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frequently asked questions about UpsideBilling
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UpsideBilling automates verification of invoices and bills, as well as the processes for finding errors, exceptions, and special conditions; then dynamically determines the workflow required for each document and/or line item. The automated inspection of invoices commonly includes confirmation of quantities, price, timing, billing terms, etc. based on a contract. In addition to validation of invoices, UpsideBilling can generate automatic payments in response to un-invoiced events or milestones under a contract.
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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Can I get my suppliers to deliver electronic invoices so I can reduce my processing time?
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By implementing UpsideBilling suppliers can deliver invoices electronically. With UpsideBilling, your suppliers can send any type of electronic file (from print spool output to XML). Receiving invoices electronically automates:
- invoice detail capture, eliminating data entry and providing data to drive business intelligence analysis identify opportunities to save you money and increase efficiencies
- verification against a PO, contract or set rates and flag exceptions for review
- variance checking based on past invoices or other data so we can flag exceptions for review
- handling of adjustments and credits to invoices
- the approval process, sending the invoice for approval based on your company rules and practices
- charging the expense to the correct chart fields (account codes, etc.) in your General Ledger
- payment requests to your ERP or Accounting System
- electronic notification of invoice status to suppliers
- the creation of payment reconciliation files for your suppliers (ease their Accounts Receivable process)
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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Can I bill my customers electronically to reduce billing cycle time, save administrative expenses and provide added-value to my customers to save them time and money?
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UpsideBilling generates electronic invoices for you, or accepts a feed from your billing system, and electronically send invoices to your customers. The invoice generation allows for dynamic rules and flexible rate structures that can handle your complex billing rules and processes. Your customers can now receive invoices electronically – if they also use UpsideBilling, they can have the invoices go straight into their GL, coded accurately, having performed all the required checks and balances. Therefore, you can help them save time and money – the same way you would if you implement UpsideBilling to accept invoices from your suppliers. What a great value proposition!
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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Can we provide our invoices such that our customers can get them right into their accounting system and even map them to their accounting practices?
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Your customers can use UpsideBilling to receive invoices from you (they can also use it to receive invoices from other suppliers and send out invoices to their customers) directly. By using UpsideBilling, they can automate:
- invoice detail capture, eliminating data entry and providing data to drive business intelligence analysis identify opportunities to save them (and you) money and increase efficiencies
- verification against a PO, contract or set rates and flag exceptions for review
- variance checking based on past invoices or other data so we can flag exceptions for review
- handling of adjustments and credits to invoices
- the approval process, sending the invoice for approval based on your company rules and practices
- charging the expense to the correct chart fields (account codes, etc.) in your General Ledger
- payment requests to their ERP or Accounting System (and to yours to close the loop)
- electronic notification of invoice status to suppliers (so you know what they are doing with your invoices)
- the creation of payment reconciliation files for their suppliers (improves your Accounts Receivable and dispute resolution processes)
The value to your customers is immense, resulting in customer loyalty and a greater competitive advantage in the market.
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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Can I get my supplier invoices mapped directly to our General Ledger chart of accounts - reducing manual entry and coding?
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By mapping your supplier invoices to the lowest level of your GL, UpsideBilling provides the following benefits:
- no data entry or coding to ensure charges are captured at the correct chart fields (e.g. Accounts) in your GL
- accurate expenditure tracking, that results in better spending
analyses
- easy and accurate analysis of your organization's spending, reducing duplication, and increasing efficiencies, allowing you to negotiate better deals with your suppliers and streamlining processing
- saves considerable time in administration and accounts payable processing
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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Can the system accommodate processes like variation checking and approvals based on our company's rules and practices?
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UpsideBilling has built-in functionality to address your company's unique rules and processes for variance checking (on invoices and expense claims) and approvals. Organizations can define, at a detailed level, the types of invoices, or expense claims, which will undergo variance checking. As well, based on an extensive criterion, organizations can dictate if and when an invoice, or expense claim, needs to go to a specific person or level for approval.
Example:
You would like all cellular invoices to go through the following process before sending payments:
- If the bill was within 10% of last month's bill, then there is no approval required. However, if it exceeds this test, then send it to a Manager level for approval.
- All invoices between $100 and $500 need to go to an Administrative Clerk for approval, and those over $500 need to go to an Accounting Manager.
- If an invoice is greater than 20% based on the same month last year, flag it for further verification by a Supervisor level.
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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Can UpsideBilling support invoice validation ensuring they match to a PO or Contract?
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Automated Bill Verification is a great feature in UpsideBilling. Based on dynamic configuration, you will be able to define the various types of invoices you receive, the different agreements / contracts / POs associated, and all the services offered for the agreements. You can then place business rules that tell UpsideBilling to check for things like "Do not exceed a specific total amount", "the rate per item must match this number", "the number of units can not exceed this number", and so on.
UpsideBilling then verifies the incoming invoices with the rules set up and takes the appropriate actions you have specified.
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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Now that we have all this wonderful data, is there any chance of using it to get better value from our spending and to identify where internal resources are not being well managed?
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All data captured electronically with UpsideBilling provides awesome potential to leverage the power of Business Intelligence providing incredible value. At the push of a button you will be able to see:
- Where you are spending your money (i.e., cost centers, branches, services, goods purchased and more).
- What alternative products or services would be better for you – as an example, you could compare cellular service plans to see which provider and plan would save you money based on your calling patterns (If you are a supplier, why not be proactive and inform your customer of the best choice for them – building customer loyalty and improving retention).
- Odd spending behavior by taking a top down viewing approach (e.g., are you spending more than you should on long distance during non-office hours?).
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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Are there other features that will help increase our company's competitive advantage?
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UpsideBilling provides cost savings by leveraging industry best practices in electronic billing. UpsideBilling goes a step further, improving your competitive advantage by bringing you closer to your customers and suppliers, improving relationships, and leveraging your billing data to maximize your potential to get the most out of those relationships.
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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How can I effectively manage the thousands of invoices I receive from multiple suppliers each month?
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UpsideBilling accepts any number of invoices from suppliers in almost any format. The system can accept files in a simple printer spool file to a sophisticated XML based layout. Regardless, the invoice data will be imported into UpsideBilling correctly, without any data entry. The data then goes through a thorough checking process (variance, compliance, and reliance) and is mapped to your financial processes (approvals). Eventually, the invoices will be paid through your accounting system and the financial data will be posted to the right accounts in your General Ledger.
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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Is there a way to reduce the workload of looking at each item while still getting all the right people to review and approve them?
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With UpsideBilling, companies can dictate the items for Accounts Payable (or other) staff to review. This is done by placing approval rules in the system that filters based on:
- Variance checks against previous invoices or expense claims (e.g., last month, last year, etc.)
- If certain test criteria has been met (e.g., all expense claims greater than $500, invoices for a specific type of billing exceeding $10, etc.)
By allowing dynamic rules to be applied and flagging exceptions at the detailed invoice, or expense claim level (right down to the different types of invoices received and the suppliers), companies have full control over what gets reviewed. Organizations can also see which invoices and expense claims have few errors and those that are questioned frequently. Based on this data, modifications can be made to variance rule parameters to maximize efficiency.
Visit the Products section for more details.
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How can I make sure that the transactions go into our ERP system? I need to leverage my investment and increase value.
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If you have already invested significant dollars and a considerable amount of time implementing an ERP solution, you are not alone. As well, if you have not yet realized the full potential of your ERP, don't worry – a lot of companies are in that same position – Upside Software can help.
UpsideBilling can maximize your investment in many of your systems including billing and ERP. The functionality present in your ERP is leveraged rather than duplicated. UpsideBilling integrates fully with your ERP, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Billing and General Ledger modules in a seamless manner.
The seamless integration will minimize ERP customization efforts, end-user training and consulting fees. In addition, the billing detail captured allows you to perform better analysis and be more proactive in managing your organization.
Visit the Products section for more details.
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How do I get my suppliers and customers to participate in online transactions with me?
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By making the implementation of Upside Software easy and less intrusive on your suppliers, customers and your organization, the buy-in proposition is easy to make. The process for your suppliers to send invoices to UpsideBilling is extremely simple and accommodates their existing methods of transmitting data, so there is minimal work for them. For your customers, if they decide to use UpsideBilling only to the extent of receiving electronic bills there is minimal effort on their part.
We can help you demonstrate value to your suppliers and customers by providing evidence of cost and time benefits they will realize by using UpsideBilling and working closely with you. Upside Software provides value to the entire supply chain, and so all parties can benefit (we can show you this in detail and substantiate it for your customers and suppliers).
Visit the Products section for more details.
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How can I get greater value out of my suppliers and use my suppliers' billing data to better manage my own company?
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If you are still receiving paper invoices from your suppliers, chances are you are only capturing summary data and paying their invoices at a high level. With UpsideBilling, you will get the detailed invoice data that can help you better understand usage and spending and be able to analyze the data more effectively.
By capturing the detailed billing data, you will create a wealth of business intelligence that if mined using the right tools and processes, can bring you exceptional value (time and expense savings). It can help you negotiate better deals with your suppliers, shop around with competing suppliers, select appropriate goods & services (strategic sourcing and acquisitions) – bottom line, increased efficiency and decreased costs!
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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As a large supplier, can I get value out of my customer billing process?
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UpsideBilling can provide your bills electronically to your customers in a manner that will make their processing much, much easier.
You can offer this to your customers as a value-add service and increase customer loyalty and retention. UpsideBilling will save time and money for all parties in any supply chain.
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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I have heard a lot about Bill Presentment, how does this apply to Upside Software?
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Bill Presentment is the process of taking an invoice (e.g., a paper invoice) and transforming it into an electronic image that can be sent to a customer instead of sending a paper invoice via mail. Most consumer based billing systems use electronic bill presentment as their method of submitting invoices to consumers.
UpsideBilling offers bill presentment but goes a few steps further by providing processing functionality and then integrates the invoice data into the customer's accounting systems and their financial data. The billing data is accumulated and can be used for reporting and to perform various types of business and data analysis.
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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Upside Software looks great, but we need to do things a little differently. Can you accommodate changes?
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We can certainly meet any of your business requirements through our product development process. As we work with a wide variety of customers we continually receive requests for changes and improvements to UpsideBilling. We use this feedback to plan design changes for our future releases. If there is something that you want in UpsideBilling, chances are someone has already asked for it – contact us and we will let you know when the next version is due out and what functionality it will have.
Our software is completely configurable, so if your business requirements need a little (or perhaps a lot) more configuration, the Upside Software team is prepared to meet the challenge. Our systems integration teams work closely with our product development staff on a regular basis – they know the inner workings of the product well enough to configure any aspect of the package to suit your needs.
Please contact us to discuss your specific requirements and the options for meeting them.
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We already have a billing system. Can Upside Software integrate with our system and send the invoices to our customers electronically?
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Yes. We can integrate UpsideBilling into your existing system and let it process the invoices and send them to your customers. In addition, you can improve your existing billing process by using UpsideBilling to verify the invoices from your existing system, checking against contracts, Purchase Orders, Invoice Processing Rules, Approval Rules and Variation checking. The integration between your existing billing system and UpsideBilling is a relatively simple process since UpsideBilling accepts a wide variety of data file formats.
Visit the UpsideBilling product section for more details.
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Can UpsideBilling be “hooked” into our other systems?
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Yes. UpsideBilling can be integrated with virtually any back-office or customer focused applications (e.g., ERP - PeopleSoft, SAP, Oracle Financials, J.D. Edwards, BAAN; Accounting Packages; CRM solutions; eCommerce applications; and more). Upside Software’s proprietary data-mapping engine can "hook" into most applications seamlessly leveraging the value of your investment in these other systems while providing the great benefits of Upside Software.
Visit the Technology & Integration section for more details.
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How quickly can UpsideBilling be implemented?
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Typically, UpsideBilling can be implemented within 20-40 days of signing a contract. The total time depends on the level of customization required to integrate with your existing systems, the readiness of your customers and suppliers, and the availability of IT infrastructure resources.
In situations where our customers are joining an existing Application Service Provider (ASP) hosted service, the implementation time can be greatly reduced, speeding return on investment.
Contact us to discuss your specific situation and we can give you a quote.
Visit the Implementation Options section for more details.
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How long before I get a full return on my investment?
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Upside Software assures a full return on investment (ROI) within one year. Our goal is to show positive value immediately and minimize the time it takes to get a full return.
We offer flexible pricing structures to ensure your organization receives maximum value from UpsideBilling.
Click here for more pricing information, or
contact us to discuss your specific situation.
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Upside Software sounds great, but how much does it cost?
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As you may have noticed, flexibility is a common theme with Upside Software. Our flexibility continues into our pricing models for the UpsideBilling solution:
- One time fixed fee based on planned usage and effort required to implement in your environment;
- Transaction fees (per processed invoice); and
- A percentage of the savings you realize from implementing Upside Software - you only pay if you save.
Visit the Pricing section for more details, or contact us to discuss your specific situation.
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