Project Description

The Department of Education and Skills (DES) in Ireland wanted to centralise the receipt of all invoices and other creditor documents. The solution currently being implemented is processing digital invoices, initially from key suppliers but eventually from all suppliers.

The solution is also designed to code and track invoices centrally and delivery them to multiple finance systems seamlessly. The system is providing extensive MIS information to the department. The 3 finance systems used currently by the ETB sector are SAP, Infor Sun Accounts and ESI/Manser.

The estimated volume of invoices to be 100,000 in the first year. The solution has also been designed to provide DES with a secure robust platform that can be further developed as required.

The key elements of the solution include;
– The setting up of the Department as a Data/Invoice Receiver and the integration with one or more service providers. This is complete and is enabling the Department to receive digital invoices securely from Suppliers.
– Once received, a number of integrity checks are carried out to ensure the data is correct. Invoices that pass these checks are then loaded into the Department’s database.
– Once loaded, the invoice is coded automatically with the DES common chart of accounts.
– The system will then automatically map the DES common coding on the invoice/credit Note to the local ETB account coding and place the invoice on a queue for the ETB to action.
– Each ETB receives automatic notifications via email/text messages when invoices are in their queue requiring their attention.
– The local ETB Finance team reviews and optionally recodes or splits elements of the invoice. Once this has been completed the operator exports the invoice information to the local finance system(s).
– A data warehouse of all transactions is included and this can be queried dynamically using a comprehensive set of reports and dashboards.