up-the-line

Depending on dollar amount, it may require further approvals

The purchase requisition document arrives at the purchasing department

The information is re-keyed into a new form

The form gets generated as a purchase order

Purchase order is sent off by mail or fax

Delays can occur at any point in the approval

The use of paper business documents can significantly reduce productivity and increase costs in a wide range of business processes. Perhaps the best example of these inefficiencies occurs in the accounting department.

Types of business documents

Just what do we mean by business documents? Generally speaking, they are the communications vehicles by which business is executed and recorded. Invoices, for example, are business documents that convey the need to pay for a purchased product or service. Purchase orders notify vendors that a customer wants to buy something. Purchase order requisitions initiate product or service acquisition requests, traverse the approval cycle, and end up with a purchasing agent for fulfillment. And let's not forget checks, which are orders to a bank to pay this amount to that person, and remittance advice, which informs payees how much and for what they are being paid.

Document Management Software in the Accounting Department

The purchasing process represents an ideal illustration of how, by bypassing the paper stage, electronic business documents can launch extremely significant efficiencies within an organization.

In conventional processes:

1. An employee obtains a paper purchase requisition form
2. Identifies the needed purchase, records the information on the paper form
3. Places it in the corporate mail system for distribution to the approver next up-the-line
4. Depending on dollar amount, it may require further approvals
5. The purchase requisition document arrives at the purchasing department
6. The information is re-keyed into a new form
7. The form gets generated as a purchase order
8. Purchase order is sent off by mail or fax

Delays can occur at any point in the approval

ications vehicles by which business is executed and recorded. Invoices, for example, are business documents that convey the need to pay for a purchased product or service. Purchase orders notify vendors that a customer wants to buy something. Purchase order requisitions initiate product or service acquisition requests, traverse the approval cycle, and end up with a purchasing agent for fulfillment. And let's not forget checks, which are orders to a bank to pay this amount to that person, and remittance advice, which informs payees how much and for what they are being paid.

Document Management Software in the Accounting Department

The purchasing process represents an ideal illustration of how, by bypassing the paper stage, electronic business documents can launch extremely significant efficiencies within an organization.

In conventional processes:

1. An employee obtains a paper purchase requisition form
2. Identifies the needed purchase, records the information on the paper form
3. Places it in the corporate mail system for distribution to the approver next up-the-line
4. Depending on dollar amount, it may require further approvals
5. The purchase requisition document arrives at the purchasing department
6. The information is re-keyed into a new form
7. The form gets generated as a purchase order
8. Purchase order is sent off by mail or fax

Delays can occur at any point in the approval

ing agent for fulfillment. And let's not forget checks, which are orders to a bank to pay this amount to that person, and remittance advice, which informs payees how much and for what they are being paid.

Document Management Software in the Accounting Department

The purchasing process represents an ideal illustration of how, by bypassing the paper stage, electronic business documents can launch extremely significant efficiencies within an organization.

In conventional processes:

1. An employee obtains a paper purchase requisition form
2. Identifies the needed purchase, records the information on the paper form
3. Places it in the corporate mail system for distribution to the approver next up-the-line
4. Depending on dollar amount, it may require further approvals
5. The purchase requisition document arrives at the purchasing department
6. The information is re-keyed into a new form
7. The form gets generated as a purchase order
8. Purchase order is sent off by mail or fax

Delays can occur at any point in the approval

r stage, electronic business documents can launch extremely significant efficiencies within an organization.

In conventional processes:

1. An employee obtains a paper purchase requisition form
2. Identifies the needed purchase, records the information on the paper form
3. Places it in the corporate mail system for distribution to the approver next up-the-line
4. Depending on dollar amount, it may require further approvals
5. The purchase requisition document arrives at the purchasing department
6. The information is re-keyed into a new form
7. The form gets generated as a purchase order
8. Purchase order is sent off by mail or fax

Delays can occur at any point in the approval

up-the-line

Depending on dollar amount, it may require further approvals

The purchase requisition document arrives at the purchasing department

The information is re-keyed into a new form

The form gets generated as a purchase order

Purchase order is sent off by mail or fax

Delays can occur at any point in the approval process, often related to the availability of the executives or managers involved.

Using electronic business document processes on the corporate network or intranet, the entire process can be completed virtually with a single entry of the data by the requestor. The data can be extracted from stored catalogs and past purchase orders or it can be newly entered. The document is generated by merging the stored data with the respective business document template and distributed to relevant parties electronically.

Approvers can be notified automatically that a document is in their mailboxes (or on the intranet under authorized access) awaiting their review. The review process does not require physical presence and once approved, the requisition can be relayed directly to purchasing. The information is automatically inserted into the purchase order and dispatched to the vendor electronically. The entire chain of events theoretically can be completed in minutes without ever leaving the electronic environment.

The process is similar for virtually all operating business documents. Invoices, for example, can be circulated electronically, reviewed and approved, and placed in queue for payment without ever being printed or sent through corporate mail.

By using an electronic document management solution, accounting departments benefit from improved efficiencies and cost savings when producing, distributing, and storing business documents. In fact, many organizations begi