Posts Tagged ‘Lavante’

Vendor File Management | Collect W9 | OFAC Screening | Insurance Certification Collection | Diversity Tracking | Supplier Onboarding | USPS Validation

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013

Join CEO, Joe Flynn of Lavante in an “Ask the Expert” webinar as he interviews both Jeff Ulanoski, former Rite Aid Director of AP and Jeff Wiest, former AP Manager at Tyco Electronics on the state of Vendor Management.

Find out the benefits of using technology to:Collect and Validate W9s, Monitor and Screen OFAC Lists, Validate Supplier Insurance Certificates, Collect and Track Diversity Status, Manage / Automate Supplier Onboarding, Validate USPS Addresses, Manage changes your Vendor File, More….

Webinar Event: Wednesday, April 3, 2013 10:00 am

Pacific Daylight Time (San Francisco, GMT-07:00)

About the Speakers:

Jeff Wiest led the accounts payable function for the U.S. Financial Shared Services Center of Tyco Electronics since its formation over 10 years ago. During that time he oversaw the post-acquisition integration of more than 20 payables functions into the service center. He was instrumental in the implementation of electronic technology solutions that have resulted in significant efficiency improvements and cost savings. Prior to joining Tyco, Jeff served in various accounting roles for AMP Incorporated.

Jeff worked for over ten years with Rite Aid Corporation as Director of AP, during which time he led that company’s Transaction Tax and Accounts Payable organizations. During his tenure at Rite Aid, Jeff was a key player in the integration of the Brooks Eckerd AP process into Rite Aid. His experience included the introduction of technology-enabled solutions and Best-of-Class processes to improve corporate efficiency, reduce costs, increase cash flow and mitigate risk. Prior to Rite Aid, he spent five years at Foot Locker as Manager of Transaction Taxes.

See a Demo of the Lavante Product Suite where you can automatically set your corporate controls and let the application manage all communication for you

Tags: 1099, Diversity Tracking, insurance certificate collection, Lavante, Lavante webinar, OFAC Screening, Technology, TIN Management, vendor file cleansing, Vendor Master File Management, w9
Posted in 1099 Reporting, AP Industry, Supplier Information Management, Tax ID Numbers, Technology, Vendor File Cleansing, Vendor File Management, W9, Webinar | No Comments »

AP Now and Tomorrow’s Mary Schaeffer Joins Lavante for Emerging Master Vendor File Practices and Issues Webinar

Thursday, March 7th, 2013

The topic of Automation of Vendor File Management is back in the spotlight in the Lavante Webinar Series.

The next webinar event is scheduled for Tuesday, March 12th.

We will be presenting the curriculum twice to accommodate busy schedules.

If you would like to attend there is still space available

8am PT https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/579562550

11am PT https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/746389958

The webinar will be a conversation between Lavante CEO, Joe Flynn and AP Now & Tomorrow’s CEO, Mary Schaeffer.

Mary Schaeffer is a recognized thought leader in AP. She is the creator of IFO’s Innovation Certificate Program, a member of the IFO’s Education Committee and gives several sessions every year at the IFO annual Fusion trade show.

Mary publishes a weekly Ezine that we recommend to all of our readers. For more information you can sign up HERE

Here is an exerpt from Mary’s bio located on her site HERE

Mary S. Schaeffer

Editorial Director & Publisher

CRYSTALLUS, Inc. publisher of several accounts payable periodicals

Nationally recognized accounts payable expert and consultant
Frequent speaker at seminars, conferences and online events
Editor-at-Large CFO Publishing’s Learning Pro: AP Edition
Regular contributor to the AICPA’s Corporate Finance Insider
Publisher and editorial director of the Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow monthly newsletter
Creator of Institute of Financial Operations Accounts Payable Innovation Certificate program
Writes a free weekly e-zine, e-AP News
Author more than 15 business books including the Controller & CFO’s Guide to Accounts Payable and Fraud in Accounts Payable: How to Prevent It (See full list below)
M.B.A. Finance, NYU; B.S. Math, York College

Books by Mary S. Schaeffer

Do-It-Yourself Accounts Payable Consultant Handbook first, second and third editions (CRYSTALLUS, Inc. 2011, 2012, 2013)
Fraud in Accounts Payable: How to Prevent It (John Wiley & Sons September 2008)
New Payment World: A Manager’s Guide to Creating an Efficient Payment Process (John Wiley & Sons 2007)
Travel and Entertainment Best Practices (John Wiley & Sons 2007)
Controller and CFO’s Guide to Accounts Payable (John Wiley & Sons 2006)
Accounts Payable and Sarbanes-Oxley: Strengthening Your Internal Controls (John Wiley & Sons 2006)
The Future of Accounts Payable (CRYSTALLUS, Inc. 2006)
Accounts Payable: A Guide to Running an Efficient Department First edition, Second edition and Supplements (John Wiley & Sons, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002 , 2003, 2004)
Accounts Payable Best Practices (John Wiley & Sons 2004)
Essentials of Accounts Payable (John Wiley & Sons 2002)
Essentials of Credit, Collections and Accounts Receivable (John Wiley & Sons 2003)
International Credit and Collections (John Wiley & Sons 1999)
Understanding Interest Rate Swaps (McGraw Hill 1994)
Your Dream Vacation Home (McGraw Hill 1992)
Triumph Over Tragedy (with John Duffy, John Wiley & Sons 2002)

Mary Schaeffer has the inimitable ability to find accounts-payable-related solutions that really work—without making a major dent in the bottom line. Armed with a degree in math and a graduate degree in finance, she takes a “roll up your sleeves and dig into the details” approach to finding solutions to those problems that cause migraines for CFOs, controllers, and managers.

Fifteen years spent researching and writing about payment issues gives Mary Schaeffer a unique vantage point. Combine that with an almost equal amount of time spent in the corporate trenches of several large finance and treasury departments and you’ll see why she’s become known as America’s leading accounts payable expert.

A wide variety of institutions have taken advantage of her unique expertise: John Wiley & Sons has published over a dozen of her books; CRYSTALLUS, Inc. (www.ap-now.com) relies on her know-how to direct its professional publication, training, and consulting business; and the AICPA features her articles in its Corporate Finance Insider. Let’s not overlook the long list of organizations that have turned to her for best practice guidance of their accounts payable function and training of their accounts payable staff.

Ms. Schaeffer has a BS in Mathematics from York College (CUNY) and a MBA in Finance from New York University. She can be reached at marys@ap-now.com

Tags: 1099 Reporting, Accounts Payable Software, AP Automation, AP Industry, AP Technology, Lavante, Lavante webinar, Supplier Information Management, Vendor File Mgmt, Vendor Master File Management
Posted in AP Industry, IFO, Industry Associations, Lavante, Shared Services, Supplier Information Management, Tax ID Numbers, Vendor File Cleansing, Vendor File Management, Webinar | No Comments »

Thoughts About the Escalating Complexities in Managing Supplier Relationships and Information

Friday, November 2nd, 2012

Managing supplier information is becoming an ever-more complex and involved process for organizations of every size and across all industries. Through our work at Lavante in automating recovery audit and supplier management processes, we are constantly learning from our customers, prospects, and industry analysts how organizations are dealing with this critical issue. We recently partnered with IOFM (Institute of Finance and Management) on a comprehensive market research survey where respondents answered a series of questions related to the key tasks and/or projects involved in managing supplier relationships. After spending time at several industry conferences talking extensively with a host of AP and Shared Services practitioners, and reviewing the results of this survey, several themes or issues have emerged which I wanted to share here.

First is that the complexities and scale of tracking and managing suppliers is overwhelming for most companies. This is in part due to the many different tasks that have to be performed – on-boarding, validating tax ID’s, gathering insurance documents, W9s, W8s, maintaining regional differences, etc. – which are often treated as disparate tasks or projects. And although there are usually processes built around performing these functions, they are seldom combined into one seamless process that can be automated, and thus streamlined. This means that every change requires a lot of extra work to accomplish. Take for example the potential change to the W9 collection process in 2010, where organizations would have been required to collect W9s for new categories of suppliers. We talked to hundreds of companies that were under considerable stress with the prospect of:

	a)	gathering together W9s from their current suppliers;

	b)	identifying which vendors were missing W9s, and and then determining if they needed one to comply with the new legislation;

	c)	contacting the supplier to request the document;

	d)	finding the correct information if existing data was incorrect, and reaching out to them again.

If you only have a handful of suppliers, this wouldn’t be such a daunting task. But even mid-size organizations we talked to had thousands of suppliers, with larger global enterprises looking at verifying tens of thousands of contacts. Given these numbers, this task becomes a monumental project with the risk of heavy penalties if not conducted in a timely, accurate manner. While this legislation was eventually overturned, it left many finance professionals with the firm belief that it can and will happen again, and that being reactive wasn’t a good way to approach the issue.

It struck me that this one project of collecting W9s was intricately related to so many other tasks involved with supplier management. And linking these seemingly disparate tasks together into one seamless process, powered by technology, results in a continuous, on-going process which can scale to handle an unlimited number of suppliers. With an ability to collect, track and manage any type of required document, and allow total control over this process, it would dramatically simplify the complexities involved in the supplier management process. An automated process would also allow finance professionals to instantly comply with new regulations and internal processes.

Next week, I’ll share some other thoughts related to this continuous process, and how simple it really can be. As usual, please let me know your thoughts about this important topic.

Tags: 1099 Reporting, Lavante, supplier information managment, W9 collection
Posted in 1099 Reporting, AP Industry, IOFM, Lavante, Supplier Information Management, Tax ID Numbers | No Comments »

Lavante Is Honored to Receive Technology Excellence Award from PayStream Advisors

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

At last month’s PayStream Advisors Fast Track to P2P Automation Summit in Charlotte, NC, Lavante was honored to be included in the technology innovation awards which were announced at the event. The award was in the category of Purchase to Pay Automation for Leading Recovery Audit Solution.

I see this as a strong validation of what has been the cornerstone to our approach of building and applying advanced technology to automate and streamline what were highly manual, costly and disjointed processes in AP and finance. In this case, our patented technology and processes help AP to have in place an automated, ongoing recovery process that delivers continuous benefits, including dollars to the bottom line, dynamic reporting, and updated vendor data.

This was reinforced by Henry Ijams, Managing Director of PayStream Advisors, in the award announcement: “Lavante’s Recovery+ solution automates a traditionally highly manual recovery audit process, providing a comprehensive, automated, and continuous recovery solution. We are proud to honor Lavante with the award in this year’s Purchase to Pay Automation category for Leading Recovery Audit Solution.”

We are pleased to be part of this prestigious awards program and to share the stage with two other technology excellence recipients, Ariba and SciQuest, as well as the Corporate award winners, Graham Packaging Company, The American Red Cross, and Kaleida Health.

To read the complete award summary, please click here, and for more information about Lavante’s excellence award please read the full press release by clicking here.

Tags: AP Technology, Lavante, PayStream Advisors, Recovery Audit
Posted in AP Industry, AP Technology Innovation, Lavante, Paystream Advisors, Recovery Audit, Vendor File Cleansing, Vendor Statement Audit | No Comments »

Accounts Payable Acquisition Integration Part 2 – Managing & Integrating Multiple Vendor Master Files

Friday, September 28th, 2012

Last week I wrote about my past experiences with integrating the accounts payable functions of acquired companies into a service center environment, detailing the inherent difficulties and the ongoing search for solutions to help manage this complex process. In this blog, I’d like to focus on one of the major problem areas that is frequently encountered – that of managing multiple supplier lists from acquired companies.

In my current role at Lavante as a Sr. Solutions Advisor, I have been reminded of the trials of the integration process I experienced while leading the AP function at several fortune 500 companies when talking with prospective and current clients who are dealing with these same issues. One of the first inevitable difficulties they face is in combining vendor master files. The procurement function always began the process with the intent to “rationalize” the acquired file(s) with our own data, which meant eliminating duplicate vendors, selecting strategic suppliers to leverage spend, updating information, etc. In reality, the pressures of just reaching a functional level meant that little of this occurred and the files were forced together in the rush to issue purchase orders and maintain production. Many of the problems created were never addressed as we moved on to the next acquisition or other project.

Lavante’s solutions have always placed a high priority on vendor master integrity. The Lavante Recovery application was built to maximize the use of available supplier data as part of the process and allow clients use it to identify duplicate and related vendors and maintain current data. The Lavante SIM (Supplier Information Management) application takes that functionality to a whole new level. By establishing a comprehensive solution, that begins with a self-service supplier portal that enables a simplified, real time approach and eliminates the need to periodically do vendor master clean-up projects, which must be repeated after the same problems build up over time.

Having a clean vendor master file with current and accurate contact information that had been refreshed by direct communication connections with suppliers, as Lavante’s solution facilitate, would have given me a tremendous advantage in my past AP roles. If both vendor masters — acquired and acquiring — had been in that “cleansed” state, it would have eliminated numerous issues that necessitated considerable resources to rationalize and then combine the files. The ability to communicate effectively with the supply base alone would have saved time and staff resources, all the while eliminating problems downstream that are the result of bad vendor data.

Next week, I’ll go into more details about how bad data impacts an organization, and then discuss how Lavante SIM helps clients and suppliers simplify the many complexities of the supplier management process.

If you have any thoughts or issues related to your experiences consolidating acquired vendor files, or supplier management in general, please comment here.

Finally, we have partnered with IOFM to conduct a comprehensive market research project on supplier information management and we invite you to provide your input by taking the survey. Click here to add your perspectives. All contributors will receive the market research findings report produced by the IOFM (and be entered into a contest to win an iPad).

Tags: AP Industry, Lavante, Mergers & Acquisitions, Supplier Information Management, Vendor Master File Management
Posted in AP Industry, AP Technology Innovation, IOFM, Lavante, Supplier Information Management, Vendor File Cleansing | No Comments »

Accounts Payable Acquisition Integration – The Search For An Easy Switch

Monday, September 17th, 2012

I recently noticed a post on one of the accounts payable forums that was searching for a procedure to handle a post-acquisition integration of the accounts payable (AP) function into a shared service center environment. Mergers and acquisitions have become so commonplace that they hardly raise an eyebrow in the general business community. They do, however, still have the ability to wreak havoc in the lives of the unfortunate AP staff members charged with integrating the financial processes of the acquired firms into those they currently manage or oversee.

The accounts payable function is particularly vulnerable to encountering a high degree of complexity and numerous obstacles while attempting such an integration. Virtually all of the inputs to the AP process are dependent on other systems over which AP exerts no control. The purchasing, receiving, general ledger, approval hierarchy, etc. systems of their own company and the billing/AR, credit, returned material, etc. systems of their suppliers must all operate smoothly to ensure functionality. The lack of quality vendor master data in the acquired company’s records (and perhaps also on the part of the acquirer) can be particularly problematic. In an acquisition scenario, all of these must be correctly transitioned on a coordinated basis to achieve success. If there is no central project planning then each function defaults to its own timeline requirements and the result can be chaos for AP.

I have managed over twenty such AP acquisition integrations in the shared service center for which I had responsibility for 12 years, and AP managers going through this continue to ask me if I know some algebraic-like formula that would help accomplish the task. The short answer was always: “It doesn’t exist”. There is an almost endless list of variables inherent in any AP integration process that makes the search for a consistent formula or neatly-wrapped approach nearly impossible. The myriad potential systems combinations and configurations along with all of the specialized procedures and work-arounds that inevitably develop in each AP department, as well as the skill sets and personalities involved in the process simply do not allow for such an easy switch approach.

Each AP consolidation I encountered had at least some unique characteristics. The only real consistency was that I found it absolutely essential to have a very robust discovery phase in which I and our team would be on site at an early point, making sure to connect directly with as many of those in corresponding positions as possible and gathering all the information we could about the existing process. The integration plan then had to be developed in accordance with the results.

Then there is the human side. Those same individuals that are so critical in this connection and information-gathering phase are the same ones that have a high level of concern about their future employment prospects or may even have already been told that their jobs will be eliminated. There is no way to make this a non-issue and, for me, the effect on those in the acquired organization was always the most distasteful piece of the experience. As you might expect, there were wide variations in the reaction and level of cooperation that followed. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that the majority of those affected were very willing to assist once they had the person-to-person connection with those of us charged with the integration as they understood that we had not initiated the change and had a tough job to do. It was apparent that the human connection was critical in taking away the image of faceless, Gordon Gekko types on the other end of the deal. There were exceptions though, and it is clearly a time of high risk for fraud, error and non-performance so that a high level of vigilance is warranted.

Next week, I’ll continue this conversation with some suggestions about easing this integration process. If you have any comments or want to share some or your own experiences, please send us a note!

Tags: AP Industry, AP integration, Lavante, Shared Services and AP
Posted in AP Industry, Lavante, Shared Services | No Comments »

Notes from the Field: Presentation to IFO Chapter Meeting Focuses on Finding Lost Vendor Credits as Part of an Automated Statement Audit Process

Tuesday, August 7th, 2012

Last month I shared some thoughts about a recent trip to Minneapolis where we presented The Future of AP at an industry lunch & learn session. I’d like to spend a few minutes now with some ideas about a second presentation I made on this same trip, this one at the IFO Northern Lights Chapter meeting. This presentation focused on vendor credits and how to ensure that credits are identified and taken in a timely fashion. Attending the meeting were AP professionals from retail, services, and health care, and across the board, the entire group believed that they needed a process to identify and collect their post-audit vendor credits, as they do not presently have a method in place to ensure that all available credits are identified and collected.

The question of how credits that are over 90 days old have an increased chance of disappearing off the suppliers books began the discussion. This is due to many different issues which Mary Schaeffer, Editor and Publisher of Accounts Payable Now and Tomorrow addresses in her white paper report The Case of the Disappearing Credits. I had the pleasure of presenting with Mary at Fusion 2012 in Nashville earlier this year on this topic, and was able to share with the IFO chapter group a few valuable insights into where these credits go and how companies can mitigate the risk of losing credits that are due to them.

I found the most important finding Mary’s report revealed is that to ensure that you are getting all of your credits you must have an automated process in place that identifies credits on a continuous, timely basis. A periodic statement audit project — conducted once a year or every two years — will miss many credits. An ongoing process, however, will point out the root cause issues responsible for the missed credits – as they happen. If you receive root cause analysis two years after the fact, you will have two years of credits missing. Early discovery of why credits are happening is essential to conducting a best practice statement audit methodology.

I then gave an overview of the Lavante Recovery+ solution, which provides a technology-enabled, continuous recovery audit process. Because the solution is web-based and delivers results in real time, it provides the root cause analysis and vendor compliance statistics that enable our customers to immediately identify what is driving these outstanding credits.

Below is a good example of how customers have used the analytics provided by Lavante Recovery+ to fix process issues and reduce credits. This chart, from a global retail pharmaceutical organization, shows that the organization had an issue in 2010 with returns. Because the company could identify the cause of these credits using the drill-down access to all credit details, they were able to stem the credit tide and eliminate returns as an issue in 2011. Without a continuous process, discovery and resolution of the problem would have been delayed resulting in more return credits that disappear.

To assure that all credits are captured, Lavante Recovery+ performs automated outreach and statement requests to the entire vendor master file (excluding any do not audit vendors) and identifies outstanding credits across the breadth of the vendor population, not the typical top 10 or 20 percent traditional recovery solutions target through a supplier profiling process. This process ensures that the customer is obtaining a best in class solution to their open credits opportunity.

Many of the companies in attendance at both sessions were aware that opportunities existed in their AP processes. They realize that changes are coming their way and that being proactive in addressing the problems provides them the greatest prospect of success. Lavante offers tools and applications that assist in driving the success of our customers by providing them with real-time actionable data and control over the recovery processes.

In the coming months look for more information regarding our recovery and supplier information management solutions. I hope to see you at one of our events or seminars in the near future. In the meantime, please feel free to provide feedback and comments about how you are handling your statement audit process.

Tags: AP Industry, Lavante, Profit Recovery, statement audit
Posted in AP Technology Innovation, IFO, Lavante, Recovery Audit, Vendor Statement Audit | No Comments »

“Vendor Profiling” – Not a Best Practice for Statement Audit Providers

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

Recently, we have heard the term “profiling” used most often in association with controversy. It has become a new word to describe the age-old desire to put people or objects in nice, neat buckets or categories while ignoring the reality that life just isn’t that simple. The attempt to extrapolate perceived qualities across an entire group has never worked out very well in practice.

In the finance and AP area the term is now being used by some Statement Audit/Credit Recovery service providers claiming to have determined how to “profile” a client’s suppliers in order to determine which of them are likely to have the most credit transaction activity. They insist that this supplier profiling process produces a group that can be targeted for a “pat-down” in their search for these credits. The service providers would like you to think that this technique allows them to successfully obtain the vast majority of credits available. Furthermore, that their very labor-intensive methods of contacting the remaining suppliers and then getting and reviewing the statements are completely unrelated to this highly selective profiling approach. That is a convenient, but unsubstantiated, argument.

Our experience at Lavante has shown a much different story — that while the top 20% of suppliers by spend do generate a disproportionately large 40% of the credits, a full 60% of available credits are never addressed by a traditional, periodic statement audit approach because it never reaches the remainder.

In this one example from a large health care provider, a full 68% of the credits came from the lower 80% of vendor spend.

The truth is that there is no single formula to determine which of the myriad reasons for credit creation align with a certain supplier profile. Furthermore, credits are issued by any and all of a client’s suppliers.

The Lavante approach is unique in attempting to reach all vendors — unless they are intentionally excluded — using an automated, patented process while setting a benchmark of achieving compliance by those that represent 95% of total spend. We have found numerous credits yet on the books of many suppliers that have $0 in spend during our clients’ most recent reporting period. Few profiling techniques would include these in their search.

Leveraging proprietary technology gives us the ability to automate a continuous connection process with suppliers to update vendor information and identify supplier hierarchies leading to the collection of current statements. Because the Lavante Recovery+ solution tracks vendor compliance, it is easy to perform more effective follow-up with non-compliant suppliers that assure the highest compliance rates possible. We are confident that Lavante finds many credits that have long since been offset and are no longer visible to old-school audit methods which leave substantial time-gaps between efforts.

There is no question that the statement audit process has evolved beyond its outdated origins as a one-time process conducted along with the traditional A/P recovery audit and needs to have separate best-practice attention as an automated, ongoing background solution. We would be happy to show you how it all works. Contact me directly to schedule some time for a demo.

If you are interested in more information on how technology enables the statement audit process, be sure to attend the upcoming webinar, Automating the Recovery Process: How Technology is a Best Practice in Recovery Audit on July 24 with Henry Ijams of Paystream Advisors.

Please Note: Jeff Wiest recently joined Lavante as a Sr. Solutions Advisor. Please click here to find out more about his extensive AP experience.

Tags: Lavante, statement audit, Supplier Profiling, Vendor Statement Audit
Posted in AP Industry, Lavante, Supplier Information Management, Supplier Profiling, Vendor Statement Audit | 1 Comment »

Lavante Recognizes AP Thought Leaders at Fusion 2012

Monday, July 9th, 2012

For those of you who were able to attend the IFO Fusion 2012 conference in Nashville, I hope you had a chance to stop by Lavante’s booth and have your “catch the wave” photo taken! Also, and more I hope you were able to attend one of Lavante’s five panel discussions that were headlined by some of the finest thought leaders in accounts payable today. We were so pleased to collaborate with so many experts in the AP field to develop and present these five very different, content-rich presentations. In an effort to recognize these individuals and their contributions to the AP industry, Lavante presented each panelists with a Lavante AP Thought Leadership Award.

We value the contributions made by these AP professionals. They not only spent considerable time and effort to create the presentations, but they were all willing to openly share their individual experiences and perspectives about their companies and departments. Ultimately, it is this type of interactive, open exchange that advances forward-thinking approaches and methodologies in the accounts payable field. It is an honor to be part of these discussions and to work with such an experienced and insightful group of AP professionals.

We wanted to take a few minutes to recognize each of these experts who contributed so much to these panels and the AP industry:

• Future of AP: Five Ways to Drive Excellence & Increase the Value of AP
Josh Morrison, Manager, Vendor Relations, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc

• Supplier Portals 101: What you Need for Effective Supplier Information Management Systems
Desiree Clayton, Director, Nordstrom
Tina McGlasson, AP Manager, Omnicare
Jennifer Barnett, Former System Manager, Accounts Payable, Summa Health

• Transforming AP through Technology & Automation
Kathy Sharp, Executive Director of Accounts Payable at MGM Resorts International
Terri Dunn – Operations Manager, Transactions at Jones Lang LaSalle
Jennifer Barnett – Former System Manager, Accounts Payable, Summa Health
Fran Hammer, Manager, Disbursements & Travel, Hershey’s

• Case of the Disappearing Credits
Mary Schaeffer, Editorial Director and Publisher, Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow
Sharon Warmboe, Manager, Accounts Payable, Gilead
Patty Gustaveson, Assistant Manager, Audit & Controls , Nordstrom

• Cool Tools in AP
Tom Lyman, Director of Accounts Payable, Saftey-Kleen
Josh Campbell, Senior Finance Manager, Disbursements, Humana

If you want more information about the presentations and the Lavante AP Thought Leadership Awards presented at the conference, please contact me directly at joe.flynn@lavante.com.

Lavante Connect

Tags: AP Industry, AP Technology, Lavante, Recovery Audit, vendor file cleansing, Vendor File Mgmt
Posted in AP Industry, AP Technology Innovation, Lavante, Recovery Audit, Vendor File Cleansing, Vendor Statement Audit | No Comments »

Notes from the Field – AP Discussion Increases around the need for Effective Supplier Management Processes

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

Last month I had the pleasure of visiting Minneapolis to participate in two separate events – a lunch & learn session co-sponsored by Lavante, Basware and the IOFM, followed by the Northern Lights IFO chapter meeting. Here, I’ll focus on discussions that took place at the first event, and I’ll return next week with some thoughts about the second presentation.

The lunch & learn which took place at a great steak house in downtown Minneapolis, The Future of AP: Five Changes Coming to AP, focused on some key challenges facing corporate AP professionals. In attendance were individuals from both small to large organizations and across a range of industries (manufacturing, retail, financial services, education, and healthcare).

As usual, the topic elicited much discussion, with considerable attention given to a challenge facing most of those in attendance–that of keeping their vendor master file accurate. While most attendees agreed that they perform an initial validation of the vendor data while setting up the vendor, there was not as high a consensus that they had an on-going system of checks and balances related to changes to existing vendors and on-boarding of new vendors. It was noted that there break-downs in this process caused many critical issues. For example, the same vendor can, and often does, get setup in the vendor master file multiple times. Or, as a result of mergers and acquisitions, related vendors are not identified. These issues can cause companies to miss purchase volume discounts as well as hinder their ability to take credits for returns. Additionally, it is impossible for the organization to calculate an accurate spend file by vendor, which can negatively impact contract negotiations. And this impacts not only finance, but procurement and in the end, the company’s bottom-line.

As we discussed at the event, there are multiple ways to handle the maintenance of data in the vendor master file, but the best practice which I adhered to during my tenure as Supervisor, AP at Rite Aid, is to:

• Start with a thorough cleansing of existing vendors.

• Incorporate an ongoing process that ensures new vendors are thoroughly analyzed, compared to the existing vendor master file, with updates made continually.

I found that the most efficient way to accomplish this was to partner with a third party company. Furthermore, that solution should have access to a vendor data network which can be leveraged to assure accuracy of the vendor master file. At the same time the use of a self-service portal application would allow vendors to update information as well as store required documents and validate TIN numbers — in real time. This type of supplier portal will increase collaboration between the buyer and supplier while providing a repeatable, ongoing process that ensures vendor information is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

Lavante has technology-enabled solutions to help deal with this and other related problems – Lavante Recovery+ and Lavante SIM (Supplier Information Management), which offer a way to automate many of these processes through our on-demand, SaaS-based software solutions. With them, users have a way to not only collaborate with suppliers via a web-based tool, but they allow complete visibility in the supplier base to identify related and duplicate vendors (all in real-time!), and to keep vendor information current. Part of this process is collecting and validating critical regulatory items – such as TIN matching and OFAC screening. And, the solutions leverage Lavante’s comprehensive supplier network, which increases vendor data accuracy and speeds up the cleansing process.

Here is one screen shot from the Lavante application showing the supplier compliance dashboard pharmaceutical company, demonstrating the number of suppliers which were updated and possible related suppliers identified through the update process.

For more information about Lavante solutions please visit www.lavante.com

I’ll have more notes on my second presentation in Minneapolis next week. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me with questions or comments.

Jeff Ulanoski, Sr. Consultant Lavante

Tags: AP Industry, Lavante, vendor file cleansing, Vendor File Mgmt
Posted in AP Industry, IFO, IOFM, Lavante, Recovery Audit, Vendor File Cleansing | No Comments »