mySAP ERP Brief

ELECTRONIC INVOICING
WITH mySAP ERP
Invoice delivery, payment,

Make Collaborative E-Commerce a Reality

and settlement processes are

Processing invoices involves numerous steps for your customers

and for you. Your company must print and mail the invoices,
and your customers must manually enter the data in their
accounts payable system, verify the invoices, and then make payments. The total cost of this process may be more than you
think. Mailing an invoice can cost you up to US$15. And for your
customers, invoice processing can be even more expensive.
Electronic invoicing is designed to eliminate the inefficiencies of
packaging and mailing paper invoices to customers. In addition,
it supplements your collaborative business and electronic
payment strategies.

costly to most businesses,

consuming employee productivity and tying up large
amounts of working capital.
In addition, most companies
do not maximize the benefits
of their customer or supplier
relationship management
efforts and fail to link finance
directly to sales, support,
marketing, or supply chain
processes. mySAP ERP deliv-

With SAP Biller Direct you can eliminate many manual processes and cut your invoicing costs by up to 70%. SAP Biller Direct
is a key part of your SAP Financial Supply Chain Management
deployment strategy.

ers a complete e-invoicing

solution with the SAP Biller
Direct application, which
enables customers and suppliers to submit invoices, make
payments, manage accounts,
and settle and reconcile
transactions via the Internet.

Handle All Your Bill Presentment and

Payment Processes

Todays electronic bill presentment and payment applications

show only invoice data to customers. However, thats just one
part of the billing process. With SAP Biller Direct, invoice
recipients can view account balances, examine unpaid invoices,
monitor credits, and apply credit to pay off open receivables.
In addition, customers can manage account information, such
as addresses or bank accounts, without having to burden your
accounts receivable department. This service works securely
and is approved via the internal service request functionality of
all SAP solutions. SAP Biller Direct is a complete communication
and transactional application that enables you to deliver higher
quality invoicing and settlement services to your customers.

SAP Biller Direct provides a complete e-invoicing solution. With

it, your customers can handle partial payments, open items, and
credits. More importantly, it gives them the ability to manage
their own accounts, view invoicing history, and execute payments
with either credit cards or direct debit. Additional functions
allow your customers to:
Download bills in different formats
Assign payments to open items
View information on balances and items that remain open or
have been cleared, including balance confirmation via the Web
Access information on payment advice notes
SAP Biller Direct is delivered with mySAP ERP. It works in concert with all SAP industry solutions and has been engineered to
serve as the Web-based invoicing engine of SAP Financial Supply
Chain Management a set of applications that address your
cash-to-cash cycle from invoicing, dispute management, collections, and credit management; to in-house banking, cash, and
treasury management.
SAP offers a unique advantage to customers. With a single set of
applications, you can manage the entire financial supply chain
without the need to develop custom applications or integrate
third-party software solutions. More importantly, your financial
supply chain can be completely integrated with financial reporting and in-house cash and treasury management processes to
improve your ability to manage working capital.

SAP Biller Direct is powered by the SAP NetWeaver platform,

providing a flexible Java front end as a presentation layer that
can be integrated easily into SAP Enterprise Portal or any existing
portal infrastructure using single-sign-on tickets. The customer
or bill recipient needs only a Web browser to use the wealth of
functionality provided by SAP Biller Direct. The biller, on the
other hand, doesnt have to change existing business processes
and can use SAP Biller Direct as a powerful and stable Web front
end. Communication between the ABAP and Java worlds is
ensured by using the Java Connector middleware. SAP Biller
Direct is available today as part of mySAP ERP or it can be
implemented as an add-on to the last two releases of of SAP R/3
software.
SAP Biller Direct supports both business-to-consumer and
business-to-business transactions and supplements your existing
SAP accounts receivable solution. The application completes
your customer relationship management efforts by providing a
Web-based capability to handle invoicing, account inquiry, and
settlement processes. For many enterprises, these financial
processes are needed to close the loop in their online sales
and customer support strategies.

Improve the Performance of Accounts Payable

with SAP Biller Direct

Accounts payable departments in all industries are often

overburdened with vendor inquiries regarding payment status.
As a result, productivity is lost, workloads are taxed, and accounts
payable performance metrics can deteriorate. To achieve excellence in the accounts payable area, many organizations are seeking a Web-based solution to present payment status to their
suppliers and vendors.

As shown in the figure below, SAP Biller Direct solves both sides
of the e-invoicing challenge. It can be applied to support buy-side
and sell-side e-invoicing and payment strategies.
SAP BILLER DIRECT
Customers

Suppliers
SELL-SIDE

Customers

BUY-SIDE

Payments

Suppliers
Payments

Customers

Suppliers
ACCOUNT
RECEIVABLE

ACCOUNT
PAYABLE

Customers

Suppliers
Invoices

Invoices

Customers

Customers

Suppliers
YOUR ENTERPRISE FINANCIAL SUPPLY CHAIN

Suppliers

Figure 2: Buy-Side and Sell-Side E-Invoicing with SAP Biller Direct

Buy-side e-invoicing with SAP Biller Direct frees your accounts

payable department from having to manage supplier questions
about payment status, whether they come in by phone, e-mail,
or fax. With SAP Biller Direct, suppliers can view payment information online, examine invoice and payment history, view
available supplier credits, and manage multiple accounts.

Figure 1: Customer Interface of SAP Biller Direct

Buy-Side E-Invoicing with SAP Biller Direct

SAP Biller Direct now offers support for buy-side e-invoicing.

This capability enables your suppliers to view accounts payable
information via the Web. It also allows your suppliers to perform
Web-based, self-service account inquires and examine payment
status. SAP offers a unique advantage to companies seeking a
buy-side e-invoicing solution because SAP Biller Direct is designed
as an integrated component of your accounts payable software
and supplier portals.

Buy-side e-invoicing with SAP Biller Direct can be deployed in

two ways. The first option is to implement it as a portal business
package, using iView software within SAP Enterprise Portal.
In this way, it can be integrated easily in the supplier portal or
added to any other SAP portal. The second option is to deploy
SAP Biller Direct as a stand-alone application on a J2EE basis,
which provides a Web-based HTMLB user interface. (HTMLB, a
Java tag library developed by SAP, allows you to create browserindependent GUI elements.)

www.sap.com /contactsap

Regardless of the implementation, your vendors do not need

to install any SAP software to use the buy-side e-invoicing capabilities of SAP Biller Direct. All functions are accessible via a
standard Web browser and can be integrated into your existing
supplier portal.
Buy-side e-invoicing with SAP Biller Direct can dramatically
improve supplier relationships by providing a powerful,
information-rich, self-service tool for viewing payment and
invoice status. In addition, it can boost the productivity and
effectiveness of your accounts payable department by minimizing vendor inquires, allowing your resources to focus on strategic tasks that drive greater value for your organization.
Discover Financial Supply Chain Management with
mySAP ERP

SAP Biller Direct is part of SAP Financial Supply Chain Management (SAP FSCM). As one of the new functional areas of
mySAP ERP, SAP FSCM optimizes the financial and information
flows within a company and among business partners. In addition to electronic invoicing and payment, SAP FSCM also
includes applications for collections management in SAP Collections Management, efficient resolution of payment deductions
in SAP Dispute Management, the automation of credit decisions
in SAP Credit Management, the management of liquidity positions in SAP Cash and Liquidity Management, the configuration
of payment factories in SAP In-House Cash, and the management of financial positions and market risks in SAP Treasury
and Risk Management.
For more information about SAP Biller Direct, SAP FSCM, and
mySAP ERP, please contact your SAP representative today or visit
our Web site at www.sap.com/financials

50 xxx xxx (04/MM)

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