Monthly Archives: September 2013

IOIPay® Earns Top Honors Among Online Payroll Services

Interlogic Outsourcing, Inc. (IOI®) and its online payroll product IOIPay® were recently recognized by Top Ten REVIEWS as the #3 provider of online payroll services ahead of the large national payroll companies with which IOI® competes.

Top Ten REVIEWS conducted a thorough examination of IOIPay® and its features and functionality in order to review and score different areas of the product. Overall, IOIPay® scored 8.15/10 with the summary comment: “Whether your company is large or small, IOIPay®’s online payroll service is equipped to handle your payroll processing. Additionally, IOIPay® also comes with a handful of other services with its online payroll, including employee access, reporting, tax services and more. Its myriad features and complete payroll and tax service earn it our TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award.”

“We are very proud to have earned the Bronze Award from Top Ten REVIEWS,” said Najeeb A. Khan, president of IOI®. “In particular, our Support Quality Score of 100/100 gives credence to our business model, which is built around customer service, common sense, and doing things the right way – right now. Thanks to our dedicated staff, we have achieved this.”

Particularly noteworthy scores for IOIPay® included:

  • Support Quality Score: 100/100
  • Software Integration: 10/10
  • Features: 9.4/10

A review of all ratings can be found here.

Congratulations to IOI®.  IOI® provides payroll services to businesses of all sizes.  PayStream will be exploring payroll service providers like IOI® in the upcoming Q4 2013 Outsourced Payroll Report.  Stay tuned for this upcoming report. In the meantime, to learn more about Outsourced Payroll Services download a complimentary copy of PayStream’s new white paper titled Outsourced Payroll Services: Why it Pays to Outsource Payroll.  

No Department is an Island

Spend, cash management and working capital management are all part of a delicately balanced system that are intricately connected to each other.  What an organization’s Procurement Department intends to spend and what invoices it is actually processing through AP is part of the same end-to-end process –  purchase-to-pay.

The information that AP gathers on commitments, where money is being spent and to whom, gives the Purchasing department tremendous insight.   By working together Finance and Procurement can effectively benefit from such payment strategies as volume discounts, dynamic discounts or early payment discounts, as well as strengthen supplier relations.  If Procurement, for example, can depend on AP to pay on time, it has more clout to negotiate better and more flexible terms.

To accomplish an integrated, holistic approach, organizations need visibility across the entire purchase-to-pay  process.  By automating manual tasks end-to-end, AP and Procurement can have visibility into suppliers, invoices and cash flow as it moves through the process.   This not only frees them from manual tasks and allows them to focus on more strategic approaches, but it also gives them better control. And with that comes the ability to more effectively manage spend, cash flow and working capital – must-have capabilities that happen when Finance and Procurement break out of their siloes and work together.

About the Author
Bob Cohen is Vice President, North America for Basware, a leading provider of cloud-based purchase-to-pay and e-invoicing solutions that enable better buying, better selling and connected commerce for organizations around the world. For more information, contact , or call 203-487-7900.

SurePayroll Scorecard® Reveals Small Business Owners Favor Hiring Contractor Over Full-Time Employee

SurePayroll Inc., a leader in online payroll to small businesses nationwide, recently announced results for the August 2013 SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard indicating that nearly one in five small business owners are more likely to hire an independent contractor today than a full-time employee.  While 40 percent still would prefer a full-time employee, 38 percent are not looking to hire at all.

“It’s a fairly dramatic change in the small business mindset we’re seeing,” said SurePayroll CEO and President Michael Alter. “Ten years ago, if you had told me almost one in five small business owners were more likely to hire a contractor than a full-time employee, I would have been shocked. However, now it’s become much more common.”

Of those more likely to hire independent contractors, 75 percent said it was because they simply don’t need a full-time person to fulfill specialized roles in areas such as marketing, information technology or administrative work. Thirty-six percent also said hiring independent contractors reduces the tax and benefits costs.

Year over year, nationwide hiring is down 1.8 percent and paychecks are up 0.3 percent, indicating slightly higher pay or more hours for existing workers. Year over year, the South is the only region where hiring is up at 1.2 percent and paychecks there are up 1.0 percent. The West shows a hiring decline of 3.0 percent, with paychecks down 0.6 percent. Hiring in the Midwest is down 3.2 percent and paychecks are positive, up 3.0 percent. In the Northeast, hiring is down 4.1 percent and paychecks are down 1.9 percent.

As the first economic indicator created by a payroll company, the SurePayroll Scorecard has provided a monthly look at national hiring and paycheck trends since September 2004. SurePayroll’s Scorecard compiles data from small businesses nationwide, and exclusively reflects the trends affecting the nation’s “micro businesses” — those with an average of eight employees.

The full SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard infographic includes data for the top 35 MSAs. The August 2013 Scorecard is available now on the SurePayroll blog.

SurePayroll provides a number of online payroll services to small businesses.  PayStream will be exploring payroll service providers like SurePayroll in the upcoming Q4 2013 Outsourced Payroll Report.  Stay tuned for this upcoming report. In the meantime, to learn more about Outsourced Payroll Services download a complimentary copy of PayStream’s new white paper titled Outsourced Payroll Services: Why it Pays to Outsource Payroll.  

Use of Paper to Trade B2B Invoices Drops 7 Percent as More Small to Medium Enterprises Implement Accounts Payable Automation

PayStream Advisors 2013 Invoice and Workflow Automation (IWA) Benchmark Report reveals survey results identifying current trends in invoice imaging, invoice workflow and electronic invoice solutions.

 CHARLOTTE – (September 13, 2013)  PayStream Advisors, Inc., a leading independent research and advisory firm, today released the 2013 Invoice and Workflow Automation Benchmark Report.  Survey results reveal that paper invoices continue to decline from 59 percent in 2012 to 52 percent in 2013, as electronic invoicing gains more traction.

While large companies continue to lead the pack in AP automation, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are gaining traction.  The IWA report reveals that the biggest gain in AP automation over the past year came from medium-sized companies adopting front-end imaging – up from 51 percent in 2012 to 58 percent in 2013.

“SME’s are now embracing AP automation as they strive to migrate from a manual paper-based invoice system to an efficient and cost saving automated system,” states Henry Ijams, managing director of PayStream Advisors.  “Solution providers have made AP automation more attractive to the SME market with affordable, easy-to-use and easy-to-implement technology solutions.”

The IWA report provides a comprehensive look at the past two years and reveals front-end imaging, automated workflow and electronic invoicing trends, as identified by AP professionals.  The report is based on the results of PayStream Advisors 2013 IWA survey of over 200 AP professionals at U.S. based enterprises.

 Key findings in the report include:

  • Over one-third (35 percent) of companies have made significant investments in AP automation, and 23 percent are currently evaluating the use of AP automation technology.
  • The majority of invoices received in paper format remain the number one challenge in the invoice management process – 50 percent.  Manual data entry and inefficient processes ranked second with 37 percent.
  • The top financial automation goal for 2013 is the implementation of an automated approval workflow for invoices – 33 percent.  Increase electronic invoicing ranked second at 29 percent, and automating payment processing ranked third at 18 percent.
  • Supplier resistance (22 percent) and the belief that current processes work (22 percent) ranked as the top two challenges to the adoption of electronic invoicing.
  • Quicker approval of invoices ranked as the top benefit achieved by implementing an imaging solution.
  • Adoption of approval workflow solutions continues to rise – up 2 percent from 35 percent in 2012 to 37 percent in 2013.

To learn more about invoice automation, don’t’ miss PayStream’s upcoming Purchase to Pay Summit, INNOVATE ’13, September 16-18, in Charlotte, NC.

The 2013 Invoice and Workflow Automation Benchmark Report was underwritten in part by ACOM Solutions, Basware, Chrome River, ReadSoft, and Tradeshift.  The report can be downloaded for free on the PayStream Advisors website.  Download your complimentary copy today.

About PayStream Advisors

PayStream Advisors provides in-depth research, reviews and comparisons of top accounts payable and purchase to pay automation software. Offering research and insight to help companies improve AP efficiency, PayStream Advisors also hosts the annual Purchase to Pay Summit, INNOVATE ’13, where accounts payable, finance and procurement leaders gather to share ways to advance purchase to pay processes through collaboration and automation. For more information please visit: paystreamadvisors.com.

 

Contact: Teresa Bertucci, PayStream Communications Manager

Paycom Becomes Eight Year Inc. 500|5000 Honoree

Inc. Magazine recently ranked Paycom, a provider of human capital management technology, No. 2,347 on its annual Inc. 500|5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.  This marks the eighth-consecutive appearance for the Oklahoma-based company, who joins other independent American entrepreneurial companies such as Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft and Pandora on the 2013 list of best run, most innovative and most inspiring private companies in America.

“Being an eight-year honoree is humbling and I’m honored that Paycom was once again recognized by Inc. magazine,” Paycom Founder and CEO Chad Richison said. “This accolade is a testament to our focus on providing a great product and employee experience. We are fortunate to be where we are today, roughly 15 years after the company was founded.”

Paycom provides true, cloud-based HR services and payroll technology to tens of thousands of businesses across the country. With proprietary software that streamlines efficiencies for employers, Paycom continues to see its revenue grow year-after-year and has plans to add 700 new jobs with major expansion of their headquarters in Oklahoma City.

From a single application, Paycom’s customers enjoy the convenience of payroll, time, talent acquisition, HR management and talent management. The convenience of online Software as a Service (SaaS) technology makes Paycom more efficient to operate and less expensive than traditional alternatives. Paycom’s technology is also proving to be the perfect solution for those concerned about their ability to stay in compliance with new health care reform mandates, only adding to its continued growth and popularity.

“The Inc. 5000 was harder to get into this year than ever in its history,” Inc. Magazine Editor and Chief Eric Schurenberg said. “The median company on the list increased sales more than 140 percent since the start of 2010, while the average honoree grew a mind-boggling 468 percent. Those are results most companies could only dream of in the economy of the past three years.”

A complete listing of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region and other criteria, can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000/list/2013

Paycom provides payroll and HR services for businesses nationwide.  PayStream will be exploring payroll service providers like Paycom in the upcoming Q4 2013 Outsourced Payroll Report.  Stay tuned for this upcoming report. In the meantime, to learn more about Outsourced Payroll Services download a complimentary copy of PayStream’s new white paper titled Outsourced Payroll Services: Why it Pays to Outsource Payroll.  

 

Time Waits for No Man

Gone are the days when business can slow down or stop when someone is out of the office.  Mobile technology has become an integral part of doing business in our 24/7 world, and an important requirement for today’s Accounts Payable and Procurement departments.

With mobile Accounts Payable technologies reviewers and approvers can remotely access invoices and related purchase-to-pay documents – such as requisitions, contracts and expense claims – and continue moving them through the process no matter where the approvers are located.  With mobile access, invoice cycle times are reduced, bottlenecks disappear and deadlines can be kept.  Organizations can say goodbye to late payment penalties and can better leverage payment strategies, such as early payment discounts.

With mobile invoice access companies can conduct these transactions at the speed of business.  It makes for more productive reviewers and happier suppliers – and a better connected, healthy business environment.

Businesses have long ago embraced mobility, in terms of wireless phones, email and calendaring, yet there’s so much more available from a mobile perspective for those involved in Procurement and  AP.  Time waits for no man, and today’s mobile purchase-to-pay process proves there’s no reason to wait.

About the Author
Bob Cohen is Vice President, North America for Basware, a leading provider of cloud-based purchase-to-pay and e-invoicing solutions that enable better buying, better selling and connected commerce for organizations around the world. For more information, contact , or call 203-487-7900.

 

Nipendo Supplier Cloud Enables Over 90 Percent Straight-Through Invoice Processing at One of the World’s Largest Healthcare Organizations

Clalit Healthcare Services, Israel’s leading health care organizations and one of the world’s largest, is revolutionizing the management of its entire procurement process and supplier collaboration using the Nipendo Supplier Cloud platform.

Clalit Healthcare Services is the world’s second largest HMO operating 1,400 clinics, 14 hospitals, more than 400 pharmacies, and over 800 other medical facilities.  With an annual purchasing volume of over US$2.5 billion, Clalit receives over 2 million invoices a year issued by thousands of suppliers. Over 1,500 employees are involved in the procurement and AP functions.

Using the Nipendo Supplier Cloud platform, Clalit has transformed a process that was heavily-manual, time-consuming, and error-prone, into an automated process that is speedy and virtually error-free. “Ninety percent of the invoices we receive are processed by Nipendo straight-through to our SAP system without any manual intervention, and this percentage keeps going up as we fine-tune our processes and the business rules that reflect them in the Nipendo platform,” said David Lugassy, Headquarters Administration Director at Clalit.

“This high level of automation has brought about significant benefits to Clalit and to our suppliers,” adds Mr. Lugassy. “Average invoice processing time has been reduced from weeks to just a few minutes, and errors have been reduced down to close to zero. Hundreds of employees have been freed up from manual invoice handling to manage higher value tasks. We are also helping the environment, eliminating the use of over 30 million sheets of paper each year.”

In addition to automating invoice processing, Nipendo enables Clalit to electronically issue purchase orders directly from their SAP system to the supplier. With all communication facilitated through Nipendo Supplier Cloud, changes and modifications are immediately reflected in the system of record. Order fulfillment is now fast, accurate, and requires no human intervention.

Each supplier invoice is validated by Nipendo in real-time against over twenty five different business rules relating to hundreds of data points defined by Clalit, ensuring the data is complete and matches the purchase order and goods received, as well as compliance with internal procedures and local tax regulations. In case of a discrepancy, suppliers are instantaneously notified and can immediately make the necessary corrections to facilitate errorless straight-through processing to the Clalit ERP system.

Over 90 percent of Clalit’s suppliers for both direct and indirect purchasing are currently connected to the Nipendo Supplier Cloud, realizing significant benefits that include shorter time to payment, real-time visibility to invoice and payment status, and a single-point of access to the entire history of their records of interactions with Clalit.

Suppliers connected to the Nipendo Supplier Cloud also have access to a wide-range of value-added services offered by Nipendo’s partners, including supply chain financing, access to online RFPs, digital signature, workflow automation, business intelligence capabilities,  and other related services. As of today, over 15,000 suppliers utilize the Nipendo platform, exchanging tens of thousands of electronic documents each month, facilitating over $5 billion in procurement a year.

Click here to view the entire Nipendo press release.

PayStream has witnessed an increase in invoice automation as more companies strive to create effective and efficient supplier relationships and streamline their entire P2P process.  To learn more about invoice automation, download a complimentary PayStream Advisors report.  Reports can be accessed for free online at PayStream’s Research Vault.

Accolade Wines North America Selects Basware’s InvoiceReady

Basware, a leading provider of e-invoicing and purchase-to-pay solutions, recently announced that Accolade Wines North America, a leading global wine company, has selected Basware’s InvoiceReady™ for Accounts Payable (AP) automation. The solution, which will be implemented in the U.S. and other regions globally, will enable Accolade Wines NA to eliminate inefficiencies, while gaining visibility and control over its financial commitments.

“Our manual method for processing invoices was becoming too time consuming, paper-intensive and costly,” said Amy Castro, senior accountant at Accolade Wines NA. “We needed to automate our invoicing process and turned to Basware for its innovative solutions, built-in best practices and global reach. Now with Basware’s InvoiceReady we are able to easily streamline invoice processing, cut costs and gain the visibility and control we need.”

Accolade Wines North America will deploy InvoiceReady to automate the more than ten thousand invoices it processes annually. Additionally, Accolade Wines NA will implement Basware’s scan & capture service to convert supplier invoices to e-invoices so the company can process all invoices electronically no matter in which format they are received. Accolade Wines NA also will implement InvoiceReady Mobile, recently announced by Basware, which enables the company’s employees to review and approve tasks anytime, anywhere from their mobile devices.

Basware InvoiceReady provides immediate benefits for businesses seeking to reduce the time and cost of manual invoice processing methods. Small and mid-sized businesses can significantly reduce invoice cycle times by identifying bottlenecks in the financial process that often result in late payment fees or missed discount opportunities. Delivered as a service, InvoiceReady automates the accounts payable process from receipt of invoice through approvals to payment, removing paper and reliance on manual spreadsheets. It helps companies reduce errors, and increases visibility of and control over financial commitments.

Click here to view the entire Basware press release.

Download a complimentary PayStream report to learn more about Basware’s solutions.  Basware has underwritten a number of PayStream reports that include a detailed Basware profile, including:

 

 

 

Third Wave Business Systems Named a 2013 Top 100 VAR by Accounting Today

Third Wave Business Systems, a leading SAP Business One and Microsoft Dynamics GP implementation and development partner, was recently named a 2013 Top 100 Value-Added Reseller in Accounting Today’s annual listing.  This is the 11thconsecutive year that Third Wave has been named to the VAR 100 list.

The list recognizes 100 of the top tier accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software resellers in the country. According to Accounting Today, “The majority of this year’s VAR 100 either began to see the benefits of products and services that they added within the past couple of years, or were making plans to dig deeper into niches where they see potential in the years to come.”

With offices in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa, the company helps small and mid-sized enterprises implement ERP solutions customized for their industries. In addition, Third Wave offers business management solutions that extend the functionality of SAP Business One, including the Advanced Productivity Pack, Marketing and Campaign Management, and Project Accounting Suite.

Third Wave Business Solutions provides a budgeting and forecasting solution called BOARD.  The BOARD solution offers a full complement of Business Intelligence functions, including reporting, multi-dimensional analysis, ad querying and dash boarding.  The BOARD functionality also allows users to manage and monitor all performance planning and control processes – from budgeting, planning and forecasting to profitability analysis, score carding and financial consolidation.

Today’s tech savvy and budget conscience companies are utilizing forecasting tools to provide robust and effective financial budgeting and forecasting. PayStream Advisors recently uncovered a marketplace need for improved information to better understand the financial forecasting and budgeting market.

To provide a detailed overview of budget and forecasting solutions in the market today, PayStream is preparing a Q4 2013 Technology Insight report for companies looking for appropriate budget and forecasting solutions that can provide efficiency, visibility and control over the financial planning process.  Stay tuned for the upcoming report and check back to download your complimentary copy.

 

JHA Payment Processing Solutions Offers smsGuardian Text Alerts for Fraud Prevention

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.® (Nasdaq: JKHY), a provider of technology solutions and payment processing services primarily for financial services organizations, recently announced that its JHA Payment Processing Solutions® (PPS) division will offer smsGuardian™, an anti-fraud text alert notification service. In addition to PPS customers, smsGuardian is now available for the credit unions supported by Jack Henry & Associates’ Symitar™ division, and banks  using the jhaPassPort™ EFT platform provided by its Jack Henry Banking™ division.

The smsGuardian service sends transaction alerts directly to a cardholder’s mobile phone or other SMS-enabled device. If the cardholder rejects the unauthorized activity, the information is immediately routed to a Jack Henry & Associates’ fraud analyst who blocks the card and follows up with the cardholder by phone.

Financial institutions using smsGuardian can choose to send messages for every transaction, or they can predefine rules that designate when a cardholder is alerted, such as when transactions exceed $100 or when they occur outside of the United States.

John Postle, general manager of PPS, said, “With smsGuardian, fraudulent activity can be recognized and stopped right away, which significantly reduces the likelihood that subsequent unauthorized transactions will occur. We expect that our credit union and bank clients and ultimately their customers and members will benefit from the added layer of security and the peace-of-mind this solution offers.”

 

To learn more about Electronic Payment (ePayment) solutions log onto PayStream Advisors Research Vault and download a complimentary ePayment research report.  Mark your calendar to check back for the upcoming 2013 Electronic Supplier Payments report and the Purchasing Card report.