Anixter Streamlines Invoice Processing, Raises Productivity, And Reduces Suppliers' Costs With The Help Of OPEX And Perceptive Software

Any company with an accounts payable (A/P) department knows the challenges associated with processing a large number of invoices. When the invoices arrive in the mail, they need to be opened, sorted, reviewed and processed in a timely manner. It is a tedious job that takes quite a bit of time and effort. For example, Anixter, a leading global supplier of communications and security products, had four employees focus on these steps alone, prepping roughly 70 percent of the 1.8 million invoices per year before the invoices could be processed. With the goal of finding a more efficient way to tackle invoice processing, Anixter’s A/P department set out to find a better solution.

Buried Alive in Invoices

In 2010, Anixter implemented Perceptive Software’s A/P technology with some email capability. However, this still left 70 percent of the invoices in paper format. The leadership in the A/P department was determined to create additional efficiencies in the invoice receiving process. Each day thousands of invoices would arrive in the A/P mailroom to be processed. Two employees would manually remove the contents of the envelopes, flatten each page, remove nonessential information, insert separator sheets and write a cover sheet that would tell the next person in line where to scan the documents. Next, two additional employees would review the information, make copies of oversized documents, and then complete the scanning. Even though this invoice processing system worked, it was slow and required four full-time employees.

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