Manual invoice reconciliation can cost thousands (if not millions) in errors and eat up hundreds of hours
You’re probably paying for items that never arrived. You’re missing out on early payment discounts. Your staff is spending countless hours on manual invoice reconciliation.
The good news? You can simplify the invoice reconciliation process by automating data exchange with your suppliers.
Tired of manual invoice reconciliation headaches?
When your business was smaller, it was easier to reconcile your purchase orders against supplier invoices. But as your business has grown, you’ve started to notice a spike in costly errors from things like:
Slowdowns in the invoice reconciliation process lead to delayed payment processing and missed early-payment discounts
Dedicated staff time spent tracking down order and shipping documents, then manually compare them with supplier invoices
Rushed reviews that overlook incorrect quantities, prices or shipping costs, resulting in paying the wrong amount
Frequently asked questions about automated invoice reconciliation
What's the difference between a manual and automated invoice reconciliation process?
Manual reconciliation means your staff tracks down order and shipping documents and compares them line-by-line against supplier invoices. Automated reconciliation uses structured electronic data from suppliers that your systems can match automatically, so staff only handle exceptions.
What problems does a manual invoice reconciliation process create?
Manual reconciliation leads to costly human errors, delayed payment processing, missed early payment discounts, and requires dedicated staff to track down documentation and compare it with supplier invoices.
What happens when you can’t accurately reconcile supplier invoices?
You end up paying for wrong quantities, incorrect prices, or inflated shipping costs. You may also pay for items that never arrived and miss out on early payment discounts.
What EDI documents are involved in automating the invoice reconciliation process?
What does "automated data exchange" mean for processing supplier invoices?
Rather than manually entering invoice data or hunting down documentation, you receive structured electronic files from suppliers that integrate directly with your systems, creating an automated audit trail.
How can better order management improve invoice reconciliation?
When you have visibility into the status of orders and shipments, you have the foundation for accurate invoice reconciliation. Instead of scrambling to find documentation when invoices arrive, you have everything needed for smooth reconciliation.
How does SPS improve our reconciliation procedure?
The SPS Supply Chain Performance Suite automates data exchange with your suppliers, providing the structured data you need to streamline your reconciliation procedure and focus on exceptions rather than manual invoice matching.
How do you onboard suppliers for automated invoice reconciliation?
Supplier onboarding enables suppliers to follow your business processes, including sending required data for automated invoice reconciliation. The real challenge is convincing suppliers to change and ensuring they adopt the new workflows. An experienced supplier onboarding provider manages this entire process for you.
Invoice reconciliation that runs itself
Say goodbye to manually reconciling orders, shipping documents and invoices. Our solution ensures you get the data needed from suppliers to automate the reconciliation process between what you order, what you receive and the invoices you pay.
Invoice arrives
Manual data entry required
Hunt for matching PO
Search files/systems
Find receiving documents
Check what actually arrived from supplier
Compare line-by-line
Staff verify quantities, prices, shipping
Discover discrepancies
Time-consuming investigation
Process payment
Often late, miss discounts
Electronic invoice
Auto-populates system
Automatic PO matching
System finds original order
Receipt data available
Electronic delivery confirmation
Exception-only review
System flags discrepancies
Quick resolution
Focus on real issues
Timely payment
Capture early discounts
Invoice arrives
Manual data entry required
Hunt for matching PO
Search files/systems
Find receiving documents
Check what actually arrived from supplier
Compare line-by-line
Staff verify quantities, prices, shipping
Discover discrepancies
Time-consuming investigation
Process payment
Often late, miss discounts
Electronic invoice
Auto-populates system
Automatic PO matching
System finds original order
Receipt data available
Electronic delivery confirmation
Exception-only review
System flags discrepancies
Quick resolution
Focus on real issues
Timely payment
Capture early discounts
With SPS Commerce, you can:
Stop paying extra for inaccurate, miskeyed or even fraudulent invoices
Speed up the invoice reconciliation process to take advantage of on-time or early discount incentives
Reduce or eliminate manual data entry, staffing hours and human errors
Never lose or misplace an important supplier invoice
Ensure your trading partners are charging the correct amount for shipping, especially on split deliveries
How healthy is your supply chain?
Tired of inventory management surprises? Identify the supplier performance gaps that cause inventory issues with our Health Vitals tool.
After 14 years, having less than a quarter of our supplier network connected was frustrating. We’d had the technology in place all that time, but SPS brought us a solution – a change management solution, as well as the technology. Manually reconciling orders, order changes, delivery notifications and invoices is a huge task that, these days, should be handled digitally.
Head of Operations Planning, Sigma Healthcare