No more retyping of time sheets: Having your suppliers enter their services performed online reduces the cost of your purchasing process

Do you purchase services and find that entering the services performed is not organized consistently and cost-effectively? SupplyOn has developed a solution. The procurement of services is now common practice and offers many advantages, but often the administrative effort required prohibits the cost-effective organization of service provision processes.

For example, suppose you have engaged a software house to work for six months on customizing your financial software. You will naturally want to know how many of the contracted man-days the provider uses each month. At present, the service provider sends you a performance sheet in an e-mail, as a PDF document, or gives you the information by phone. You, the buyer, then have to log in to your system (e.g., SAP SRM) and enter the services performed by hand. On this basis the supplier submits a monthly invoice, or possibly only one invoice at the end of the contract period, since partial invoices are too labor-intensive. There are obviously a number of disadvantages to this process, ranging from manual data input to rising costs because of the buyer’s increased workload.

How can SupplyOn help you optimize the process? 

With SupplyOn, suppliers can now enter the services performed online. This shifts the task of electronic data entry from the buyer to the service provider.

How does it work exactly?

1. The supplier receives your service order via EDI or a similar solution. SupplyOn uses a convenient web-EDI solution for this.
2. A service entry sheet is generated on the SupplyOn platform for each order, and the supplier is notified by e-mail.
3. The supplier can use this sheet to enter the services performed over a configurable period of time.
4. This service entry sheet is then conveyed to, say, an SAP SRM system, where it can be approved by the buyer.
5. In the next service period, the supplier can create and submit a new version of the service entry sheet.

The service entry sheet can form the basis for an automated credit or billing procedure

Another interesting aspect for service orders is how the billing process works. In the case of suppliers with extended contract periods or longer-term orders, it is often agreed that the buyer will initiate the appropriate payment for the services performed on a monthly basis. This also involves a lot of additional work. Here SupplyOn’s new solution with online entry of the services performed can also help optimize your processes. For example, the service entry sheet can serve as the basis for an automated credit. In other words, it automatically triggers a self-billing process on the customer’s system.

If (e.g. for tax reasons) Purchasing is not interested in this type of credit process, then the service entry sheet can also be used as the basis for e-invoicing. In this case, partial invoices are generated automatically from each service entry sheet.

You will find more information about SupplyOn’s accounting and financial processes here.