Frequently Asked Questions about Conterra FIM

On this page you’ll find a collection of questions and answers about Conterra FIM, Orienge solution for accounts payable automation. These are the questions we are most frequently asked at meetings, and we hope you will find this information useful as well.

List of Questions about Conterra FIM

1. What is Conterra FIM? What kind of system is it?
2. What are the main benefits that Conterra FIM brings to an organization? What is the best company profile that can benefit from using Conterra FIM?
3. How does Conterra FIM capture invoices from multiple sources?
4. What OCR solution does Conterra FIM use? How does it work?
5. How can Conterra FIM OCR benefit our AP process?
6. What happens if we receive paper invoices via mail or hand delivered?
7. What is the accuracy of Conterra FIM’s OCR data extraction?
8. What happens if we receive an extremely poor quality invoice?
9. Does the Conterra FIM OCR manage hand written invoices?
10. Does the Conterra FIM OCR capture line item detail?
11. Is there a limit to the number of invoices our organization can process using Conterra FIM?
12. How long does it take Conterra FIM to process a one-page invoice?
13. Can Conterra FIM work with our existing EDI (or e-invoice) process?
14. Besides OCR and EDI, are there any other extraction techniques that Conterra FIM can utilize?
15. Do I have to use the FIM ICR front end?
16. Once the extraction process is completed, how is the business process initiated?
17. Does Conterra FIM have an invoice repository?
18. How long are invoices stored in Conterra FIM repository?
19. What attributes are important for invoice storage and retrieval (i.e. search)?
20. How can I track changes made to invoices and the related invoice processes?
21. Does Conterra FIM utilize workflow and if so, what benefits does workflow bring to our organization?
22. If we choose Conterra FIM, will all workflows need to be created from scratch?
23. Given that most organizations have unique business rules, what flexibility does Conterra FIM offer to meet/comply with our organization’s specific business logic?
24. What options does our organization have if we utilize an additional layer of corporate policy in addition to the classifications above?
25. How will the approvers in our organization be notified of the actions required for approval? Will they always have to be logged into Conterra FIM and watch for incoming tasks?
26. How does Conterra FIM support cases when invoices need to be tracked fast?
27. How does Conterra FIM support our business logic based on line item details?
28. Is FIM limited to single level approval routes?
29. Do all invoices go to the invoice clerk or clerks?
30. What is three-way purchase order matching?
31. Aside from PO three-way matching, does Conterra FIM support auto-validation and auto-approval for non-PO invoices?
32. What options does Conterra FIM provide our organization if there is an exception to the established business rules?
33. How does Conterra FIM check incoming invoices? Does it do it automatically?
34. Can Conterra FIM automatically allocate expenses?
35. How does CFO or other controllers track the invoice processing?

Questions & Answers about Conterra FIM

1. What is Conterra FIM? What kind of system is it?
   Conterra FIM is an enterprise-class business solution that automates organizations’ accounts payable processes. Conterra FIM works in conjunction with FRS & ERP systems to facilitate and manage the accounts payable and invoice management process.


2. What are the main benefits that Conterra FIM brings to an organization? What is the best company profile that can benefit from using Conterra FIM?
   Here are major benefits of an automatic and controlled invoice approval process with Conterra FIM:
   • Payment approval processes time is more than CUT IN HALF.
     With Conterra FIM, payment processes are more consistently managed. Organization process logic and rules are predefined, every step has a deadline, and the performers are substitutable. AP can now fly through the payment approval process secure in the knowledge that scheduled payments are accurate and correct. Automatic capture of invoice data results in massive cost and time savings and end in invoices being processed and paid faster. Consequently, Conterra FIM helps you pay invoices on time and thereby earn vendor discounts allowing accounts payable departments to even earn money for the company and not just pay it out.
   • The waste caused by overdue payments decreases by 80%.
     Payment approval processes are managed effectively and efficiently, guarding against possible penalties.
   • Document search and retrieval time is exponentially decreased by a factor of 10.
     With the powerful Conterra search engine and ERP system integration, accessibility soars by 10X. Users can find a required document by its attributes, part of the text, or the powerful full-text search relevance.
   • Off-site document storage costs are reduced by 90%.
     Stored in Conterra, electronic copies of documents are accessible 24/7. Retrieval of documents from off-site storages is reduced to an absolute minimum and so are your associated costs.
   • Invoice management processes Total Cost of Ownership is decreased by up to 70%.
     With all the solution implementation effects, the TCO of your Accounts Payable and Invoice Management solution drops.
   You might definitely want to consider e-invoicing, Conterra FIM particularly, if you are a growing company with 800-10,000/invoices per month.


3. How does Conterra FIM capture invoices from multiple sources?
   Conterra FIM creates dedicated e-mail(s) to receive incoming vendor invoices and helps organizations train their vendors on this process. All incoming e-mails are automatically intercepted and feed to an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) process that converts the unstructured data from the PDF invoice to structured data.


4. What OCR solution does Conterra FIM use? How does it work?
   Orienge is an ABBYY partner and Conterra FIM uses ABBYY FlexiCapture. FlexiCapture is intelligent, accurate and highly scalable data capture and document processing software. It provides a single entry point to automatically transform streams of different forms and documents of any structure and complexity into business-ready data. Further, Conterra FIM provides additional procedures, e.g. intelligent checks, to significantly enhance the recognition accuracy.


5. How can Conterra FIM OCR benefit our AP process?
   This is a clear benefit for the organizations who currently use a manual process to enter invoice data and greatly mitigates errors that result from manual entry.


6. What happens if we receive paper invoices via mail or hand delivered?
   For the invoices that are sent or received in paper form, Conterra FIM allows manual scanning/uploading and connection to FIM processes. Further, best practice reinforces the existing policy for future submittals.


7. What is the accuracy of Conterra FIM’s OCR data extraction?
   The accuracy depends on the invoice PDF file quality. While the quality of invoices goes down with physical handling and copying, the Conterra FIM process attempts to obtain the first generation (straight from the ERP or FRS) electronic copies. Further, the OCR process does not have 100% accuracy. As such, Conterra FIM also supports the OCR process with intelligent checks (such as e-mail source) to enhance the results.


8. What happens if we receive an extremely poor quality invoice?
   If Conterra FIM encounters an extremely poor quality invoice (or a hand written invoice), the OCR process will not obtain a good extraction. In this case, the invoice clerk can manually enter all attributes in side-by-side screens and continue with the FIM process.
9. Does the Conterra FIM OCR manage hand written invoices?
   No


10. Does the Conterra FIM OCR capture line item detail?
    Yes. It does not only intelligently captures the line item details but also enables Conterra FIM to allocate expenses based on the extracted data.


11. Is there a limit to the number of invoices our organization can process using Conterra FIM?
    There is no limit to the number of invoices possible to scan other than obtaining the proper license based on overall annual invoice volumes.


12. How long does it take Conterra FIM to process a one-page invoice?
    As it takes only 5 to 8 seconds, you will not even notice it in the overall approval process.


13. Can Conterra FIM work with our existing EDI (or e-invoice) process?
    Yes. If an organization is using such a system, Conterra FIM can connect to it to obtain this data and replace/augment the OCR process.


14. Besides OCR and EDI, are there any other extraction techniques that Conterra FIM can utilize?
    Conterra is a modern ECM system and can work with any other modern system that can share information. One such example may be a data extraction service (however, many companies do not utilize these services for security & competitive reasons).


15. Do I have to use the FIM ICR front end?
    Conterra FIM supports a Standard Edition that does not include the OCR process and fits the needs of smaller organizations. In this case, invoice attributes are not filled out automatically based on invoice image but Conterra FIM still does its best to make data entry operations more efficient and less time-consuming, e.g. it can automatically complete attributes based on the system information (company profile, purchase order, etc.) Another good point is that captured invoice image is always shown next to the invoice card so that AP staff can easily compare and manually enter the data.
    


16. Once the extraction process is completed, how is the business process initiated?
    Once Conterra FIM completes the extraction process, the business process is automatically initiated, i.e. the invoice is routed to the right employees according to the predefined set of rules.


17. Does Conterra FIM have an invoice repository?
    Yes. Conterra automatically creates and maintains a complete/searchable invoice repository.


18. How long are invoices stored in Conterra FIM repository?
    Invoices may be stored in the repository for any period of time, as defined by the Conterra FIM customer. Conterra FIM supports multiple retirement policies, but normally the retention period depends on the state law.


19. What attributes are important for invoice storage and retrieval (i.e. search)?
    Conterra FIM provides a broad range of attributes for storage and retrieval including, but not limited to vendor, invoice number/category/amount, invoice due date, purchase order number, invoice lifecycle stage, invoice capture date, invoice validation date, invoice payment date, invoice approval date(s), and more.


20. How can I track changes made to invoices and the related invoice processes?
    Conterra FIM records all actions performed by users (roles) within the organization as well as any action performed by Conterra FIM (such as lifecycle changes and access rights). You might need to track the invoice history in case of e-discovery and any other disputes.


21. Does Conterra FIM utilize workflow and if so, what benefits does workflow bring to our organization?
    Yes. Workflow provides control & facilitation to recurring business processes, i.e. every invoice is automatically routed to right employees at the right time, and no manual intervention is required.


22. If we choose Conterra FIM, will all workflows need to be created from scratch?
    No. Conterra FIM utilizes a baseline set of standard workflows and automatically builds workflow routes atop the baseline based on invoice classification.
23. Given that most organizations have unique business rules, what flexibility does Conterra FIM offer to meet/comply with our organization’s specific business logic?
    Being a highly flexible system, Conterra FIM allows you to easily customize approval routing according to your company needs. Using Conterra FIM action wizards, you can choose the classification you need including, but not limited to, by vendor, by invoice category, by other invoice attributes (such as business unit, project, site, and geography), and by purchase order. If you feel like you need more considerable changes, Orienge and its partners are always eager to adapt Conterra FIM to your unique requirements, e.g. business logic, new card attributes, databooks, etc.


24. What options does our organization have if we utilize an additional layer of corporate policy in addition to the classifications above?
    Conterra FIM offers additional approval options or corporate policies based on invoice amounts, departmental level authorities/approvals, and minimum level (X of Y) of executive approval.


25. How will the approvers in our organization be notified of the actions required for approval? Will they always have to be logged into Conterra FIM and watch for incoming tasks?
    While they can stay logged into Conterra FIM and watch for incoming tasks, they do not have to. Conterra FIM has a configuration option that simultaneously sends an e-mail with an embedded link to Outlook (Gmail or other e-mail systems).


26. How does Conterra FIM support cases when invoices need to be tracked fast?
    Conterra FIM allows the invoice clerk to validate incoming invoices and change the approval routing for special cases (like when the boss says “…get that invoice paid!...”)


27. How does Conterra FIM support our business logic based on line item details?
    Conterra FIM enables organizations to set up keyword filters that can be applied to line item detail extractions. If such keywords match, Conterra FIM can apply special business rules.


28. Is FIM limited to single level approval routes?
    No. Conterra FIM allows many levels of approval if desired.


29. Do all invoices go to the invoice clerk or clerks?
    Unless the process is configured for auto-validation or auto-approval, the invoice clerk(s) will receive every incoming invoice.


30. What is three-way purchase order matching?
    It is the process of verifying that invoice matches the purchase order (PO) and an approved package receipt. If the invoice attributes match the PO attributes, Conterra FIM allows the process to be configured to either pay & check for receipt of goods after or to check for receipt and then pay.


31. Aside from PO three-way matching, does Conterra FIM support auto-validation and auto-approval for non-PO invoices?
    Yes. These are configurable using Conterra FIM.


32. What options does Conterra FIM provide our organization if there is an exception to the established business rules?
    Conterra FIM offers comprehensive collaboration capabilities for established business rules as well as the option to break out of the rule and “sub-task” a new sequence of events in an ad hoc manner.


33. How does Conterra FIM check incoming invoices? Does it do it automatically?
    Whenever a new invoice arrives, Conterra FIM automatically checks it for duplicates, and matches against the related purchase order and information stored in the system. The correct entry of invoice data is checked programmatically so that AP staff only gets involved into invoice validation and approval.


34. Can Conterra FIM automatically allocate expenses?
    Yes. Conterra FIM intelligently allocates default expenses of your invoices based on the predefined set of rules, e.g. default expense accounts of the vendor, invoice category or project. It even automatically allocates line item detail of invoices to default GL Codes, including automatic summarization of duplicate GL Code allocations. The only thing AP staff needs to do is to verify the allocated costs.
35. How does CFO or other controllers track the invoice processing?
    Conterra FIM gives CFOs and controllers many ways to track invoice processing including reporting, KPI dashboard, and search tools for e-discovery. Conterra FIM reports allows managers to track invoices on different work stages, analyze relations with vendors, etc. Business success is estimated by Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The KPI dashboard provides transparency and control over each step of invoice processing. Conterra FIM gathers the invoice statistics and visually represents this information as charts and tables. Managers can easily track the speed of invoice processing at different stages and per employee, view the total amount of invoices that have been paid or are ready to be paid, etc. Whenever required, managers can find invoices and track their history.

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