Supplier invoice processing is one of the most labour intensive processes in the finance department and one which all companies are trying to improve. At IMS we have developed several routines to achieve this.

Several clients had a requirement to post invoices directly to the purchase ledger and general ledger modules from a spreadsheet. They also require additional validation and processing before posting to these ledgers. This information could come from any source e.g. EDI, emails etc, provided it was formatted in the agreed columns.

IMS developed a utility to upload the file from a designated folder on a server onto the iSeries. The file was then validated to ensure then information was valid e.g. supplier codes valid etc. A new interface file was also defined to hold text associated with the document (up to 65 characters are available). The validation program produced a printed file of errors (these errors can also be viewed in the posting file review program).

A new program was written to enquire on the status of posting session so that errors could be fixed and the data uploaded again.

The whole project went very well and the clients have achieved significant reduction in manual input and the related errors. It has also encouraged them to work with other non stock suppliers to provide their invoices electronically.

For stock invoices IMS can provide solutions to automatically receive and process invoices through Three Way Matching.