations to rationalise their processes, allowing their internal teams to focus on higher value activities."