eProcurement and ePayables in
Higher Education
Elizabeth Palian, Senior Systems Support Analyst
Scott Brechtel, Purchasing Manager
Jerri Painter, AP Supervisor
UNC Charlotte
Session Etiquette
• Please turn off all cell phones.
• Please keep side conversations to a minimum.
• If you must leave during the presentation, please do so
as quietly as possible.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Introduction to 49er Mart
Elizabeth Palian
49er Mart System Administrator
Business Systems Analyst
Financial Data Administration
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
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Projected enrollment of 35,000 by 2020
Record high of 26,234 students enrolled this Fall.
19 PhD programs,
3,000 Faculty & Staff
• Fiscal Year July 2011-June 2012
• Average Monthly Spend = $5,516,266
• Highest Single Month Spend = $12,315,091
• 27,224 POs
• 35,055 Invoices
• 10,282 Electronic Invoices (30%) (Current FY = 33%)
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Procurement
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Payment Process and Platform
Objectives
Reduce Cycle Time
Eliminate Paper
Electronic visibility into supplier catalogs.
Electronic Approval Workflow
Controls for Policies
Direct Spend
Cost Savings
Consistent practices and processes across departments.
Capturing, Reporting, and Analyzing Spend Data and Behaviors
Identify process improvement opportunities. Ease of implementation
of process changes.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Timeline of the Selection and Implementation of the
Procurement Solution
• November 2009
• The UNC General Administration selected SciQuest as it’s preferred
system wide (16 university campuses) eProcurement solution.
• February 2010
• UNC Charlotte announced plans to implement the SciQuest
eProcurement solution.
• 9 member implementation team announced.
• July 2010
• 49er Mart Go-Live began with select departments .
• December 2010
• Entire campus completes transition to 49er Mart for procurement
needs.
• January 2011
• Go-Live for Accounts Payable.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Where We Are Now
• 70% of PRs complete the Approval Workflow Process and transmit POs to
Suppliers in less than 1 day.
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Another 20% within 2 days.
8% within 6 days.
• Suppliers as of August 2012
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23 Hosted Catalogs
18 Punch-Out Suppliers
4,000+ Non-Catalog Suppliers
Receiving cXML invoices from 14 Suppliers.
Transmitting cXML POs to 17 Suppliers.
On-going supplier enablements.
• Spend Analysis
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Aggregating Spend
Contract Compliance
• On-going enhancements in responses to experiences , environmental changes
and new opportunities.
• SciQuest Upgrades 3 times a year.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Campus Users
• User access is configurable.
• All active, full time employees and university temporary
employees have access to 49er Mart.
• User Id activation and profile data updates are automatic
through integration points with the ERP.
• User profile data controls user Accounting Code access.
• Security access is maintained in the ERP.
• As of Feburary 2013
• 2,224 Users
• 478 Approvers
• Average 748 Unique Users per Month FYTD
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Training Methods, User Resources and Interaction
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Moodle on-line Training/ Reference
On-Line Manual within the application
Organization Message on the home/shop screen.
User Emails (49er Mart Smart / 49er Mart Alert)
Monthly User Forums
FAQs
IT Service Desk
Periodic Support Forums that include: Purchasing, Accounts
Payable; Travel & Complex Payments; and others related to topics
of discussion (example: Fixed Assets).
• Implementation training methods included:
– Focus Groups
Super-User Training
Videos
– Classroom hands-on training
Classroom Assistance
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Shopping Processes
Scott Brechtel
Senior Purchasing Agent
Purchasing Department
Member of the 49er Mart Implementation Team
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Creating a Shopping Cart
• Multiple resources in SciQuest assist campus users in placing
orders.
Hosted Catalogs
Punch-out Catalogs
Non-catalog orders Customized Forms
• One shopping cart can be built to order all items a user needs
in a single session.
• Multiple suppliers’ items can be ordered at the same time and
the system will generate separate PO’s to each.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
• Shoppers build carts through the addition of items either
entered as non-catalog or built through one of the available
catalogs.
• Showcased suppliers display UNC Charlotte’s Hosted
catalogs.
• Punch-out catalogs are grouped below the showcased
suppliers.
• Customization options for the catalog layouts continue to
be added.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
• Hosted catalogs are a database of all the items
contained in the contract with that supplier.
• Price file is maintained by the vendor and then
updated on a regular schedule.
• Every new price file must be approved by the institution
before it becomes active on the site.
• Pricing and other details are verified.
• Consistent and uniform look.
• “Shop at the top” will search all hosted catalogs.
• Simply select items and add them to the shopping
cart.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Punch-out Catalogs
• Punch-out catalogs direct the user to the suppliers
customized external website.
• The look varies from supplier to supplier.
• Pricing will be the contracted pricing secured by the
institution.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Non-Catalog Items
• Users are still able to order from any vendor.
• Item numbers, descriptions, and prices will be entered
directly by the user.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
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Specialized Forms
Specialized forms can be utilized for specific purchases.
Customizable.
Limitless number of form types.
• Example is UNC Charlotte’s Change Request Form.
Forms address specific institutional needs.
Can control processes.
Workflow specific processing
• Forms can have their own workflow within the master
workflow based upon the type of form.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
UNC Charlotte Change Request Form
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Requisition Workflow
• After the addition of all items is complete the user will
enter the rest of the required requisition data.
• Shipping
• Accounting Codes
• Notes
• Attachments
• Once complete, the user places the requisition into
workflow for approval.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Approval Workflow
• Approval workflow is determined by the institution.
• Configurable to any standards and requirements that must be
enforced. Examples of Approval Step triggers:
Accounting Codes
Dollar Values
Forms (and fields on forms) Line item flags (ie. Hazmat)
• At UNC Charlotte, all requests must have at least one
approver.
• A user cannot approve his own request.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
eProcure to ePayables Workflow Process
• Once all workflow approvals are complete the PO is
generated and communicated to the ERP system at UNC
Charlotte, Banner.
• The ERP system returns a UNC Charlotte PO number to 49er
Mart
• 49er Mart distributes the PO to the supplier.
• System can distribute via CXML; fax; email.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
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Receipt Process
End users must enter a receipt document onto the
system as proof of receiving the goods or services.
Partial receipts are possible and users enter information
only for the actual items that have arrived.
Simple process to revise quantities for items not
received in full and complete the document.
Receiving is one component of the three-way match
required at UNC Charlotte.
Missing receipt information will prevent invoice payment.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
3- Way Match
• Vendors invoice for the goods/services.
• The system checks for a three-way match between the
PO, Receiving, and the Invoice.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Accounts Payable
Jerri Painter
Accounts Payable Supervisor
Member of the 49er Mart Implementation Team
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Accounts Payable
• Accounts Payable is divided into two areas.
• Invoice Processing
• Purchase order payments – 49er Mart
• Capital Payments –functionality has been added to facilitate
these in 49er Mart, that transition is under development.
• Student Accounts
• The Library Payments
• Payroll invoices
• Travel and Complex Payments processes (Non-PO Payments)
• Payments to individuals (non-incorporated) require tax
considerations and are currently processed outside of 49er
Mart.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
ePayables Has Improved Efficiencies
• FY2010 – Accounts Payable touched all invoices.
• FY2011 – 3,968 were not touched. (Settlement was live
for 5 months.)
• FY2012 – 10,342 invoices were not touched.
• Meeting the 5-7 day turn-around goal.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Invoice Workflow, Invoice Tolerances, and Matching
are Configurable
• Workflow
• Customized steps and rules can be applied to the invoice
workflow.
• Completed and transmitted to the ERP for payment or routed to
the Shared Exception (unmatched) Folder.
• Invoice Tolerance options are applied at the line item level.
• UNC Charlotte tolerance settings include:
• unit and extended prices must be no more than the lesser of
10% or $50.00 more than the PO price.
• Additional S&H charges are allowed up to $50.00.
• Matching
• UNC Charlotte requires 3 way matching (PO, Receipt & Invoice).
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Electronic Invoices
• Invoices are currently received electronically from 14
vendors.
• These vendors were selected as our highest invoice
volume vendors. These invoices flow directly into 49er
Mart, link to the associated PO and begin the invoice
workflow process.
• If there are no problems with this invoice and it meets all
of the workflow criteria, it will integrate directly to the
ERP without any AP staff member intervention.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Flipping POs into Invoices
• To enter an invoice we simply flip the purchase order into
an invoice.
• This populates the PO fields and leaves only a few fields
(Supplier Invoice No., any discounts…) to be completed.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Completing the PO Flip
• Select the line items to process for payment for this
invoice.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Automated eMail Notifications Improve User Receiving
Compliance
• Notification that an invoice requires a receipt.
• Reminder that their order currently has one or more
unmatched invoices because of missing receipts. Options to:
• begin sending daily reminder emails after x days;
• stop sending receipt reminder emails after y days.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
• We have created Exception Folders in the AP workflow.
• The folders are designed to catch problems with invoices
after they are processed but before going to the ERP
system.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Exception Folder Item Detail
• Unmatched items are easily identifiable with highlights
and details.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Comment Section
• The invoices will stay in the exception folders until all
issues are resolved.
• This allows us to keep all unmatched invoices in one
central area.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Invoice Error Queue
• Integrating a matched and approved invoice to the ERP is an
automatic process (this is configurable) and may result in
transmission errors.
• Examples of transmission errors:
• PO Closed; Line item Closed; duplicate invoice #.
• These errors are returned from the ERP and require research
and changes to the invoice or possibly the PO in one or both
of the systems before resending the invoice.
• Invoice integration errors also sometimes require escalation to
SciQuest or ERP support.
• University Incident logs were created as a useful tool for
tracking errors and recording resolutions.
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eProcurement and ePayables in Higher Education
Collaboration
• Improving processes requires the cooperation, communication and
creativity of the people
• that are most directly involved, impacted and knowledgeable.
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Campus Users
Purchasing
Accounts Payable
System Administration
Campus IT
Application Support – SciQuest and ellucian
Supplier IT and Account Contacts
Campus Decision Makers
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