How Organizations can use Procure to Pay software to reduce Spend

Excerpts from the Speaker Talk by Expenzing CEO, Ms. Ila Imani at the CFO Engage Summit in Mumbai. In this session Ila talks about how procure to pay technology is helping CFOs do things better, get wastages out of the way and achieve their objective of reducing Spend while enhancing good governance.

Areas where procurement software and supplier relationship management software can help you reduce spend:

• Suppliers management
• Procurement
• Supplier payments
• Travel and Expense Management
• Assets

Process controls to reduce maverick and unauthorized spend are to be expected from a good procure to pay solution, and also from strategic sourcing solutions.

Here are some process controls which procurement technology helps you enforce,

1. No PR, no buy – No purchase can be made if it is raised without Purchase request
2. No PO, no pay – No payment is to be made if it is requested without a Purchase order
3. Only Empaneled Vendors get paid – Procurement should be done only with vendors who have registered themselves and have been empaneled for business
4. No budget, no buy– No purchase can be made if there is no budget allocated. System to check payment amount against budget allocated
5. Visibility into every department and every branch office spend – System to get insight into spend made at all level to reduce wastages and identify saving potential

Companies are putting these process controls in place with proper audit trails and governance to eliminate wastages.

Further, a good procure to pay software product offers effective controls in procurement and Accounts Payable processes, like these:

Enforce Granular and Mandatory DoA- Set up Delegation of Authorization (DoA), which helps system to route approval requests to the relevant person (be it a zone, a branch, a department, or an authorized person). The Rules Engine has to be mandatory, granular and changeable – this cannot be done effectively in an ERP.

Facilitate Centralisation – Head office to make all the procurement and the payment. No maverick buying by end users with random vendors.

Sourcing Technologies like RFX, Online Negotiations – New technologies like online RFP’s reverse auctions etc. are used by Banks, Insurance and IT companies these days to get best negotiated prices from their vendors. These technologies when put in place are helping companies reduce spend significantly.

Enforcement of Rate Cards – Procurement teams are put into place and rate cards are made effective for any and every procurement done. Be it a product or a service, there is a rate card in place and the procure to pay system enforces it.

With these process controls you not only reduce spend, but also bring in tight internal financial controls. With Expenzing procure to pay and expense management software you can transform your procurement and Accounts teams.