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  4. EXL transformed client payable process for more proactive decision making

EXL client realizes incremental discounts and vendor credits

Client

A leading industrial products and services provider.

Business Case

During a period of unprecedented growth the client needed support moving to a shared service model.

Scope

  • Invoice processing
  • Vendor reconciliation
  • Freight invoice audit
  • Vendor inquiry helpdesk
  • Duplicate payment analysis
  • Vendor master maintenance

Background

Following an intense period of M&A and joint venture activities by a leading industrial products and services provider, the firm found itself operating with disparate accounting and administrative systems. This created:

  • Inadequate general controls around the three-way matching process.
  • Significant exposure from duplicate payment and overpayments.
  • Major variances in freight charges and surcharges due to market fluctuations and complexity of quotes.

The company decided to move the accounts payable process to a shared service model and needed a nimble and flexible F&A partner to help implement and maintain the process.

Who to Contact?

  • Visibility into invoices enabled 3 days
  • $3.8 million Enabled visibility of invoices within
  • $2 million Average annual vendor credits collected
  • Reduction in time to pay fully audited freight invoices 55%

The solution

EXL transformed payables by releasing working capital and improving visiblity for more proactive decision-making. The solution included:

  • Establishing standardized payment terms for more than 10,000 vendors across 16 business units.
  • Creating a three-way auto-match process and workflow exceptions.
  • Designing a standard freight invoice process from the disparate logistics systems.
  • Implementing independent past payment audit function to detect duplicate payments and overpayments.
  • Rationalizing vendor contracts and payment terms to maximize vendor credits.

The results

  • Improved cash flow and liquidity for day-to-day operations.
  • Reduced daily payables outstanding (DPO) by 25 to 30%, resulting in working capital reduction.
  • Better controls and transparency in large-ticket procurement items.
  • Correction of historical anomalies in vendor payment terms.

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