Direct Ship Automation

Direct Ship Automation pairs DataServ expertise in Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable.

For distributors who sell products without warehousing first (ie, shipped direct from their suppliers to their customers), there is a challenge in converting the AP invoice received into an AR invoice that can be sent out. The challenges are two-fold:

• Receipt — never receiving any product into warehouse/inventory means no receipt is created. Without the receiving data in an ERP, it is a very manual process to create an AR invoice.

• Speed — the rules of revenue recognition dictate that an invoice cannot be sent until product is shipped. Knowing that the sooner an invoice is sent, the sooner one can get paid, distributors often want to invoice within 24 hours of receiving the AP invoice from their vendors on Direct Ship transactions.

DataServ’s Direct Ship Automation can resolve these challenges.

Here’s how it works.

Because DataServ receives our client’s AP invoices on their behalf and captures the associated data, we can send a data file to the client’s ERP to feed the “receipts” portion of the system which allows their ERP to automatically create an AR invoice and send it out ASAP. This avoids the manual keying of these rushed transactions, prevents errors, and maintains consistency.

Direct Ship Automation is primarily geared toward distribution companies that take advantage of the benefits of direct ship from a manufacturer. Our clients receive even bigger benefits by pairing Direct Ship Automation with our AutoVouch™ solution. For distributors that experience the pain of routing invoices through multiple channels and long DSO times, Direct Ship Automation can be worth its weight in gold.

The primary benefits of direct ship automation are:

• Eliminate manual keying for AR to direct ship entry

• Decrease time to bill the client — shorten DSO times

• Reduce paper routing between AP and AR, as the AP data is made available immediately for AR billing