How a vendor portal enhances invoice process automation

Enterprise portals have been around since the late 1990s. While they’ve evolved from a technology standpoint, from JSR-168 and JSR-286 portlets to modern web technologies like REST and JavaScript, their purpose remains the same — to aggregate information, including documents, from business systems and data sources into one location.

This aggregation makes it easier for the portal user to not only enter or add information, but also view and access that information. Instead of having to switch among multiple applications, the user is served up one page with (typically) one-click access to execute such actions.

One of the most popular use cases for a portal has been within human resources because it can provide employees with personalized access to content and other business systems, submit data through personalized forms and provide the ability to collaborate with others.

However, portals can also become critical for business-to-business (B2B) relationships as well. With an integrated vendor portal solution for accounts payable (AP), you empower your vendors and suppliers to not just submit invoices and related documents, but also to access and review AP-related content and collaborate within the portal ecosystem to get answers to invoice-related questions.

With a modern, accessible vendor portal, your organization:

• Enables online processes at the front end
• Empowers users with self-service
• Provides users with better and faster access to information, while reducing inquiries to your call center or finance department

Hyland Content Portal for accounts payable

Hyland understands that the most efficient content management processes must include easy, intuitive and dependable access to high-value content regardless of time, space or device. That’s why we’ve built our new vendor portal for AP, which should complement and enhance your existing Hyland invoice processing system.

Once deployed, your vendor portal enables your stakeholders to check the status of invoice payments quickly and easily, as well as view associated documents and view comments or notes alerting you to errors or questions. You can do this from any location on mobile, tablet or desktop devices. In addition to streamlining vendor management operations, your organization can:

• Enhance the vendor and supplier experience by enabling self-service methods to submit invoices and access payment information so they can take action on their own terms
• Reduce manual processes and increase efficiencies by decreasing paper-based submission processes
• Extend ROI on existing investments in Hyland’s AP solution with a secure, single and personalized location to access and upload invoices and related documents

Adding a vendor portal to your AP automation system can further accelerate processing times while reducing errors. This can help you realize early payment discounts and strengthen important business relationships to become a preferred customer.

Perhaps this could be the catalyst for your organization to meet the terms of your customers and never send a late payment.

> Read more | Accounts payable automation: Real-world success stories

Continue your AP automation goals with Hyland 

Leading organizations should offer their vendors and suppliers easy methods to submit invoices and supporting documents, as well as to check on invoice payment statuses. If they don’t, invoice processing times might never improve, which could cause you to lose the vendors and suppliers you need to run your business.

Effective invoice life cycle management begins with intelligent capture and ends with retention management. Layered in between is simple and secure, self-service access to the invoices themselves, along with any associated information.

With the Hyland Content Portal, organizations can offer their vendors and suppliers the ability to submit invoices and access them on demand, further reducing the overall invoice receipt-to-payment process.