Digitization from the ground up

Now that many employees have gone into the home office virtually overnight, digitization gaps in the company are becoming apparent at the latest. Flexible working from any location is only possible if digital methods and tools are available. Wherever work is still paper-based, processes come to a standstill because there is no access to information.

The importance of electronic processes for finance and accounting, especially in the current situation, is also shown by the current Deloitte study "Accounting in times of Covid-19". It illustrates that companies have recognized the importance of automated processes.

The more digitally one works, the more location-independent one is in performing one's job, according to experience. Among the top 5 permanent solutions in accounting, the companies surveyed therefore name, among other things, the scanning of invoice documents, electronic approval workflows and the electronic storage of receipts.

Scanning invoice documents is just the first small step in the digital direction. Intelligent solutions digitize accounting processes as a whole by recognizing, checking and posting business documents electronically. Regardless of whether they were originally received as paper documents by mail, as PDFs by e-mail or EDI.

All documents received are listed in a central invoice receipt book and can thus also be viewed and processed in the home office. Release workflows also run electronically and can be viewed and edited via mobile devices regardless of location.

Digitized processing of incoming invoices in this way reduces manual effort in accounting and speeds up the processing of payments. This has been successfully implemented, for example, at Ricola, one of the world's most innovative candy manufacturers: As part of the S/4 Hana implementation, the company used the greenfield approach to rethink and optimize old processes.

Among other things, the electronic processing of accounts payable invoices. Tangro software has not only accelerated processing times and reduced costs, but also significantly improved transparency. In the inbox, the finance team can see the status of each individual document at a glance and knows at any time with whom an invoice is being processed.

Processing of each document and, if required, a workflow can also be started directly in the inbox. Most approvers then access the invoices to be approved via web workflow.

Ideally, even these steps are eliminated. Those who think holistically and proceed methodically achieve improvements across departments and process chains. For accounting as the final step in the procurement process, this means: If the upstream processes are well organized and ordering already functions perfectly, then accounting will run smoothly in the end.

If requirements are already entered in the system and the account assignment is also clarified at this early stage, then the amount of manual work in invoice processing is greatly reduced. Comparison with the purchase order takes place automatically. If the system does not detect any discrepancies, the invoice can be posted directly in the background, if desired.

Holism should also be understood in technological terms. Digitization solutions in the area of finance are best integrated into the company's system landscape. If the systems are harmonized, then data can be shared within the company.

This is also the view at Ricola: When evaluating the new accounts payable processing tool, the focus was therefore, among other things, on the fact that the solution is completely integrated into SAP and that the tool is S/4-capable. These are requirements that Tangro meets.