Initial situation

Following the introduction in 1999 of an electronic archive for the audit-proof retention of invoices to relieve the burden on the paper archive, in 2005 the German travel agency DER wanted to optimise its invoice processing. Prior to automation, invoices without a purchase order reference went around the company with the rest of the internal post before being approved and entered in the SAP system manually. Tourism invoices with a purchase order reference were sent by freight to Galway in Ireland, where they were entered in SAP manually. Clarification processes were laborious and based on email or internal post.

Reasons for SER

• Flexibility of the software for processing tourism invoices together with vouchers
• “All of the technology you need from a single source”

Solution

Doxis4 Capture, Doxis4 InvoiceMaster Read and Doxis4 SAP Control S

Integration

SAP

Volume of documents

525,000 tourism invoices (MM) and 25,000 invoices for general expenses (FI)
are processed via IM each year (status in 2013)

Users

Invoice readers: around 10 users. Verification workflow: around 300 employees.

Implementation

• Introduction of automatic invoice processing in 2005 for general expenses (FI) and in 2006 for tourism invoices received from Dertour, Meiers Weltreisen and ADAC Reisen.
• InvoiceMaster upgrade in 2010 and integration of electronic receipt of invoices (around 135,000 a year).
• The invoices are scanned at the central incoming mail centre in Frankfurt am Main, and the invoice and travel reservation data is automatically extracted and reconciled with SAP. If the data matches that of the purchase order and reservation, it is posted automatically (background posting).
• For invoices without a purchase order reference (invoices for general expenses), an approval or clarification workflow (e.g. for tourism invoices with a purchase order reference) is initiated. The process is concluded with booking in SAP.

Benefits

• Standardised invoice processing procedure without discrepancies, compliance with order in drawing (who must release what)
• The number of employees could be reduced by around 40% and the freight costs by about 57% when processing tourism invoices with a purchase order reference
• Transparency: The auditing department can quickly check anything that is unclear
• Increase in productivity: The growing volume of invoices in the last 9 years has been handled without the need to take on large numbers of staff