Validating invoices can be a time consuming and frustrating exercise. In order to keep control of the validation process Optima provides the most advanced system available to help users same time and effort in finding billing errors.
The standard Optima system provides the facilities to manually enter or import invoice data, and carry out a wide range of validation options.
However, we also provide a more advanced approach to managing the validation of invoices and payments to suppliers. The Optima Utility Billing System or Optima-UBS was first launched in 1995, making us one of the first companies to offer EDI bill processing for utilities.
Optima-UBS is designed as a fully auditable energy accounting system for validating and managing the payment of invoices received both electronically and on paper. Developed in response to the needs of our large corporate clients it is the most advanced system available for processing invoices, received electronically or on paper. To date it has been responsible for processing over 1 million invoices and continues to be used on a daily basis.
Optima-UBS is designed to work in tandem with the main Optima system, and will process billing data received from Utility suppliers in any electronic file format via EDI, E-mail, Disk or Magnetic Tape.
Electronic bill processing delivers a number of major advantages over manual paper bill entry:-
The fundamental difference between processing invoices directly into Optima or through UBS is that the invoices are not directly imported/entered into the main Optima Invoice database, and are only done so as part of the payments process. This means that the invoices are only available for reporting in Optima once they have been validated and passed for payment.
In accounting terms, think of this as the ledgers only being updated when an invoice has been printed and authorised as being issued. Another important reason for this is that it is quite common for electronic billing files to be loaded and then rejected due to data quality problems ”“ by managing the process in this way, UBS makes this very easy to control simply by aborting that sessions data load, whereas having to remove large volumes of data from a live working invoice file would be much less easy to achieve.
UBS is fully audit trailed with many advanced security features, and in most cases it was selected to replace existing mainframe finance systems. Its implementation has therefore delivered additional savings in annual maintenance and running costs as well as staff time.
All bills are validated against a rigorous set of criteria to ensure that any errors are highlighted prior to payment. UBS will automatically handle Withdrawn and Amended bills, and allow splitting of bills that contain brought forward balances or multiple months of invoice data. Any problem bills that cannot be resolved can be either rejected or placed in suspense.
A dedicated Payment Process prints out remittance advice, together with summary and detailed reports of the transactions, prior to the transfer of the valid invoices to the Optima database. This process also includes the option to automatically create and send a file containing payment details to a corporate finance system such as SAP or PeopleSoft. This can then be used to instigate payment via a BACS transfer or to distribute cost information to the appropriate manager's budgets. To cater for paper billing from Uility suppliers, UBS provides the options for full Paper Bill entry. This again is fully controlled and audit trailed, with a Payments Process that can be run independently or combined with the electronic payments.
Optima Energy Management
Griffin House
Broughton
Skipton
North Yorkshire
BD23 3AN
tel: +44 (0) 1756 702 488
fax: +44 (0) 1756 702 489
Innovation Centre
1 Devon Way
Longbridge Technology Park
Birmingham
B31 2TS
tel: +44 (0) 121 222 5617
fax: +44 (0) 121 275 6101
email: info@optimaenergy.net