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Imaging Services for Accounting
The integration and processing of accounts payable is a huge ongoing effort. Vendor quotes must be tied to purchase orders, which are then matched to bills of lading or similar proof that goods and services have been delivered and to the invoices for those goods and services. As a result, papers are being copied and/or shipped all over the place, often getting temporarily lost or mis-filed in the process (and taking a great deal of time to complete).

BIS4AP Accounts Payable Document Imaging

BIS4AP document scanning services scans these documents as they are received.  The documents become electronic images that are precisely indexed on a separate internet server, where they can be accessed instantly by any authorized person.  BIS4AP carefully analyzes your accounts payable workflow, and electronically routes the appropriate documents to the appropriate people faster and more surely than paper can be handled.

Click here to see SIX BENEFITS OF ACCOUNTS PAYABLE DOCUMENT IMAGING

Back in 2006, the Department of  Defense published a Concept of Operations for an Accounting High Performing Organization (HPO).  This concept was a blueprint for making Defense accounting as good as possible.  Click DOD STUDY to see what they say about imaging.

ACCOUNTING BEST PRACTICES (Steven Bragg, February, 2010) echoes the desirability of imaging:  “When accounting files are sent to the archives at the end of the year, the portion taken up by the accounts payable documents usually exceeds that of all other documents combined.  For some companies with voluminous accounts payable files, it is a major expense to remove all the paperwork, box it up and identify it, and ship it off to a warehouse from which it must be recalled occasionally for various tasks.  Digitizing the documents is a means of avoiding the expense of archiving.”  Click here to see additional imaging benefits listed in this book.

SIX BENEFITS OF ACCOUNTS PAYABLE DOCUMENT IMAGING

  • Documents can be electronically sent to the right person for appropriate action, and “what if” logic can ensure no deadlines are missed for validating payments, taking “early pay” discounts, etc. Reviewers can attach electronic “post-it” notes to the unalterable images.
  • Time spent accessing documents drops to nearly nothing because documents are concurrently available to multiple people in multiple locations and because indexing and storage in a central location makes documents more easily “findable.”
  • Records can be accessed in a variety of ways based on their indexing–by time period, location, vendor, recipient, end use, and so on–something you cannot do with paper records.  Imaging creates a relational database which will greatly speed up reporting and analysis.
  • Scanned Documents are secure, but instantly available to any authorized person with an internet connection.
  • It is impossible for the document images to be lost or mis-filed.
  • No more storage of bulky paper records.  Hard copies are kept for a minimum amount of time and then disposed of.  Consistent (an important legal point) purging of images can be accomplished with a click as documents pass their legal/desired retention date.

DOD STUDY

A key part of this blueprint is a Document Control Branch which will accept “the initial entry of paper documents received by mail and/or fax that impact entitlement (e.g., contract, invoice, receiving reports and any associated back-up documents). This area provides the control of these paper documents to alleviate lost/mis-routed documents necessary to the overall accounts payable entitlement process.  The key to successfully taking and maintaining control of these documents is the Scanning and Indexing Section.”

Within the Documents Control Branch will be an Indexing Section and Scanning Section.  “All documents not received electronically are scanned into the Electronic Document Management (EDM) system. The concept of the HPO will combine document receipt, review, scanning and indexing responsibilities under the same technician for an end-to-end process. As mail is received, delivered, and opened, technicians will open mail, date stamp, and scan in documents assigned and then index those same documents according to appropriate EDM guidelines.  Scanning involves the receipt, control, and scan (image) of commercial pay/entitlement documents. Indexing involves the review, classification, categorization, and index of commercial/entitlement type documents that have been previously scanned into EDM.”

To see the entire Department of Defense Concept of Operations, ADDITIONAL IMAGING BENEFITS

“There are additional advantages to using digitization of documents.
…It is also possible to nearly eliminate the time needed to access documents.
…If customer service is important, and that service is linked to providing rapid access to data, then digitizing documents allows a company to instantly satisfy company requests for documents by searching the computer files for them, no matter how old the documents may be.
…Another advantage to digitization is that it avoids having to take out and replace files.  Whenever someone removes a file and later returns it, there is a risk that the file will be misplaced.  Every time a file is misplaced, it will be time consuming to find it again.
…Yet another advantage is that multiple users can access the same file at the same time.
…A final advantage to digitization is that it can be used to send an electronic file to a manager requesting an electronic approval before a payment will be made.  This approach keeps the digital document from being lost during the approval process (a common problem when paper documents are used for approvals), while instantly moving a digital approval through the computer network, which also speeds up the transfer of approval information.  In short, there are a variety of good reasons for imaging accounts payable documents, besides the most common one of eliminating archiving costs.”