Oracle NetSuite offers powerful tools for managing operations, including accounts payable (AP). While NetSuite provides a solid foundation for AP management, the evolving needs of modern businesses present exciting opportunities for further automation and optimization. In this article, we’ll explore these opportunities and how embracing additional automation can take your AP with NetSuite to the next level.
Invoice capture & OCR
Invoice Capture and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology significantly enhance NetSuite’s data entry capabilities. This feature automatically extracts critical information from invoices, regardless of their format or source, and populates the relevant fields in NetSuite. By doing so, it dramatically reduces the time and effort required for manual data entry.
The OCR technology can recognize and interpret various invoice layouts, including PDFs, scanned images, and even handwritten documents. It learns and improves over time, becoming more accurate with each processed invoice. This not only speeds up the invoice processing cycle but also minimizes human errors that can occur during manual data entry.
By implementing Invoice Capture & OCR, businesses can reallocate their AP staff’s time from tedious data entry tasks to more strategic activities such as vendor relationship management and financial analysis. This leads to increased productivity, faster invoice processing times, and improved accuracy in financial records.
Approval workflows
Combining NetSuite’s approval rules with an advanced workflow solution can speed up the AP process while respecting compliance requirements. These dynamic, rule-based workflows can be configured to match complex organizational structures and approval hierarchies, ensuring that each invoice is routed to the right approver at the right time.
One key feature of advanced approval workflows is the ability to implement parallel processing. Instead of following a strict linear path, invoices can be sent simultaneously to multiple approvers when necessary. This is particularly useful for invoices that require sign-off from different departments or for high-value transactions that need multiple levels of approval. The system can also automatically escalate overdue approvals, preventing bottlenecks in the process.
Mobile approval capabilities further enhance the efficiency of the approval process. Approvers can review and approve invoices on-the-go through user-friendly mobile interfaces, complete with all necessary context and supporting documentation. This ensures that the approval process keeps moving even when key personnel are out of the office, leading to faster approval cycles and more timely payments.
PO matching
PO matching is a critical feature that can significantly enhance NetSuite’s purchase order management capabilities. This feature automates the process of 2-way and 3-way matching between purchase orders, receiving documents, and supplier invoices. By doing so, it helps ensure that the company only pays for goods and services that were actually ordered and received.
The automated matching process can handle various scenarios, such as partial deliveries, price variances, and quantity discrepancies. When discrepancies are detected, the system can automatically flag them for review, providing all relevant information to the AP staff for quick resolution. This proactive approach helps prevent overpayments and reduces the risk of paying fraudulent or erroneous invoices.
By implementing advanced PO Matching, businesses can dramatically reduce the time spent on manual matching processes, accelerate the approval cycle for matched invoices, and improve the accuracy of their financial records. This not only increases operational efficiency but also strengthens financial controls and supports better cash flow management.
Mass payments
Expanding NetSuite’s payment capabilities with advanced batch processing features can significantly streamline the payment cycle, especially for businesses dealing with a high volume of transactions. Mass payment functionality allows companies to group and execute multiple payments efficiently, reducing the time and effort required to process payments individually.
While NetSuite offers data import capabilities, enhancing these with specialized CSV payment processing can significantly streamline the handling of bulk payment data. This feature allows businesses to easily import and process payment information from various sources, ensuring smooth integration with existing financial processes and external systems.
Advanced CSV payment functionality goes beyond simple data import. It can include features like automatic field mapping, data validation to catch errors before they enter the system, and the ability to handle complex payment scenarios such as split payments or payments across multiple currencies. Some systems also offer the ability to generate CSV files for bank uploads, further streamlining the payment process.
By implementing enhanced CSV payment capabilities, businesses can save significant time on data entry, reduce errors associated with manual input, and more easily manage bulk payments. This is particularly valuable for companies dealing with high transaction volumes or those that regularly receive payment data from multiple sources or in varying formats.
By streamlining the payment process in this way, businesses can improve their relationships with vendors through more timely and accurate payments, while also freeing up AP staff to focus on more strategic tasks.
International payments
For businesses operating globally, enhancing NetSuite’s international payment capabilities can simplify cross-border transactions and reduce associated risks. Advanced international payment features typically include real-time currency conversion, support for a wide range of country-specific payment methods, and compliance with international banking regulations.
One key enhancement is the ability to optimize payment routing. This involves automatically selecting the most cost-effective and efficient payment method based on factors such as the destination country, currency, and amount. Such systems can also handle complex scenarios like multi-currency invoices or payments to vendors with accounts in multiple countries.
Another crucial feature is sending international payments faster in a more cost-effective manner. This includes screening payments against international sanctions lists, automatically generating required documentation for cross-border transactions, and ensuring compliance with local banking regulations. By automating these complex processes, businesses can reduce the risk of costly errors or compliance issues while streamlining their international payment operations.
Vendor onboarding
Extending NetSuite’s vendor management capabilities with a custom-branded, self-service onboarding process can significantly improve efficiency and data accuracy. Advanced vendor onboarding systems allow new suppliers to input their own information through a secure portal, reducing the workload on AP staff and minimizing data entry errors.
These systems can automate many aspects of the onboarding process, including data validation, tax form collection, and even initial risk assessments. They can also integrate with third-party services for tasks like business verification or credit checks. This not only speeds up the onboarding process but also helps ensure that all necessary information is collected and verified before a vendor is approved.
Furthermore, advanced vendor onboarding systems often include features for ongoing vendor data management. This allows vendors to keep their own information up-to-date, reducing the administrative burden on the AP team and helping ensure that the vendor master file remains accurate over time. By streamlining the vendor onboarding and management process in this way, businesses can build stronger vendor relationships, reduce risk, and improve the overall efficiency of their AP operations.
Tax management
Complementing NetSuite’s tax calculation features with advanced tax management capabilities can help businesses navigate the complexities of multi-jurisdictional tax compliance.
Businesses can collect and securely store vendor tax documents. They can then export filing data as needed during tax season.
Vendor compliance checks
Enhancing NetSuite’s vendor data with automated compliance checks can significantly reduce risk and ensure ongoing regulatory compliance. These systems can automatically and regularly check vendor TINs, watchlist/OFAC, and other critical information.
Advanced vendor compliance systems can integrate with various databases and third-party services to perform these checks. They can verify things like business licenses or inclusion on government watchlists. The system can be configured to send alerts when issues are detected or when critical documents are approaching expiration.
Businesses can proactively manage vendor-related risks by automating these compliance checks, ensure they’re working with qualified and compliant suppliers, and maintain the documentation necessary for audits or regulatory inspections. This reduces the administrative burden on the AP team and helps protect the company from potential legal or financial risks associated with non-compliant vendors. They can also hold payments to ensure payments aren’t sent until the vendors are cleared.
Conclusion
Enhancing NetSuite’s AP automation capabilities with these advanced features can transform your financial operations, driving efficiency, accuracy, and strategic value. By leveraging technologies like AI-powered OCR, intelligent workflows, and automated compliance checks, businesses can streamline their AP processes, reduce manual errors, and free up valuable time for more strategic activities.