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Kansas City Board of Public Utilities

Efficient Invoice Processing and Approval Workflow with Hyland OnBase

Kansas City Board of Public Utilities (KCBPU) automated their invoice processing with an application from CES Solutions integrating Fujitsu scanning,Hyland OnBase, Datacap Taskmaster, and PeopleSoft ERP. The Solution has increased efficiency and visibility into AP.

With 650 employees in 10 locations, including two active power generation plants and two water purification plants, the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities (KCBPU) has provided quality water and electric service for nearly 100 years to more than 157,000 residents of Wyandotte County, Kansas. KCBPU is a not-for-profit public utility, and an administrative agency of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City Kansas. KCBPU’s operational control and administration is under a six member elected Board of Directors who appoint a General Manager to administer the day-to-day operations of the combined utility system.
Hear KCBPU discuss their Invoice Capture Solution

The BPU continues to work with the Unified Government and other local entities to attract new retail businesses, expand the manufacturing base, and attract new home growth within their 128 square mile service area. The metropolitan Kansas City, Kansas area has grown significantly due to the recent completion of the popular Kansas Speedway and a booming downtown revitalization project. As a result, there is extensive residential and commercial construction under way.

As a large public utility with many satellites serving a region undergoing rapid population growth, KCBPU faces numerous challenges. Among them was an Accounts Payable process designed for a much smaller volume. Invoices and purchase orders were manually entered at a centralized accounts payable department. Invoices were not accessible to other departments until they were batch scanned at the end of the month after payment. With no visibility into the payment status, department heads often received and submitted duplicate invoices from vendors seeking payment. Invoices were often paid twice and sometimes even misplaced, resulting in unnecessary late fees.

Hear KCBPU discuss their invoice capture solution.

The Challenge

Members of KCBPU's  Administrative services and Finance worked together searching for solutions. Datacap and Hyland integrator Cutting Edge Solutions presented an automated solution for KCBPU, integrating Datacap Taskmaster for Invoices with Hyland OnBase, Oracle (PeopleSoft) ERP and Fujitsu scanners. The solution was approved knowing that the project goals would be met to automate the AP payment process, decrease processing time, eliminate duplicate or missed payments and increase employee productivity.

Before the Datacap solution was implemented, KCBPU received 75-100 invoices per day from multiple locations. Nearly 50% of these invoices represent utility-wide purchases, requiring a separate workflow. The remaining invoices were often sent by the vendor directly to the department making the purchase. The AP department relied on the other departments to forward these invoices to them. However, these departments often sent duplicate copies in an effort to accelerate payment or would not send an invoice at all. AP became aware of some invoices well after they were past due.

Upon receiving an invoice, the AP department manually entered the data and queued the invoice for payment. Archival microfilm storage occurred at the end of the payment process during monthly batch scans. This method created several problems. The archival process required four people working full-time for several days each month to scan and microfilm each document; substantial space was required for archiving storage of the microfilm; retrieval was time-consuming; and costs were high. In addition, the purchasing department was unable to view the payment as it traveled through the system, which often resulted in duplicate invoices and frequent follow-up phone calls.

In the new solution, KCBPU desired to reduce microfilm expenses, provide better visibility into AP, both for other departments to see the payment status and within AP, to be better aware of important purchases, reduce duplicate payments and accelerate payments to avoid late fees.

Hear KCBPU discuss their invoice capture solution.

The Solution

In 2005, KCBPU implemented a capture solution designed by Cutting Edge Solutions, after a thorough evaluation of KCBPU’s process. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, Cutting Edge Solutions or CES is a capture and imaging system integrator and Datacap Partner. CES configured and deployed a solution integrating Datacap Taskmaster for Invoices with Hyland OnBase, PeopleSoft and Fujitsu scanners. CES recommended Taskmaster for KCBPU’s solution as it best met their needs for an easy interface, flexibility, rapid deployment and integration with OnBase Workflow. CES took advantage of Taskmaster’s pre-defined Rules to rapidly configure the system to meet KCPBU’s invoice workflow requirements. Taskmaster enables KCBPU to match the invoice with correct PO in Peoplesoft, check for duplicates, old invoices, early payment discounts and cost center number to route invoices to the correct departments for approval.

The Result

The Imaging Department can now scan and process 75-100 invoices per day (100-150 pages) in the central repository. Accounts Payable personnel complete the scan verification in less time per day than in the past process when several days were spent at the end of the month. After accurate capture, including recognition, lookup and verification, Taskmaster for Invoices delivers the invoice image and index values to OnBase to trigger additional approval workflows, storage and easy retrieval. “The solution has made our accounting department very happy,” said KCBPU's Business Systems Coordinator.

In fact, the system has delivered benefits to other departments as well. Now, all purchasers have the capability to annotate invoices to clarify the action to be taken regarding payment as the invoices flow through the system. This allows purchasers to follow the document progress, taking the guesswork out of payment status, reducing follow-up phone calls and duplicate invoicing. The error rate has been significantly reduced along with late fees due to delayed payments.

“Our solution has totally replaced the antiquated and cumbersome microfilm system with new digital storage allowing easy access with invoice indexing automation,” added the coordinator. “Our Accounts Payable now has the capability of viewing the status of all invoice payments. Viewing the status of incoming volume and outgoing payment processes assist the accounting managers to determine weather workload adjustments are necessary.  Department Managers have an increased awareness on status of invoice payments."

KCBPU is now looking into expanding the system to other areas of our organization including training manuals, business forms, accounting projects, and Human Resource applications.

Hear KCBPU discuss their invoice capture solution.

For more information about this application, contact Cutting Edge Solutions (www.ces-inc.com)

For more information, contact Datacap.