Forward-looking and sustainable

At University Procurement, in 2021, as many as 1,700 orders were processed in one month and up to 1,800 invoices were posted. That means 1,800 sheets went through umpteen hands. Up to eight stamps per invoice were necessary, because incoming mail, delivery, correctness, tax assessment, and inventory all had to be confirmed and entered on the invoice by hand. So, each piece of paper experiences up to six mail runs and is copied and scanned several times for various filing systems. And when there are questions regarding processing status, the search begins: in which office is the original invoice at the moment? In the end, it means tonnes of paper and hours of work - just to pay an invoice for € 122.90, for example, or one for € 20,229,000. The procedure is the same whether it's a box of Christmas cards or a major piece of laboratory equipment.

Since autumn 2021, this has all come to an end. Now there is only one digital (data) sheet per order and payment process at Procurement. It is more environmentally sustainable - because it saves paper - and faster - because it saves time bookkeeping.

"The fully digital invoice workflow has reduced the processing time of invoices from receipt to posting by three and a half days compared to paper," reports Dr. Thomas Schoberth, Head of Application Systems at the University of Bayreuth’s ITS team. "As a result, the average time between receipt of the invoice and forwarding it to state treasury is now only around four days. However, it is not only the suppliers who benefit from this, but also the campus, as it is now easier to meet cash discount deadlines."

Schobert lists the positive effects of digitisation: "Elimination of in-house posting, of redundant processing, elimination of media discontinuities, receipt of invoices by email, a completely digital workflow, and transparency of processing status". In November, 43% of invoices in Procurement were already processed via email. "If the trend continues, processing promises to become even snappier," Schoberth predicts.

The project "Digitisation of Invoice Processing" was started in September 2020, and the coronavirus has certainly contributed to the momentum. "Colleagues in Procurement went completely home office. We used this momentum to rethink the process and close the gap in the digital workflow. Invoice processing in paper form would not have been possible at all in the long run, if only because of the heightened legal requirements," says Horst Schilling, Head of Procurement at the University of Bayreuth.

The integration of procurement with the digital purchasing file in a document management system (DMS) and electronic form management has also reduced the workload for professors and chairs. The electronic procurement request is followed by an e-mailed order confirmation, the electronic delivery note, and at the end, the digital view of the posted invoice on the QIS-FSV information system for postings. More areas such as the further development of the payment of external invoices and cost reimbursement are in the works. The further digitisation of administration at the University of Bayreuth could thus be described as progressing apace.