M-Files AP Automation for a Global Industrial Services Company

Conduct an assessment to determine the feasibility of M-Files for improving and automating the AP approvals processes for purchase orders and vendor invoices.

Integrate M-Files with their existing Microsoft Dynamics application to reduce the manual effort of scan and capture.

Leverage existing delegation of authority rules to automate approval routings and streamline the processes even further.

The accounting department worked in a decentralized and manual fashion which meant processes had several inefficiencies leading to delays in approvals and making payments to vendors in a timely fashion. This also meant early pay savings/discounts were often being lost.

The client was using a version of Microsoft Dynamics SL which was outdated and lacked advanced capabilities to improve the processes.

The existing delegation of authority was managed on an Excel spreadsheet. This complicated requirements for ensuring tracking and auditability involving 140+ users.

The delegation of authority user roles were not standardized across the various regions.

Workflows for both types of documents

Logic for delegation of authority stored within the system and referenced against parameters found on the document to correctly route approvals to the right approver

Automatic email notifications for relevant users based on the state the document entered (status changes)

VB Scripts to customize out-of-the-box features for getting data from related objects and structure built out in M-Files

Configuring M-Files to ensure POs with metadata were accepted by M-Files in near real-time when a new PO was generated in Dynamics SL by the purchasing admin

Providing details on M-Files configurations and testing with a 3^rd Party Vendor, Velosio, for Dynamics SL who developed custom logic in Dynamics SL to communicate with M-Files

SQL Views to combine and read data from region-based databases for purchase orders, PO line items, vouchers, vendors, and projects to be used as a source for necessary master data

Dell Boomi processes (per environment) to pull data through the SQL Views created (instead of directly hitting the databases) and migrate them to the M-Files master data source databases that are ultimately configured to sync automatically with M-Files Objects

SQL Stored Procedures to update only those records passed by the Dell Boomi process where data had been modified or if the record didn’t already exist in the system

Configured compliance features available within the M-Files AP Automation solution to enable dynamic searching, detailed logging for auditing, and scheduled data exports for reporting

Defined metrics to measure efficiencies and performance of the automated processes

Developed a Microsoft Power BI dashboard that showcased the metrics defined to provide near real-time insights (scheduled data exports) on the purchase order and vendor invoice approvals processes

Eliminated delays and errors through automated capture from Dynamics SL and error handling

Allowed admins to prioritize efforts on higher-value tasks by reducing or eliminating tasks:

• Removed need to manually assign approvals with logic in workflows using embedded DOA rules
• Reduced need to chase users for approvals with automated emails sent within workflows
• Reduced need to create duplicate reports with custom search filters and export options
• Reduced need to identify errors manually with error handling developed within the workflows

Increased accountability on users through increased visibility and transparency of process statuses and tracking for all users involved such as admins, requesters, approvers, and executives

Increased security, compliance, and auditability by enabling M-Files compliance features such as:

• Automatic permissions enforced on each workflow state based on control lists and user role
• Version history and tracking enabled on all documents identifying all events and information
• Advanced logging enabled to track events including user activity and changes in the system
• Automatic log exports enabled to a secured location in order to ensure backup and visibility of data
• Custom logic scripted to handle errors, assignments, and searching capabilities

Improved decision making through insights on the efficiency and impact of the processes by leveraging custom metrics shown on the Power BI dashboard

• Tracking all statuses of purchase orders and invoices in respective workflows
• Average cycle time (days) to determine the performance and timing of processing invoices
• Amounts approved or rejected for purchase orders and paid/due for invoices
• Average lead times between various states in the workflow
• Aging buckets to determine the count of documents sitting in the current states
• Charts highlighting performance and activity over various time periods

Improved efficiency for locating information by leveraging metadata and OCR search capabilities

Follow our posts on LinkedIn

Get the RSS link