I just learned that Paystream Advisors Managing Director (and Voices contributor) Henry Ijams, along with Marko Vukosavovic from PuriCore and Bill Vergentino, CEO of ExpenseWatch.com, will be hosting a webcast to discuss success strategies for establishing and enforcing company spending policies. According to Henry, this is “gonna be action packed”: A live case study from an innovative company, analyst commentary and HOW to make expense management work for you — all in 50 minutes — will be worth the time. If you’re interested in registering for “Stop Leaking Profits: Best Practices for Establishing Company Spending Policies,” on Thursday September 13th, at 2PM EST, click here.

It’s another complementary webinar that PayStream Advisors puts on from time to time.

Nobody needs to be told twice that the price of business travel is rising. Unfortunately, for many companies and professionals, travel is a — if not the — key component in customer and business-to-business relations. Travel Expenses Management (TEM) has long been a subject of automation on some level, but tightening budgets, fraud, hassle, as well as incorporation into other systems of automation (whether it be EIPP, etc.), has led to a renewed interest in TEM. This is not to mention the legal pressure provided by Sarbanes-Oxley, especially where senior management has been involved.

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I just returned from the North Carolina HFMA Summer Institute in Myrtle Beach, SC and wanted to share some of the highlights.

The event was well attended by over 250 local industry leaders. The Exhibit Hall was bustling with product demonstrations, networking, and give-aways. As a local chapter event, I saw many familiar faces. The Kingston Plantation provided a great setting for the event and the overall atmosphere was open and receptive.

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The most common question we get from client organizations is “What technology makes the most sense for automating our operation?” But we think there is a better, more important question that is frequently left out. How should I justify the automation of our operation?

Going paperless requires corporate buy-in. And in order to get that buy-in, you’re going to have to develop a bulletproof business case. The first step is to accurately profile how you are doing with your existing process. Some call it current state analysis, others call it benchmarking.
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Until recently, automation efforts in the accounts payable area were focused on invoice and payment management and the operational benefits that technology delivers – cost containment and productivity enhancement. However, all this is changing. Innovative financial managers are now recognizing AP automation as an area that offers significant strategic benefits as well - the ability to accelerate invoice processing to enhance discount capture, strengthen working capital positions and build stronger trading partner relationships.

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Over the years, Web invoicing solutions have emerged to facilitate external exchange of transaction-related information and funds between buyers and suppliers. On the other hand, front-end imaging and workflow solutions have evolved to meet organizations’ internal needs around invoice receipt and management. But Web invoicing and front-end imaging solutions both have the same ultimate goal - eliminate paper from transactions. They simply have evolved from different starting points.

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It seems fitting that the first post to Paystream Voices is one that identifies the extraordinary importance of automation technologies. A new Paystream Advisors Report has identified an enormous amount of untapped capital stagnating in Fortune 1000 companies, that could be freed up with the implementation of Receivables and Collections Management (RCM) automation solutions. David Schmidt, a contributing author on this blog, and a senior analyst for Paystream Advisors, says that “Companies that don’t automate their financial supply chain and continue to rely on manual quote-to-cash processing will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. RCM technology provides transformational – not incremental – productivity gains for those organizations.”

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Dynamic Payables Discounting is a process which allows buyers and sellers of commercial goods and services to dynamically change the payment terms — such as net 30 — to accelerated payment based on a sliding discount scale. Dynamic Payables Discounting is “Dynamic” in one or more ways.

Dynamic Payables Discounting:

1. Allows supplier to control payment timing
2. Discount amount is calculated dynamically based on the number of days remaining until the due date.
3. Discounts do not need to be negotiated in advance, rather can be taken dynamically as working capital needs dictate.
4. Trading parties can tap into an alternative source of working capital with the use of third party creditors whom pay early on behalf of the buyer.

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