7 Ways to Optimize SAP | Staple Yourself to an Order to Eliminate Blocked Invoices

The third tip in our Optimize SAP blog series looks at how to identify and overcome obstacles in the ordering process. All organizations have experienced or are currently experiencing pain somewhere in the ordering process. While ERP systems have improved these processes, I still encounter operations, accounting, and finance teams who complain about blocked invoices that result in cash flow delays, delivery delays and a multitude of other problems. The best way to identify the root cause of a blocked invoice is to “Staple yourself to an order” and look at the entire end-to-end process. A downstream pain is most often caused by an upstream culprit.

Here are just a few of the obstacles I have found within the ordering process that can result in invoices being delayed:

Blocked Invoices

We habitually hear at our Assessments that “Invoicing” is a problem. But inevitably, when we delve further into it, problems with Invoices occur way upstream in the process. By “stapling yourself to an Order” and follow all the touchpoints thru the processes, you can much better understand the impacts one function of the business is unintentionally having on another. Those entering the order do not enter the correct freight, pricing is wrong due to contract master data that is not correct or commissions are not set up accurately.

Once identified, obstacles are normally fairly easy to correct. Depending on your ordering system it may be incredibly time-consuming to investigate every step and variance.  A thorough process assessment, by an experienced SAP partner, will identify obstacles in the ordering process that can be corrected relatively easily with SAP.