Purchase-to-Pay (AIM)

Created by Harriet Medlicott, Modified on Tue, 13 Dec, 2022 at 4:01 PM by Harriet Medlicott

Finance

Invoice and Credit Management

Pi's Automated Invoice Matching (AIM) feature provides Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) functionality. Pi will check a product’s contract price vs the associated delivery vs the supplier's invoice price. It then automatically ‘passes’ invoice-lines where appropriate. Invoices are ‘held-back’ if any invoice-lines have issues. This article will provide an overview of this functionality to help give an understanding on how the set up and management works.

We recommend speaking with your Account Manager to discuss more if this is something you are interested in.

Click on images within this article for easier viewing.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

How AIM Works
Pro's & Con's
AIM Invoices
A Look Inside
Examples
Raising Credits
Credit Requests
Related Articles

How AIM Works

The diagram above shows the process of AIM.

Brief descriptions of each are provided below:

Supplier Ordering	Booking-In Orders	Invoices & Credits
Pi's Cherry Pi module has to be in full use; AIM uses the order lines to price check against invoices.	Pi's Deliveries module has to be in full use; AIM uses the delivery lines to quantity check against invoices.	Electronic invoices & credits will become available in Pi's Finance module.
Automated Reconciliation
Pi's AIM process checks each invoice-line: Product prices with agreed contract list Invoiced quantities with associated delivery(s) If invoice-lines ‘pass’ - invoice is automatically reconciled Any issues found - invoice is automatically ‘held back’ Ability to create and submit credit requests When credit arrives it is matched with credit request (if fully satisfied) and held-back invoice is automatically released

e-Billing Statements	Supplier Payment
Monthly e-Billing statement generated, detailing all reconciled supplier invoices.	Payment is taken and made to the suppliers.

Pro's & Con's

Advantages		Disadvantages
Gives you total control - only pay invoices where delivered quantities and invoiced prices are correct Provides financial liability - sits with the supplier until credit notes are raised (if invoices are held back) Accurate records - requires orders to be booked-in accurately Ability to see pending credit requests Track all credit requests Ability to have tolerances configured so that small +/- discrepancies are auto-passed Huge reduction in finance administration		All orders are to be placed on Cherry Pi All orders need to be booked-in accurately Requires significant resource to manage and resolve issues/request credits If not closely managed, the number of invoices requiring attention can grow rapidly and could mean your accounts are put on hold Not all suppliers have the required capabilities and set up to support this

AIM Invoices

Use the AIM Status drop-down to filter between the different statuses available
The lightning bolt to the right of the supplier identifies AIM enabled suppliers
The running man will show your workflow AIM status

A Look Inside

When viewing an AIM invoice you will see...

Additional tabs available (including AIM tab)
AIM status of invoice

The AIM tab will show...

Count of invoice lines requiring attention
Invoice lines that need resolving
Invoice lines that have been automatically passed and accepted

The Order tab will show...

Order lines, including price and quantity
Identifies whether ordered products are included within the invoice (if not included, this could be due to being invoiced for a substitute item instead, or there could be a difference in product codes)

The Deliveries tab will show...

Delivered lines, including quantity and any notes that may have been added when booking-in the order
Identifies whether delivered products are included within the invoice (if not included, this could be due to being invoiced for a substitute item instead, or there could be a difference in product codes)

The Credits tab allows you to view and manage credit lines before sending to the supplier:

The History tab tracks all changes made, giving you a history of the invoice's management so far:

Examples

Below are some examples of what you may come across whilst resolving AIM issues. If you have an issue that isn't covered in this article and there isn't a help narrative to advise, get in touch with the Pi Helpdesk.

Key
Green = positive
Red = negative

Hover over the differences in price, quantity and net to display details:
Help narratives will advise why a line has been flagged:

i. Price Check

The first check is the contract price. If this doesn't match you will see the difference:

The example above shows the invoiced price is lower than the agreed contract price, so we have been undercharged. This is good, so we will Accept this line and it will move into the Items without issues section.

ii. Quantity Check

The second check is the quantity. If this doesn't match you will see where the issue lies and the difference:

The example above shows we ordered x2 of the item, recorded x1 being delivered and were invoiced for x2. We have been invoiced higher than expected, so we will Dispute this line ready to raise a credit.

iii. Weighted Products

You can manage the discrepancies of weighted products by selecting the arrows to the right of the recorded delivered quantity, so that it matches the invoiced:

This will update and automatically accept the line:

iiii. Substitute Items

Items that display as not having been ordered or delivered, but have been invoiced will be possible substitutes. The help narratives explains this. If you know a product is a substitute you can Accept the line:

iiiii. Ordered, not delivered, but invoiced

You may see lines that display as ordered and invoiced, but not delivered. From there you can choose to Accept or Dispute:

iiiiii. Not ordered, not delivered, but invoiced

You may see lines that display as not ordered, not delivered, but invoiced. The help narrative can advise why you may be seeing this. You can choose to Accept or Dispute:

The above example also shows a warning icon to the right of the Invoice price. You will see this when an invoiced product is not on the agreed contract list, so it cannot be price checked.

iiiiiii. Passed Invoice

If all issues have been Accepted, the AIM tab will no longer show the problem count and the invoice will update it's status to Passed for payment. It will no longer be held back and so will get paid:

Raising Credits

When raising credits for AIM invoices, you have the ability to...

Send credit requests via email and to use standard or override the email address
Add your phone number for suppliers to contact you

View pre-populated credit reasons (editable)

Add notes that will be included on the email
Select Send to email supplier

Once sent, you can expand to view the pending credit. The AIM status will update to reflect the pending credit:

This will also show the requested value and pending value.

You can either wait for the credit to be received, or you can use the Actions drop-down to manually Pass for payment. Once received, if the value matches the requested amount this will automatically 'pass' and be paid.

Credit Requests

View your credits by using the Tools drop-down within e-Invoices & Credits, and selecting Credit requests:

Here, you can use the search filters to view credits, expand to view credit lines and download reports in Excel formats:

Use the downloads to send to suppliers if you need to chase any credits. Downloads will be based on the filtered criteria.

You can also manually reconcile AIM invoices. View the Invoice Reconciliation & Authorisation article to learn more.

Contact Us

If you need any additional help, please get in touch.