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Accounts Payable Outsourcing Services and Invoice Processing Services for a Leading CRM Software Company
The client is a renowned global leader in the IT software sector, specializing in CRM software and related business solutions. As their business expanded, they faced a critical transition in their accounts payable (AP) operations and employee expense management. The client partnered with ARDEM to ensure a seamless continuation of AP management and to leverage outsourcing services to optimize invoice processing services. Later, they also wanted ARDEM to implement advanced ERP solutions and employee expense management.
The Challenges the Client Faced
- Initial Challenges in Accounts Payable Outsourcing Services
- Retirement of a Key AP Employee: One of the main AP employees was retiring in 2018. This created a knowledge and operational gap in domestic invoice processing.
- Cost and Resource Constraints: The client needed a cost-effective solution to maintain AP management efficiency while expanding operations.
- Complex Tax Structures: Domestic invoice processing involved multi-state tax rules and service-type coding, requiring extensive knowledge transfer.
- Distributed Invoice Responsibilities: Prior to partnering with ARDEM, one employee handled domestic invoices while another handled international invoices. This created challenges in continuity.
- Recent Challenges in AP Management and ERP Integration
- ERP Transition from SAP Concur Solutions to Coupa ERP Integration: The client faced frequent downtimes with SAP Concur, affecting invoice processing services and business continuity.
- Global Invoice Processing Expansion: By 2024, the client needed to manage invoices across 15+ entities worldwide, including Ireland, UK, Denmark, and Singapore.
- Employee Expense Management Expansion: Beyond invoices, the client needed support for travel and employee-related expenses, increasing the scope of work.
- Ensuring Accuracy During ERP Migration: During the transition to Coupa ERP, there was a challenge to make sure that no invoices or expense reports were missed while training OCR tools and maintaining AP management standards.
- Manual Entry Queues and Non-Standard PDFs: After the transition from ERP Concur to Coupa, some invoices were not processed by Coupa’s OCR tool and required manual data entry. This added complexity to outsourcing services.
Why the Client Partnered with ARDEM
1. Knowledge Transfer and Continuity
ARDEM was able to take over domestic invoice processing seamlessly after the AP employee retirement.
2. Trusted Outsourcing Services Partner
Positive feedback from industry peers reinforced ARDEM’s reputation in delivering high-quality accounts payable outsourcing services and invoice processing services.
3. Scalability
ARDEM could scale operations from one FTE to multiple, supporting both domestic and international invoice processing services and employee expense management.
How ARDEM Solved the Client’s Problems
1. Scalable Accounts Payable Outsourcing Services
A. Initial FTE Deployment
ARDEM started with two FTEs in 2018 and gradually expanded to three FTEs to handle increasing volumes and global entities.
B. Knowledge Capture and Process Documentation
Rules and Excel-based references were created for tax codes, service types, and invoice processing standards for multi-state operations.
C. Global Expansion
ARDEM successfully managed invoice processing services across 15+ international entities, gradually integrating Ireland, UK, Denmark, Singapore, and other countries.
2. ERP Migration and Coupa ERP Integration
A. Seamless Transition from SAP Concur Solutions
ARDEM ensured that all pending invoices were backed up before the cutoff date and re-uploaded into Coupa ERP without missing data.
ARDEM was trusted with the invoice processing transition from SAP Concur to Coupa due to our prior experience with Coupa for another client. The primary objective was to ensure a seamless migration without losing any invoice data, while simultaneously maintaining daily invoice processing.
The first challenge focused on data integrity during ERP migration. With a cutoff date of July 31, ARDEM ensured that all unapproved invoices in Concur were securely backed up so they could be re-uploaded into Coupa and processed without any missed payments.
B. Coupa OCR Tool Training
Coupa’s Invoices Match tool, an OCR-based automation system, required detailed training for all vendor invoices. ARDEM meticulously trained the system to capture essential invoice data, including vendor name, invoice number, invoice date, and total amount. Each vendor invoice was trained three to four times to ensure accuracy. During July and August, over 1,000 invoices per month were processed while simultaneously training the OCR tool. By September and October, the system had learned enough to reduce manual intervention.
C. Coupa Supplier Portal Integration
Coupa’s supplier portal further streamlined invoice submissions. Vendors could now submit invoices directly into the system, reducing dependency on the AP mailbox.
Previously, all invoices—approximately 2,000 per month—had to be manually forwarded to Concur. After Coupa implementation, only a small number of invoices (around 50 per day or less) required manual forwarding, primarily from smaller vendors who were not yet onboarded to Coupa.
3. Employee Expense Management Implementation
Once the invoice processing transition was successfully completed, ARDEM took over the employee expense management process. Similar to invoices, the expenses were divided into two categories:
- Regular Expenses: These included routine employee reimbursements such as travel-related costs, flight bookings, hotel stays, and subscription services. ARDEM managed the processing of these expenses efficiently, ensuring compliance with company policies and timely approvals.
- Ad Hoc or Non-Frequent Expenses: These were occasional or unique reimbursements, such as requests for study materials, training programs, or professional development initiatives. Each of these expenses was carefully allocated to the corresponding department based on pre-defined budgets, ensuring that departmental spending limits were respected and tracked accurately.
By handling both regular and ad hoc expenses, ARDEM ensured a seamless, structured, and compliant expense management process across multiple departments, supporting the client’s internal budgeting and approval workflows while reducing manual effort.
4. Process Optimization in Invoice Processing Services
A. Daily Invoice Processing
Alongside OCR training, ARDEM continued daily invoice processing for all major entities. Initially, the client processed 2,000–2,200 invoices per month manually. With Coupa automation, a significant portion of these invoices became fully automated, reducing the monthly workload to around 1000 invoices across domestic and international entities.
B. Manual Entry Queue Challenges
Despite automation, Coupa OCR had limitations. Certain PDFs were either poorly scanned or non-standard, resulting in invoices being sent to a manual entry queue. ARDEM handled 20–30 such invoices daily with data entry services. Vendor details were entered manually to ensure full compliance and processing accuracy. On average, around 20% of daily invoices required manual intervention due to scanned or non-native PDFs.
C. Managing Pending Invoices with Proactive Tracking
One of the key challenges during the transition was handling pending invoices. Many invoices were delayed due to missing inputs from respective business units or awaiting purchase order creation. Initially, the pending invoice count was around 150 per week.
ARDEM implemented a structured tracking system to manage these pending invoices efficiently. A shared tracker was created with the client, updated in real-time, and discussed during weekly calls. ARDEM performed two proactive follow-ups per invoice, while the client escalated any critical issues.
Through consistent monitoring and collaboration, the pending invoice count was reduced to approximately 80 per week. The live tracker allowed ARDEM to continuously manage the workflow: as new invoices arrived or issues arose, the tracker was updated to ensure transparency and timely resolution. This approach enabled the client to maintain pending invoices under 100, improving overall invoice processing efficiency and ensuring smoother operations.
D. Vendor Coordination and Portal Training
Suggested vendor training on Coupa Supplier Portal to minimize rework and improve AP management efficiency.
How the Client Benefited from ARDEM’s Services
- Enhanced Accounts Payable Management
- Consistently maintained high accuracy in invoice processing services and AP management.
- Scalable outsourcing services allowed seamless addition of FTEs to support global operations.
- Maintained compliance with domestic and international tax structures and service-type coding.
- Successful Coupa ERP Integration
- Smooth transition from SAP Concur Solutions to Coupa ERP with zero lost data.
- ARDEM’s structured approach ensured that the client experienced minimal disruption in the transition.
- Improved automation through OCR, reducing manual effort and processing time.
- More efficient, automated invoice processing workflow.
- Minimized manual effort and improved data accuracy.
- Process Optimization and Client Satisfaction
- Improved turnaround times for invoices and employee expenses.
- Reduced pending invoice volume through proactive tracking and vendor coordination.
- Meeting cutoffs, reducing backlogs, and providing actionable insights.
- Strategic Outsourcing Services Impact
- Enabled the client to focus on core business functions while ARDEM managed AP operations and invoice processing services.
- Trusted partner for both domestic and international accounts payable outsourcing services, employee expense management, and Coupa ERP integration.
- Demonstrated ability to adapt to evolving client needs, including additional scopes such as travel reimbursements and credit card validation.
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