Thinking of enhancing your AP automation with X3CloudDocs? Take a look at our 6 steps to success, written by our Solutions Expert Paul.
If you’re thinking of enhancing your AP automation by moving to X3CloudDocs, you might be interested in a number of best practices that will help you get the very best out of your solution and, most importantly, help you to process your invoices faster and more accurately:
Before you get started (or even once you’ve got started!)
1. Who’s that Supplier?
Make sure your supplier names and addresses are correct in Sage X3, as the more accurate these are, the higher the likelihood of invoices being identified correctly. Recording a supplier’s tax registration (VAT if you’re in Europe) number in the same format as printed on invoices is an additional way of increasing confidence that the right supplier is being selected.
2. Add more suppliers!
If your supplier invoices you for different types of services in different invoice styles, consider setting up a Supplier record for each type of invoice, so that you can teach X3CloudDocs what each type looks like and link that to the corresponding Supplier number. In Sage X3 you can always give these individual records the same “Pay By” details so that you’re still only raising a single payment for all their invoices.
3. What are they invoicing me for?
In some cases, if you’ve raised a purchase order, then it might look like the invoice bears no relation to the PO in terms of details. However, if you attach the supplier’s product number to your Product record in Sage X3, then, not only can you include this on the PO that you email out, but X3CloudDocs can use their number to more accurately identify which line on the PO to match against.
Then, once you’re using X3CloudDocs:
4. While you’re processing invoices, learn to draw!
Using your mouse to draw around information on an invoice is the best way to teach X3CloudDocs about the layout of a supplier’s invoice. The invoice might look complex, but this can save you time and make input more accurate, even where you have multiple order lines. Eventually, you might get to the stage where you don’t even need to review an invoice before it either goes straight out for approval, or, better still, straight into Sage X3!
5. Every day, check your Control Panel!
It’s important to keep a track of invoices that you’re processing into Sage X3, to make sure that invoices aren’t getting stuck due to closed accounting periods, incorrect coding, inactive accounts, and so on. A great way to do this might be to add Requesters/Queries to your Home page, so that as soon as you log in you can see what’s happening and you can act on any anomalies.
6. On a regular basis, check what’s going to impact your cash flow!
Use the reporting and analytics in X3CloudDocs to report on invoices in progress according to their due dates. If your payment terms in Sage X3 are based on the number of days, then get these calculated as soon as the invoice lands and you start working on it. You can also override these on an invoice-by-invoice basis.
For questions about any of the above, get in touch with our helpful team of experts at helpdesk@x3clouddocs.com.
