In this episode of the AP Now podcast AP Now’s Mary Schaeffer addresses the issue of invoices without a purchase order number or the name of the person who placed the order. The lack of this data makes it difficult for accounts payable departments to process the invoice. They have to do some research to determine who ordered the items covered by the invoice and where to send it for approval. For without approval most accounts payable departments cannot pay an invoice.

The secondary problem arises when missing the information, the accounts payable department cannot do the three-way match needed to determine if the invoice is accurate. Not only does the staff need the purchase order number to do this matching and verification, it needs it to extinguish the purchase order so the invoice is not paid a second time. Schaeffer notes that in the real world most accounts payable departments utilized valuable, but limited, human resources to try and figure out the missing information.

She believes this is a poor way to handle the problem and offers a much better solution. The solution she recommends is used by agencies of the US government and a very large European company as well as about 20% of other companies in the US. She also notes that invoice automation solutions will also make a dent in the problem.

Host: Mary Schaeffer (www.ap-now.com)

Sponsor: Stampli (www.stampli.com/APNow)

Credit: Music: https://www.purple-planet.com