Legal Solution: vendor invoice processing Automating the Capture, Delivery, Approval and Accessibility of Invoices Every day, law firms like yours are tasked with ensuring the delivery of accurate client billing, while maximizing billable hours. The time that is spent on processing the invoices and related client expenses takes significant time away from other higher-valued tasks, such as direct client interaction. Today, a very manual and paper-intensive process exists within law firms in order to process invoices and attribute them correctly to the respective clients and matter, but with the right solution this process can be simplified.
Vendor Invoice Processing Invoice Processing A Time Consuming and Tedious Task Catching Clients Attention The Challenge Every day, law firms receive invoices from outside vendors some on behalf of their clients, while others are directly attributable to the firm. Each invoice must be received, approved, assigned to the correct client and matter (where appropriate) and eventually paid by the finance department, while billed back to the appropriate client. The challenges a firm faces in managing this process quickly and effectively, without error, and with complete client transparency along the way is daunting. No matter the size of a law firm, it is nearly impossible for any firm to manually manage all their invoices and disbursements without error or lost productivity. The time and steps it takes for a law firm to process an invoice from the point it arrives at the firm and moved through the firm, eventually ending up at the accounting department can be a very time consuming process with many challenges along the way, including: Increased risk of losing critical documents when they re in transit to and from the accounting department to the appropriate approving attorneys Errors when manually re-keying information into the firm s financial system Transparency due to the lack of information accessible to attorneys when a client calls looking for invoice justification Creating and filing multiple copies of an invoice in numerous locations Expensive and time-consuming efforts to retrieve paper documents from dispersed files or search for lost documents The Solution Automating the process of vendor invoice handling with document capture and archive solutions that integrate with financial packages of law firms, and enables streamlined processing of vendor invoices, results in quicker time to revenue, reduction of errors, immediate information accessibility and full transparency throughout the firm.
Vendor Invoice Processing Today Areas to Address Invoice Capture and Approval When invoices for services arrive at a law firm, they follow one of two paths. They either go directly to the attorney who is responsible for ordering the service, or they are directed to the firm's accounting department. Independent of the path taken, each invoice requires specific information attributed to it before it can be processed, including client billing and matter codes, and the signature of the approving attorney. Without an electronic capture process, the possibility of documents being lost or misplaced is significantly increased by the need to manually route them around the office. This risk is enhanced even more by the need to route documents to and from the accounting department and appropriate attorneys, especially when more than one approval is required for any given document. Retrieval and Archiving Today, archiving invoices means filing paper documents. In order to make these accessible to everyone who may need them in the future, multiple copies are made and filed into numerous locations. While this part of the process appears simple, the expenses associated with making and filing multiple copies of the same paper document can escalate quickly. This is also expensive and time-consuming when having to retrieve paper documents from these files or search for lost documents. Vouchering When entering the invoice information into the accounting system for payment and obtaining a voucher number, the accounting system administrator typically re-enters (manually) the information previously obtained from the attorney into the financial system such as Elite or ADERANT. This is a repetitive and time consuming task that can introduce errors into the process. As a result of error, the reimbursement may be delayed or even worse, eliminated. Once an invoice has obtained a voucher number, copies are made, one of which is manually attached to the vendor invoice of the firm's bill that will be going to the client, containing those charges. While a firm employee can use the accounting system to obtain the payment status of vendor invoices, without an electronic image of an actual invoice, a copy of the original invoice must be retrieved manually. All of these steps require an extensive amount of manual work when trying to track down a single invoice. omtool legal
Vendor Invoice Processing Omtool Vendor Invoice Processing (VIP) Suite For years, Omtool has been established as the legal industry standard to handle all the paper while providing Omtool AccuRoute document capture platform to law firms of all sizes, worldwide. With AccuRoute, law firms are able to convert hard copy documents into virtually any electronic format and move it through electronic invoice processing seamlessly. The VIP Suite built upon the Omtool AccuRoute solution delivers: Vendor invoice document capture at the point of processing (by attorney or accounting department) Invoice-specific collection of information (client and matter billing codes, date, billing category, etc.) to process along with the captured image and deliver electronically A streamlined electronic workflow to move invoices and related information quickly through approval cycles and into standard financial systems (such as Elite and ADERANT, among many others) Image archiving while also maintaining a connection to the billing system for easy and immediate client matter retrieval for the life of the client From the mail room to financial system integration, the process of managing invoices is now more effective, efficient, and streamlined, with the adoption of the VIP Suite for invoice processing and disbursement. Omtool s line of invoice processing products will make managing invoices easy from the point of receipt through to the financial system currently implemented in your firm.
AccuRoute - The Distributed Document Process Automation Platform AccuRoute is Omtool s enterprise-class document process automation platform for the deployment of solutions to capture, process, deliver, and archive critical business documents. The AccuRoute capture and processing software uniquely delivers flexible, distributed document capture with a highly scalable infrastructure, extensive capabilities, configuration flexibility, and the ease of use necessary to implement simple or complex solutions, involving hundreds or millions of documents per month, out-of-the-box. At the heart of AccuRoute is the ability to capture, process, and deliver documents that originate in paper (and often electronic format). Paper documents are captured (scanned) from any networked scanner, scan-enabled digital printer, copier, fax, or MFP and prepared for processing by the AccuRoute Server. The AccuRoute Server converts documents to a variety of formats, collects and provides documentrelated metadata, validates information, compresses the documents, and then delivers the documents to the destinations required. During the conversion process, documents may be OCR d and/or converted to any variety of formats including PDF, text-searchable PDF, DOC, JPG, RTF, TIF, TXT, XLS, among many others. Metadata collection can be implemented with AccuRoute through a number of options including: When the processing is complete, AccuRoute will deliver the document image and its related information to the destinations desired, simultaneously. While the image need only be captured once, AccuRoute enables multiple processing tasks and delivery to any number of destinations all based on the single scan. The delivery to destinations includes: Scan-to-Self email, network folder, or web folder Scan-to-Distribute email, fax, printer, and/or distribution list Scan-to-Store enterprise content management (ECM) including document management, records management, and traditional enterprise content management systems, repository, archive, network folder Scan-to Line-of-Business Application Throughout the document lifecycle, AccuRoute is automating the document processes and provides the platform enterprise-class delivery able to scale from single department or small business use to large, multi-location corporate deployments. In the case of vendor invoice processing and specifically for financial system integration, convert invoices to PDF and route images to Image-In Queue for processing along with related client, billing, and invoice-specific data captured electronically. Profiling documents using native document management systems profile screens Extracting data from barcodes Printing/Scanning with prompts to capture new information at MFP panel when scanning Validating collected data against pre-defined values omtool legal
Vendor Invoice Processing Achieve Seamless Invoice Processing with AccuRoute Solutions Image-In Queue Managing the Approval Cycle Invoice by Invoice Image-In Queue is the electronic document delivery component of the Omtool VIP Suite that is the central dispatching point for invoices and required approvals. Instead of manually delivering an invoice to an attorney for approval and then returning to accounting to obtain a voucher number, Image-In Queue can automate the approval process. After capturing invoices with AccuRoute, Image-In-Queue automatically identifies documents that have not met all the criteria required for their defined process, and provides the capabilities to manage queues of these documents through until completion. Image-In Queue minimizes lost or misdirected documents by routing them through one central location. There's no need to make multiple copies or manually deliver documents. Image-In Queue can simply send the selected documents to all authorized recipients automatically. It can deliver the appropriate scanned images to the approving attorneys and again to accounting for processing until complete. What's more, there are no hard copies to file you can keep them all in one central, image-centric electronic archive. AccuRoute Web Client Viewing and Approving Invoices, Electronically Whether at the office or working remotely, attorneys can review and approve their invoices through the AccuRoute Web Client which provides a clear view into the invoice approval process. This "viewer" provides constant and immediate access to current and archived images should you need them in the future for reference. ObjectArchive Image Archive for Electronic Invoices This high-performance file system stores the invoices, documents, forms, images, and other client billing documents that have been captured electronically. With ObjectArchive, you have immediate access to the documents, invoices, and records you need, where and when they are required. Invoice images may be viewed through the AccuRoute Web Client or through a direct link from the firm's financial system.
The Benefits of Implementing Omtool Suite for Vendor Invoice Processing Reduce Manual Intervention When the invoice processing and disbursement management cycle is captured electronically, the need for copying and the physical movement of paper within a firm is diminished. In addition, since these documents are no longer manually routed, they are less likely to be lost. Improve Time to Revenue by Decreasing Billing Cycles Electronically streamlining documents and approval cycles greatly improves invoice turn around and time. As a result, this greatly decreases the time it takes to complete a client specific billing package at the end of a billing cycle, in turn greatly increasing a firm's time to revenue. Increase Productivity Through Reduced Data-Entry Time As invoice specific information (date, client and matter codes, billing category, etc.) is entered upon receipt, it can be transmitted with the invoice image electronically to avoid repeated data entry of the same information in the financial system. Remove Physical Barriers When processing an invoice for a client while the attorney is out of the office, or even, located in another office the invoicing processes can continue regardless of the location barriers. Attorney can review, edit, and approve invoices using any Internet connection, including their mobile device. Increase Document Accessibility Anytime during or after the invoice processing is complete, accessibility to that electronic invoice image is always available. This greatly reduces the amount of time spent searching for specific invoices in volumes of paper files, and, in some circumstances, reduces expensive off-site retrieval costs. Support Green Initiative Enabling the creation and movement of electronic documents throughout the invoice and disbursement management process, a firm reduces its overhead and requirements of physical paper, which in turn supports the firm's "green" initiatives. omtool legal
The Leader in Legal Document Process Automation For more than 20 years, Omtool has helped some the world s largest corporations and leading law firms cost-effectively manage their document-intensive process-automation challenges. Continually refining its technology innovations, Omtool offers a platform with an architecture that incorporates our extensive experience in high-volume document processing to address all the paper. Today, AccuRoute provides the infrastructure for automating document processes in well over 300 law firms worldwide, including more than half of the top 100 law firms in the U.S. Our solutions are now the standard for firms of all sizes looking for enterprise-wide automation of their paper-centric processes. With our extensive experience automating processes involving millions of documents per month, multi-function device vendors, software and service providers, and law firms trust Omtool to handle all their paper-document process automation needs. Find out more about how Omtool can help your legal team. Visit www.omtool.com or call 800.886.7845. www.omtool.com Corporate Headquarters Omtool, Ltd. 6 Riverside Drive Andover, MA 01810 t. 978. 327.5700 f. 978.659.1300 sales 800.886.7845 European Headquarters Building 3, Chiswick Park 566 Chiswick High Road Chiswick, W4 5YA UK t. +44 0 208.849.8470 f. +44 0 208.849.8471 email: salesuk@omtool.com Omtool, AccuRoute and the Company logo are trademarks of the Company. Trade names and trademarks of other companies appearing in this document are property of their respective owners.