I have recently been working with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) on improvements to their Procure-to-Pay process. These improvements include streamlining their procurement process and reducing redundancy.
With the upgrade to PeopleSoft Financials 9.1, we were able to streamline recurring payments by utilizing some of the new delivered functionality along with existing functionality that was not being used. This included the new lease payment processing from Asset Management.
Old Processing
The old procedure for processing lease payments and recurring payments where invoices were not being sent from the vendor was to maintain the payment information in a spreadsheet. The recurring payments were documented in the spreadsheet and reviewed on a monthly basis to determine what payments need to be created for the month. This information was then entered into Payables as a voucher. The spreadsheet contained all the information necessary to create a voucher. The old procedure was very manual as each payment required a new voucher to be entered.
New Processing Efficiencies
With the upgrade to PeopleSoft Financials 9.1 at KCTCS, we were able to implement the automated lease payment interface from Asset Management to Accounts Payable. Also, for those non-lease recurring payments, the Recurring Voucher Contract process was utilized.
Now instead of the each payment having to be manually entered, the vouchers are being built by using the appropriate interface. The Voucher Build process then automatically created the vouchers for payment. This eliminates the redundancy of having to enter the same information multiple times. For leases, the payment schedules are generated for the payments at the time the lease is entered. For non-lease recurring payments, the recurring payment information is entered as a Recurring Voucher Contract and the releases are generated. The Voucher Build process for each is run on a regular schedule to create the vouchers for payment.
Challenges Overcome
The three biggest challenges that we faced with this project were (1) determining the overall configuration requirements, (2) determining who was responsible for what, and (3) determining how to communicate and train the colleges. We started by looking at the existing configuration and making the necessary changes to implement the new procedures. New business procedures were developed to support the necessary requirements for KCTCS. Everything was thoroughly tested and documented.
Working with KCTCS staff on this project – especially Brenda Nolan, Associate Director of Purchasing, and Kim Freeman, Director of Accounts Payable – has been a great experience.
Interested in learning more?
I will be co-presenting a session at Alliance 2013 with Brenda Nolan (Purchasing Associate Director at KCTCS) titled “Automating Recurring Payments, Including Leases” (Session #33045) on Wednesday, March 12, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.