Document Imaging in Payables Administration
by Tom Phillips and Kristie Dunne

Payables Administration has been improving its storage and retrieval procedure with the advent of document imaging. We began scanning our online invoices on July 1, 2003 and since that time we have added our travel documents and manual invoices. This new technology, which saves invoices as images on a central server, was implemented by the collaborative efforts of the Financial Services imaging team, Karen Long of Payables Administration, the outside vendor, contacts at Computing & Communications and Bill Swann of Nebula Support.

Invoices still arrive and are processed in the same way as they always have been, but the difference is what happens to the invoices after they are processed. Transactions can consist of multiple pages of backup documentation; e.g., in the year 2002 our statistics show an average of 4 pages per online transaction. Once processed all the pages, including the invoice recap, are scanned—thus eliminating the need for paper storage. Before any of our paper documents could be destroyed, we had to ensure backup for these documents. In addition to two places at the UW, we also have a backup system outside the UW..

The main advantage is that the scanned invoices are easily accessible on the web. Once documents are retrieved they can be sent as e-mail attachments to both campus departments and/or people outside the UW. The efficiencies gained from this process improvement have been tremendous. It is too soon to have many statistics available but our preliminary estimates suggest that the internal labor savings resulting from imaging will pay for the cost of this system within three years. Customer requests for copies of invoices can now be completed in one day rather than 10 days under the old system. File cabinets and other storage space are not needed since it is stored on our computer. Retrieval is not only faster and easier from our computers but there is an open, clean area where the file cabinets were that is now able to be used for something else.

It is too soon to have many statistics available but our preliminary estimates suggest that the internal labor savings resulting from imaging will pay for the cost of this system within three years. Currently we are exploring other ways to use this new system by scanning more types of documents. People are looking for ways to streamline the way they store documents. The positive impact our document retrieval has made with people in departments has generated interest about obtaining their own paperless system. Payables Administration has received phone calls from others interested in document imaging.