How Technology Is Shifting The Paradigm Of Spend Visibility
Spend Visibility Definition
The modern business environment necessitates more efficient and transparent handling of finances. Executives, in particular those associated with the finance departments, increasingly face the challenge of managing spend while analysing trends and exploring opportunities. To survive in todays booming economy, facilitating spend visibility is paramount.
A source-to-pay software provides the opportunity to meet the needs of complex finances in an efficient, organised fashion. It identifies opportunities through improved visibility and utilises analytics to generate actionable insight. Source-to-pay software is an integrated suite of technology solutions for Purchase to Pay (P2P) streamlining processes, mitigating risk and enabling executives to measurably increase operational efficiency.
This step-by-step guide provides an introduction to source-to-pay software as an enterprise-wide solution to defining and achieving spend visibility.
1. Assess Your Spend Visibility Requirements
Identify the areas within your spend framework that may benefit from improved visibility?which may include spend categories, suppliers, and pricing mechanisms. Consider which business processes need to be integrated into the solution and what sources of data are needed.
2. Address Internal Needs
Internal stakeholders?such as members of the C-Suite, finance teams, and operational departments?must be involved in the relationships and protocols that define successful source-to-pay solution. Consider the implications of the spend solution on financial, operational, and legal stakeholders.
3. Select the Right Provider
Choose provider that offers the most comprehensive solution for your companies objectives and needs. Select provider that offers value-added features to enhance visibility, such as capabilities for invoice consolidation, approval workflow processes, analytics, and reporting.
4. Establish the Right Data Connectivity
Once the provider is chosen, ensure the linking of the source-to-pay software to the organizational data sources, including financial systems, data sources, supplier databases, and approval flows. This enables the visibility of budgets and accurate reconciliation of data.
5. Implement the Software
Once the above steps are completed, it is time to implement the source-to-pay software. Through well-defined configuration of the software, you can ensure effective utilization of the solution, while monitoring and optimizing its effects on the entire financial cycle.
6. Develop Processes and Protocols
Develop processes and protocols that address the unique needs of the organization. These protocols should be tied to the software and carefully monitored to ensure compliance and accuracy. Protocols should also be established to address potential risks associated with the payment of invoices.
7. Utilize Analytics and Reporting
Source-to-pay solutions come with analytics and reporting capabilities that can aid you in discovering trends and gaining insights into how the processes related to visibility of budget and spending needs can be improved.
8. Monitor Spend and Supply Chain
The source-to-pay Softwareshould be regularly monitored to ensure the accuracy of all transactions related to spending and supply chain. As the software and associated protocols get refined and improved, the source-to-pay process becomes increasingly efficient.
Through an effective source-to-pay solution, Executives and department heads can benefit from increased visibility into the spending and budgeting processes, eliminating the risk associated with manual based processes. By following the steps outlined above and selecting an appropriate software, business have the potential to revolutionize their core financial processes and implement robust spend visibility.
