DocuSphere Functionality for Construction and Contractor Industry Clients
Accounts Payable Automation may not seem like a high priority for the Construction and Contractor Industry, but the careful application of the right technology here can have a significant positive impact for customers in this industry. While this industry has some of the usual opportunities for efficiency-driven cost reduction when processing invoices, it also has some opportunities that are unique. By using DocuSphere, it is possible to actually increase cash flow significantly and provide for fewer project delays, thus having a direct influence on revenue generating activities, especially where there are penalties or bonuses associated with on-time performance.
Vendor payments are often made centrally, while invoices are still sent to job sites for approval and coding. This can lead to problems with getting vendors paid on time or with lost invoices while they are shuffled back and forth from the head office to the job site or vice versa. Lost or delayed invoices lead to unhappy vendors, and unhappy vendors can and will stop or hold important shipments, thus delaying entire projects.
With DocuSphere, invoices can be sent either to headquarters or to the job site (this decision is generally made on client by client basis) and then immediately scanned into the system. Once the invoice is scanned, it is immediately made known to DocuSphere. The financial liability is recorded, the clock for payment is started, and then the invoice is automatically matched to purchase orders and receipts if possible, or electronically routed for matching, coding and approval to the appropriate project accounts and project managers, all without shuffling any paper. The invoice is tracked throughout the process with warnings and escalations when necessary to ensure it is being moved through the system on a timely basis. The customer can now be assured that late payments will not affect projects and even begin to take advantage of early payment discounts if possible and desired.
Further, using the DocuSphere Pass-Through Billing (PTB) module, a customer can significantly improve cash flow! Customers report that they are now able to invoice their customer and receive payment sooner, some even receiving payment from their customers prior to having to pay their vendors, thus making a very large improvement in cash flow. We have customers who say that they have improved cash flow by as much as $1,000,000 per month!
This is possible with PTB because DocuSphere helps to gather the documentation required by your customer (especially in a cost-plus or government billing environment). Since all of the A/P invoices are electronically stored and indexed in DocuSphere, when the time comes to generate your sales invoice to your customer, we can take the sales invoice data and reach back into our A/P repository and assemble the required backing documentation into a single packet, which then can be sent to your customer along with the sales invoice, thereby complying with your documentation requirements. Since these A/P invoices were captured immediately upon receipt, there is no waiting, hunting, filing, and pulling or printing of invoices from files. The final packet can be reviewed; confidential information removed or redacted, and then sent on. In some cases we have reduced a four week process of filing and pulling documents for an entire billing cycle to three days!
If increasing cash flow, reducing project delays, or improving efficiencies and reducing processing costs sound like a good thing to you, please contact us and we will be happy to show you it is possible with DocuSphere Accounts Payable Automation.
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