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How to use AP Automation with Normal POs and Dropship POs?

  • 3 June 2024
  • 6 replies
  • 57 views

Hello,

Our company has been using Acumatica for three months after transitioning from Sage 100. I'm reaching out to see if anyone has experience with AP automation for both standard purchase orders (POs) and dropship POs. We handle a large volume of both types, and the majority of our AP bills are generated from POs.

For those using AP automation with standard POs, how do you manage the delay between receiving the AP bill and the PO receipt?

Similarly, for AP automation with dropship POs, we usually create the PO receipt upon receiving the AP bill and then invoice the customer immediately afterward. How do you manage this process?

Our AP department does not feel AP Automation is helping as we hoped . . . 

Any insights from the group would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

Andrew Paquette

6 replies

craig2
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Userlevel 5
Badge +1

Hi @apaquette ,

Broadly speaking, and I’m sure others will have additional insights, GI’s/Dashboards are used to help employees quickly identify business scenarios, and begin working on them.  Assuming you’re working with Stock Items, the general flow will be PO > Receipt > AP Bill. 

In our business, we will usually get a BOL to populate the Receipt, then leave the AP Bill On Hold until the Invoice is received from the Vendor.  I’ve built several GI’s and an Payables dashboard to help the team quickly navigate around these scenarios.  This is where I feel Acumatica really starts to shine, when you start building things specific to how your business operates.

To try to answer your questions specifically:

For those using AP automation with standard POs, how do you manage the delay between receiving the AP bill and the PO receipt?

In a standard PO scenario going to a warehouse, we’re likely going to wait for the official receiving document before moving the process forward.  If we get an Vendor Invoice first, we can either hang on to it until we get the Receipt/BOL, or make the choice to receive based on the Invoice and verify when the receipt shows up.  If the ladder scenario is common for you, you can consider adding a tickbox or tweak the workflow for “Need Receipt,” something like that, and have that drive (or hold) action downstream.

Similarly, for AP automation with dropship POs, we usually create the PO receipt upon receiving the AP bill and then invoice the customer immediately afterward. How do you manage this process?

This is our most common scenario, and again, the answer is “a pretty big GI.” 😁 You create the Receipt (which in this case is also the Shipment on the SO), create the (On Hold) AP Invoice, navigate back to the SO and create the AR Invoice.  There’s a lot of bouncing around there, but you can really smooth things out with one or several GI’s, creating Filters to identify specific scenarios (like, AR Invoice needs creation), then using those filters on a Dashboard KPI so employees can work on the specific situation with a single click.

 

Hopefully that helps at least a little.  Hopefully you can also reach our to your VAR for more tailored help, especially if you need some additional construction to really get things humming.  Best of luck!

aaghaei
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Hi @apaquette 

Welcome to the community.

Each company use case can be different than another. How I typically go around the scenarios is to assume what could be the most efficient way if we did not have an ERP in place and what makes most sense. It doesn’t matter whether you are using Acumatica or any other ERP system. If you do not lay out what you really need and what is it that will serve your business needs best you won’t be able to replicate the electronic version of it. So my suggestion is to gather your end users thoughts on what they want then ask yourself how you can make it work or reach out to community for their insight.

When you say “Our AP department does not feel AP Automation is helping as we hoped ...” what is it that you were hoping and Acumatica can not do it?

Reza Aghaei CPA, M. Acc. & Acumatica Customization - If a member helped you, please *Like* their post. If a member provided an answer to your question, please mark it as *Best Answer*.
A
Rank

Hi @apaquette ,

Broadly speaking, and I’m sure others will have additional insights, GI’s/Dashboards are used to help employees quickly identify business scenarios, and begin working on them.  Assuming you’re working with Stock Items, the general flow will be PO > Receipt > AP Bill. 

In our business, we will usually get a BOL to populate the Receipt, then leave the AP Bill On Hold until the Invoice is received from the Vendor.  I’ve built several GI’s and an Payables dashboard to help the team quickly navigate around these scenarios.  This is where I feel Acumatica really starts to shine, when you start building things specific to how your business operates.

To try to answer your questions specifically:

For those using AP automation with standard POs, how do you manage the delay between receiving the AP bill and the PO receipt?

In a standard PO scenario going to a warehouse, we’re likely going to wait for the official receiving document before moving the process forward.  If we get an Vendor Invoice first, we can either hang on to it until we get the Receipt/BOL, or make the choice to receive based on the Invoice and verify when the receipt shows up.  If the ladder scenario is common for you, you can consider adding a tickbox or tweak the workflow for “Need Receipt,” something like that, and have that drive (or hold) action downstream.

Similarly, for AP automation with dropship POs, we usually create the PO receipt upon receiving the AP bill and then invoice the customer immediately afterward. How do you manage this process?

This is our most common scenario, and again, the answer is “a pretty big GI.” 😁 You create the Receipt (which in this case is also the Shipment on the SO), create the (On Hold) AP Invoice, navigate back to the SO and create the AR Invoice.  There’s a lot of bouncing around there, but you can really smooth things out with one or several GI’s, creating Filters to identify specific scenarios (like, AR Invoice needs creation), then using those filters on a Dashboard KPI so employees can work on the specific situation with a single click.

 

Hopefully that helps at least a little.  Hopefully you can also reach our to your VAR for more tailored help, especially if you need some additional construction to really get things humming.  Best of luck!

@craig2 - Craig, thank you so much for your response. I have a follow-up question: Do you use AP Automation with dropship invoicing? Your process aligns perfectly with ours, but we haven't yet found an easy way to integrate AP Automation. Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Andrew Paquette
A
Rank

Hi @apaquette 

Welcome to the community.

Each company use case can be different than another. How I typically go around the scenarios is to assume what could be the most efficient way if we did not have an ERP in place and what makes most sense. It doesn’t matter whether you are using Acumatica or any other ERP system. If you do not lay out what you really need and what is it that will serve your business needs best you won’t be able to replicate the electronic version of it. So my suggestion is to gather your end users thoughts on what they want then ask yourself how you can make it work or reach out to community for their insight.

When you say “Our AP department does not feel AP Automation is helping as we hoped ...” what is it that you were hoping and Acumatica can not do it?

Hi @aaghaei,

Thank you for your insights. I appreciate your framework for engineering processes in Acumatica. To answer your question, our company manages a substantial volume of both regular POs and dropship POs. We were hoping AP automation would reduce entry time, but we haven't yet developed an efficient system to handle AP automation with purchase orders.

Andrew Paquette
craig2
Rank
Userlevel 5
Badge +1

Hey @apaquette , glad I could help a little!  We do not currently use the AP Inbox Automation, just because we drive everything off the Receipt/BOL/Shipping Document, and work primarily from the Receipts screen. 

 

I think the AP Inbox is more for Vendors selling you Non-Stock type items, where you would be keying directly into the AP Invoice screen.  For us, we are usually just tidying up the AP Invoice before Releasing it from payment, since it was created from the Receipt.  But perhaps someone else has greater knowledge on the workings of that Automation, I’d certainly be interested!

A
Rank

@craig2 - Thank you very much for your time. We are in a similar situation and can relate to your challenges. If we find a better solution, I will be sure to get back in touch with you.

Andrew Paquette

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