E-Invoicing makes the difference

The introduction of a solution from the xSuite Group for automated, SAP-
integrated invoice processing has been a success: Faster processing times and therefore higher cash discount income, improved liquidity and savings in resources are the result. The hospital group has also introduced audit-proof archiving.

The Asklepios clinics operate a medical cluster with around 160 healthcare facilities in 14 federal states and more than 2.5 million patients treated per year. The Rhön Kliniken acquired in 2020 also treat more than 850,000 patients annually at five locations. With 66,000 employees, Asklepios is one of the leading hospital operators in Germany and covers the entire spectrum of care.

Every facility, every cluster has had its own accounting department up to now. It was not always easy to adequately fill vacant positions there. A central Financial Shared Service Center was set up in 2016 to counteract the shortage of specialists at an early stage. This made it possible to centralize and standardize accounts payable accounting.

Consistent monitoring of impending cash discount losses

The specialists in the Shared Service Center have been working for some time with the xSuite automated invoice processing solution, which is integrated into Asklepios' SAP system. Hafid Rifi, Chief Financial Officer of Asklepios Kliniken: "We have thus introduced a tool to increase our discount realization rate, can measure throughput times precisely and benefit from greater transparency and audit security throughout the entire invoice processing procedure."

The elimination of manual activities reduces the error rate, while processes in finance and purchasing (purchase-to-pay process) are more efficient and secure. And the number of automatically posted documents (dark posting rate), which was previously zero, has steadily increased at Asklepios Kliniken since the solution was introduced. The control of various KPIs allows the targets set with the introduction of the solution to be closely monitored. For example, the system registers how long a document is held until it is parked, how long it remains with the financial approver or how many invoices are in stock in total.

Invoice workflow in times of home office

Compared to 2014 (77%), the hospital group is now able to realize 99% of discounts granted. The proportion of e-mail invoices is also on the rise: After 19 percent in 2017 (annual document volume: 281,000), this has already reached 54 percent (294,000) in 2020. The dark posting rate is now 71 percent. "Dark booking allows us to work more efficiently than we ever have before", says Hafid Rifi.

Increasing efficiency is an important issue for the CFO. At the Asklepios clinics, this results, among other things, from the fact that the invoice processing solution makes it possible to track at any time what payment flows are actually circulating and when which expenses are incurred. Particularly in times of continuous home office operations, the special benefits of location-independent invoice processing became apparent.

S/4 Greenfield and xSuite

Asklepios Kliniken recently migrated its SAP system to the new S/4 Hana product generation using the greenfield approach. As xSuite invoice processing is fully integrated into S/4, it could be seamlessly continued. "E-invoicing makes a difference", Hafid Rifi is convinced.

How quickly information from invoices can be retrieved and invoices paid represents a significant competitive advantage for the CFO. "Working with an automated, digital invoice workflow such as xSuite can be a decisive step forward in accounting." (pmf)