Best practices for Financial Edge scan and upload of invoices

Rita Earle

Hi All,


We haven't done this in the past but are looking to develop an efficient system for scanning and uploading all our invoices to Financial Edge. Can I have some examples of systems that work well? Do you create a folder for each vendor/year/month and save documents to those folders, then upload? I am looking for best practices for organizing this and being able to do this in the most time effective manner.


Thanks in advance.

Bill Sanders

Working remote has forced us to all be on board with the following.

1. One person scans all mail on copier with scan sent to one person (currently remote - will work when not)
2. This one person then routes invoices on to person responsible
3. Using Expense Management (in FE NTX)
   1. the person responsible for the invoice submits and uploads invoice,
   2. business rules route the approval to the appropriate manager
   3. Once approved, the invoice is pending for payment (accounting) - PDF invoice is attached

I think having a good copier that can be instructed to send scans to one person works well.  This person can be admin assistant for head of finance.  You just need a person who can read an invoice and know enough on who to forward the email to.  Check out Expense Management option for FE NXT.  We run all our credit cards and (now) invoices though this on-line. 

Deb Foos

We scan all of our AP invoices to two different places.  First, the invoice is scanned into the AP Invoice record in FENXT. The second scan goes to our network drive.  We have set up a system similar to our old filing cabinet system.  One file folder for each year.  Each folder contains sub folders that are alphabetized, and scanned copies of the invoice are put into those sub folders.  This makes it incredibly efficient and easy for us when searching for an old invoice.

Rita Earle

Thank you Bill and Deb! These answers are very helpful.


Rita

Kim Szalkus

Hi - We are doing something similar to Bill and Deb.  We have multiple physical locations where the bills come in.  We have each location scan the invoice and save it on our network in a "To-Be-Processed" folder.  My Accounting Manager then creates an Invoice in FE NXT Expense Management, attaches a copy of the invoice, and routes it for approval within FE NXT.  Once she has done this, she moves the original copy of the invoice from the "To-Be-Processed" folder into a final A/P Invoice set of folders, similar to Deb.  We file electronically like we do our paper copy - alphabetical, with specific vendor folders under the appropriate letter.


Our long term goal would be to have the locations not only scan the invoices, but also create the FE NXT Invoice record and route it for approval.  I expect to move this direction once Blackbaud adds some needed reports that are missing from Expense Management, such as a report that shows invoices that have been routed and waiting for approval.  Hope this helps.  Kim Sz

Karen Edwards

Our accounting techs scan invoices as they receive them and create the invoice in NXT.  We use the web portal for approvals, so that part would be done by the time they create the invoice.  I am wondering if anyone has discontinued keeping the paper copies of invoices if they are keepng an electronic folder in addition to the FE attachment?  If not, so you foresee doing that eventally?

Emily Bastow

When/how does the invoice make it to the accounting department via expense management?  

B Sanders

The invoice arrives at the accounting office (per say) when it is approved (per your business rules).

B Sanders

The invoice arrives at the accounting office (per say) when it is approved (per your business rules).

Emily Bastow

Does a member of accounting need to be entered in the approval rules or will the expenses automatically move to payables once they are approved at the department level?

B Sanders

Automatically.  Email me @ bsanders@kcmgc.org if you like and I can show you on Zoom.