Ready For The Next Step: A Step-By-Step Guide To Source-To-Pay Solutions
CONTRACT MANAGEMENT SOLUTION
With the ever-shifting economic environment, businesses all over the world are looking for ways to improve efficiency and streamline processes while also finding ways to reduce costs. Source-to-Pay Solutions (S2P) offers finance departments the opportunity to do exactly that. An S2P provides suite of integrated tools for managing contracts, purchase orders, accounts payable, proactive budgeting and financial analytics, and much more. But, for the Executive tasked with making sure the financial teams are using the tool optimally, understanding how to use the different tools can be daunting. Here is step-by-step guide to using S2P Solutions in the most effective and efficient way.
Prepare Your Environment. Before exploring the range of tools available with S2P Solutions, it is important to ensure that the environment is conducive to efficiency. Evaluate how many people will be responsible for managing the system and ensure that they have the training, resources and support they need. Analyze the structure and processes currently in place and make plan for how to improve or expand on these processes.
Take Inventory. Once the environment is set up, it is time to begin tracking the financial transactions. Analyze existing invoices and contracts and note any irregularities or discrepancies. This information can be used to create performance metrics, identify pain points, establish benchmarks and determine what processes will need to be automated.
Explore the Range of Available Tools. Source-to-Pay Solutions comes with several tools that streamline the process. Explore the different tools available, such as the Purchase Order Management tool, which can be used to draft and manage purchase orders from start to finish, as well as the Accounts Payable tool, which allows for paperless payments and invoice reconciliation.
Automate. The more manual processes that can be automated, the smoother and more efficient the system will be. Use S2P tools to automate tasks like contract creation and approval, invoice entry and approval and payment processing. Automation also ensures that processes are consistently followed and completely documented.
Make Use of Analytics and Reporting. Many Source-to-Pay Solutions come equipped with analytics and reporting capabilities that give insight into spending habits, financial performance, budget usage, vendor records and more. These insights can be used to make intelligent cost-saving decisions and increase the system’s performance over time.
Monitor Performance. The most important step in using Source-to-Pay Solutions is to monitor performance on an ongoing basis. Set up quantifiable performance metrics and track them for each process. With this information, organizations can observe trends, identify and address issues quickly, and continually refine processes for better performance.
With this step-by-step guide, Executives will now have the tools to ensure their financial teams are utilizing Source-to-Pay Solutions optimally. Beyond setting up conducive environment, taking inventory, and exploring the available tools, organizations will benefit from automating processes, making use of analytics and reporting capabilities, and monitoring performance. With Source-to-Pay Solutions, the financial teams will have the structured and efficient processes they need to take the organizations financial performance to the next level.
