Utility (water/gas/electric bills) Invoice Processing

[lisamihal]

Looking for ways to improve our utility bill processing.  We are a home builder of over 4,000 homes a year in over 10 states.  Each home has 2-3 utilities that get setup and then need to be closed out once the home is settled.  We need to get the invoices into SAP Concur Invoice and paid quickly.  This currently is a very time consuming process.  In addition, since utility bills don't have our lot number system on them, and no invoice number, duplicate payments can and do occur.  Please let me know if you have found a solution to these issues.  Thanks! 

[SNLee89]

Hi @lisamihal 

Question
- Could you identify the reasons why it takes time to enter and complete payment for the utility bills?

- Do multiple individuals handle the payment process? And are they Concur Invoice Processors or Invoice Processor Managers?

Option 1) If last approver in your company is an Invoice Processor or Processor Manager, how about creating a checkbox that only Invoice Processors or Processor Managers can see?

They could check it off once the payment is completed.

Option 2) I’m currently unable to log into Concur, so I can't confirm, but Concur Expense has a "Report Review" checkbox feature.

This feature allows Processor A to indicate that they are reviewing a report.

It might be worth checking whether this feature also exists in Concur Invoice.

Option 3) If there are distinguishing values like date, amount, or vendor, how about using queries in the Invoice Processor screen to divide the invoices that each employee needs to handle?

I’m not familiar with your company’s specific Concur setup, my explanation is quite general.

If you can provide more detailed information, I can offer a more tailored response.

Thank you.

[lisamihal]

Hi @SNLee89 -

Thank you for your quick and detailed response.

We use SAP Concur Invoice utilizing the SAP Concur Capture team.  Invoices are paid through our ERP and are sent from SAP Concur Invoice once a week. 

The main reasons it is so time consuming is the volume of invoices and getting them all into SAP Concur Invoice correctly.   Our main pain point is getting them from the utility into SAP concur.  We have 10 divisions spread throughout the mid to southeast US.  Each division is responsible for submitting their own invoices.

Each invoice has to be scanned and emailed to the capture team.  Few if any of the utility companies email invoices, so we either need to log in and download the invoices to PDF or wait for them to come in the mail.  The capture team has 48 business hours to get them processed and is allowed a 5% error rate.  

Once they are processed our admin team needs to code each invoice to the correct project, confirm the correct utility company was attached, and confirm the invoice numbering convention was followed to avoid duplicates.  

Please let me know if this is enough detail or if you have other questions that might help improve our process.  Thank you!

Best,

Lisa