Session 39130Reduce Costs by Incorporating Imaging into PeopleSoft Expenses

Madeline Osit

Beacon Application Services

Context [Why Peoplesoft - originally]

• Adopt best practices through using a package with minimal customizations

• Having the originator of the transaction subsume the input of that transaction in an easy, reliable (error free) and consistent way

• User empowerment – access to data• No islands of information• Less paper – on-line approval and routing

Travel Environment

• 10,400 Trips Conducted Annually• $97M Travel & Entertainment Budget• International Travel Comprises 99% Of All

Travel• 85% Of All Staff Will Travel At Some Point In

Their Career

PS Expenses

• Brought value as an automated, integrated, workflow-enabled T&E system but did not fulfill the goal of being a paperless environment

What to do?

• Evaluate areas where paper was necessary or an inhibitor

• Evaluate ways to expedite the reimbursement process

• Create a project to address the above

Imaging Project Business Objectives• Reduce Report Preparation, Approval and Auditing

Time for Expense Reports• Reduce Document Copying and Storage Costs • Provide Online Access to Receipts• Reduce Wait Time (faster payments)• Support Automated Report Assignments• Align with the objectives of providing faster

processing of payments and of supporting evolving travel business requirements

• Provide a foundation that can be leveraged for additional process improvements in other administrative areas

Why an imaging solution?

• Cost-effective solution that leverages technology investment through:– Capturing, organizing and presenting unstructured

data in harmony with your ERP solution– Creating secure long-term storage for financial

documentation, supporting SOX initiatives

Why an imaging solution?

• Automate the business workflow within a document-centric process

• Integrate web-processing activities with source documents eliminating the paper chase

• Ability to electronically access documents at the point of need

Supports key compliance goals

• Data Integrity – stores all data using indexing and object store provides secure storage for long-term retention

• Data Confidentiality – Authentication and encryption features

• Data Accessibility – Display capabilities integrate with security and ensure all user actions are auditable

The before picture:

• The traveler (or their authorized representative) created an Expense Report in Expenses and submitted it for approval:– The traveler created an expense report “skeleton”

by using the delivered “Copy from Travel Authorization” function.• The skeleton contained all expense items

included in the TA except prepaid items, such as prepaid airfare.

– Original receipts were required and forwarded to Finance even though the Expense Report is submitted on-line.

• The completed expense report was routed to the owning department for review and approval via a custom workflow.– The Department approver received an email that the

expense report is available for review as well as an entry on his worklist.

– An email notification was sent to the traveler via a custom workflow process upon department approval of the expense report

• Expense reports approved by the department were routed to Finance for pre-pay audit review and approval via a custom workflow process.

So --

• Expense reporting process was all automated and work flow enabled

• Tolerance checks ensured line item detail meet with corporate policy

• Employee expectations included rapid turn-around of approval and payment process

….but….

Where’s the receipt?

What Change meant• Implementation of ImageNow solution to process

expense report receipts• Imaging solution integrated with PeopleSoft (PS)

Financials Expenses module• Imaging receipt files were to be captured using fax or

multi-function printers (MFP) and indexed to PS Expenses records

• Access to images via link on PS expense report page, leveraging existing PS security

• Existing expense report PS workflow will not change• Paper receipts stay within departments throughout the

process, disposition of paper receipts occurs a lot sooner and document copying and storage costs are reduced

Description of Change – User Impact

• Departmental assistants will:– Collect expense report information and paper receipts from

travelers– Prepare expense report in PS Expenses – Print cover page with bar coded Travel Authorization # and

Expense Report # from PS Expenses module– Fax cover page and travel receipts to imaging server as TIFF files– Alternatively, use Multi Function Printers to scan cover page and

receipts and place TIFF files in a pre-determined network directory• Departmental approvers will:

– Review expense reports and will have access to receipts images using link on PS expense report page to launch WebNow viewer

• FIN staff will:– Access and process expense report and receipts using link on PS

expense report pages to launch ImageNow client

Retrieval

Viewing Options

Storage

email

scanned documents

Inbound faxes

system reports/forms

electronic documents

print to “tiff”

PeopleSoft Expenses

ImageNow Viewer (Client)WebNow Viewer

Object

Repository

Capture

Bar Coded Cover Page Report

PS Financials – Expense Report Page

Link to invoke WebNow Viewer to display Expense Report

Receipts

WebNow Viewer

Description of Change - Technical

• ImageNow solution components – technical view:– AIX Server : New schema under FINPROD database to

store metadata– Windows Server : Application Server, Fax Agent, Import

Agent, iScript Engine, Recognition Agent, Content Server, OCR Recognition Agent, Web Server (Apache Tomcat)

– Client Software: ImageNow Full Client – 15 users in Fin/Travel Payments section – Winstall download

– Brooktrout TR1034 analog fax board (4 channel)– 4 analog phone lines with hunt for free line– Multi-function printers scan receipts to file– Expenses module changes – online tolerance, edits, cover

page report with bar code, link to launch imaging solution, workflow

Users Affected

• Core users: FIN – Travel Payment staff (15)• Preparers and approvers: Divisional

assistants, OMs, budget assistant/officers, approvers (about 500)

• Phased deployment over a two month period:– Started with Pilot departments, using the financial

group as the first to go live– Second group was the “heavy travelers”– Third deploy encompassed support departments

[HR, Technology Services, etc.– Remote offices being discussed

Prerequisites for Change

• Minor changes to PS Financials Expenses application to support bar-coded images

Project / Implementation Team

• Finance Department• Beacon Consultant• Information Technology Services

– PeopleSoft IT support – Server Infrastructure Team– Telecom Engineering– Multimedia Services [Printer Maintenance]– Client Services [Help Desk]

Considerations

• Complex solution with multiple components and high level of user impact

• Communication and training• Testing and Q/A

Testing / QA

• Comprehensive set of tests to confirm expected functionality, integration, security and performance/load

• Imaging Application Functionality Testing– Capture, Indexing, Image Viewing, Annotation, Attachment,

Print to ImageNow, Manual Linking, Full Content Capture, Full Content Search

– Security Testing - Access, Roles• Integration with PS Expenses Testing

– Link Fax Image, Link Scan Image, Launch ImageNow, Launch WebNow

• PS Expenses Process Changes Testing– Bar code cover page report, report pre-edit, tolerance

exception, workflow

Testing / QA

• Performance/Load Testing• System Testing – 2 weeks• User Acceptance Testing – 2 weeks• Post-Migration to Production Testing (before

go-live)• IT readiness and sign-off• User sign-off

Communication Plan

• Weekly status meetings with major stakeholders• Readiness review/sign-off meeting • Coordination Meeting with Pilot Departments

– Identify contacts– Obtain full commitment– Review timetable– Review user training plan and schedule– Review process changes

• Broad user meetings to introduce imaging solution concept and timetable to expense report preparers and approvers for all departments

Communication Plan

• Send Implementation Announcement and Progress updates via e-mail to All Departments:– Include rollout dates– Confirm training sessions and participation– Send out FAQs– Follow up with progress reports and user

satisfaction

Configuration / Operational Issues

• Project team closely monitored first days of operations:– Fax lines– Agents– Logs– Response time– User feedback and satisfaction

No problems, no issues

• No outage required• Help desk was well trained• Users very accepting• Sped up process• Saved time and money

…and then we went one step further…

…and then we went one step further…

If everything was there, was there really a need to audit every expense report?

Originally…• Audit concern that expenses above specific dollar amounts should

be substantiated • Developed data checks (tolerance edits) on expense types invoked

when expense report is submitted for approval• Edits are based on:

– Dollar limitation (fixed amount or per day)– Presence on report– Quantity (how many) appear on report– Percentage above specific cost

• Traveler is forced to provide comment on each edit before expense report can be submitted

Risk Factor Assignment

• Type of Travel• Expense types used within Report• Expenses over a specific dollar amount• Refunds over a specific dollar amount (based

on cash advances)• Multiple destination trips• Presence of specific edit conditions on report

• Needed method to “rank” expense reports to gauge amount of audit required

• “Risk factor” ranking will indicate amount of review by auditors:– Risk Factor 5: full expense report review– Risk Factor 4: review tolerance edits, hotels, office space,

transportation, interpretation– Risk factor 3: review hotel charges and tolerance edits– Risk factor 2: review tolerance edits– Risk factor 1: no review, immediate approval

Implementing Risk Factor Analysis

• Evaluation is done during Department Approval Process

• Expense Report is checked against Risk 5 factors, then Risk 4, etc. until one risk factor is satisfied

• If no criteria is met, risk factor of 1 is assigned• Risk Factor Level appears on Expense

Report Details page in Pre-Pay Audit

Risk Factor Distribution• Statistics:

– Risk Factor 5: 8%– Risk Factor 4: 26%– Risk Factor 3: 17%– Risk Factor 2: 34%– Risk Factor 1: 15%

• Process is being refined currently:– more tolerance edits are being added – other tools are being developed to take full advantage of

risk factor assignments

• Goal: Auditors should focus on audit role, not recalculate expenses

The perfect pair

• Auditors can view receipts on-line when reviewing flagged expense reports

• Reduces paper handled by finance and provides streamlined audit trail

Other options for the future:

Payables - Invoices• Speeding the approval process for invoice

handling• Route invoices to approver for immediate

response – no lost discounts or unpaid invoices

• Monitor inbound invoices, volumes and time it takes to process

Other options for the future:

Human Capital Management• Creating a secure environment for all

employee related documents • Recruiting and applicant data • Payroll

Questions?