Tradeledger® - Electronic Supplier Trading from Itim
It's remarkable that in this electronic age, the majority of businesses still receive paper invoices from their suppliers. Many solutions attempt to solve this problem through EDI, scanning or workflow solutions. Yet adoption of these is still low. Why? They all sound complicated, expensive and, if you look at it from a retail perspective, they are all overlooking the real issues.
Tradeledger is different. It is designed for retailers
Tradeledger is the first web-hosted, pay-as-you-use solution designed specifically for retailers. It is a simple and innovative solution to the Purchase-to-Pay problem in retailing because it addresses the two key Purchasing and Accounts Payable processes unique to retail:
- Goods-for-Resale: The Direct Products process
- Goods-not-for-Resale: The Indirect Products (and Services) process.
Because these processes are very different, other solutions are not suitable for retail. Scanning or workflow alone cannot solve the problem.
The solution for Goods-for-Resale
Fundamentally, what differentiates this process is booking product into stock. Purchase Orders are usually raised from a replenishment (ERP) system. The process is supported by a Goods Receipt Note, which can then be matched against the Invoice, Delivery Note and Purchase Order electronically. This enables the invoice to be paid, and General Ledger invoice coding to be simplified through automation because it is usually recorded as a Cost of Sale.
The automation of this process usually requires EDI software, sophisticated Invoice Matching software and, sometimes, self-billing mechanisms. This is an old problem in retail and one that Itim is expert at solving.
The solution for Goods-not-for-Resale
Goods-not-for-Resale can cover all sorts of product and supplier categories: services, utilities, consumables, stationery, computers, other assets, fuel, utility bills… This makes it a hard problem to crack.
If a retailer has one thousand suppliers for retail products it can have five times that for indirect purchases. This commandeers the majority of effort in Accounts Payable.
Suppliers are either very big, or very small with little/no technology - often generating one invoice only. Keeping the supplier database up-to date is a huge challenge.
Problems we need to tackle in this process are:
- Having a Purchase Order for a high percentage of invoices
- Commitment accounting
- Invoice entry and approval
- GL coding of invoices
- Managing supplier data
Why are these problems? Well, there's re-keying; identifying the approver and getting them to approve, and no Goods Receipt Note to match with. Purchase Ordering disciplines are difficult to enforce - product categories do not lend themselves to it. Covering so many product and expense categories also means that every invoice needs to be coded to the appropriate General Ledger expense code. Line level invoice entry and coding multiplies this problem. And whilst suppliers will come and go, the management of the supplier database doesn't.
Itim has solved the problem.
Scanning will solve some of the problem. Purchase Order Manager systems and out-sourcing of invoice entry can solve other parts of the problem. But buying all these elements of technology is very expensive.
Tradeledger is the single, cost effective, retail-specific solution that solves every problem, giving you back the time and freedom to focus your attention on the issues that really matter - delivering increased cost saving and margin improvements to your business. As Whitbread call it, Tradeledger is a 'toolkit for doing business', saving them 90% in their Accounts Payable department.
For more information, please email us or call on +44 (0) 207 598 7700.
