Client Stories

Automating Approval Processes

Client Issue

The client’s paper-based invoice approval process required invoices to be mailed to multiple locations for approvals. Due to the manual nature of this process,it resulted in the accumulation of late fees and penalties. The client had 10,000 designated approvers across the country causing the client to focus on what could be done to resolve this issue.

Solution

InQ consultants designed a web-based workflow solution to quickly accommodate the 10,000 designated approvers disbursed across the country. After the solution was in place, Accounts Payable data entry clerks were able to route invoices to the approvers within seconds. These approvers received email notifications of an invoice requiring action. The approver logs into the system to approve, reject, or route to another approver.After all approvals are obtained, the invoice is returned to the data entry clerk where the invoice is posted into the Accounts Payable system for payment processing. The newly implemented workflow eliminated 95% of the late fees and afforded discounts for early payment.

Electronic Document Tracking

Client Issue

The client established a process requiring a paper-based Authorization for Expenditure (AFE) form. This form was sent through an approval process that required filling out the paper form and attaching supporting documents to create a packet. The packet was then distributed to a list of approvers via inter-office mail. Users had no way to ascertain where their packets were at any point in time. The approval process was extremely slow, and as with most paper based processes packets were occasionally lost.

Solution

InQ consultants looked at the process and designed an electronic form (eForm) based workflow solution that utilized integrations with Oracle’s PeopleSoft and Microsoft’s Active Directory (AD) to obtain the requestor’s chain of command and calculate additional approvers based on dollar amount and category. The requestor was given the ability in the eForm to:

• Attach related documents
• Add notes
• Add additional approvers to the approval chain
• Edit/resubmit rejected AFE eForms

A web-based desktop was developed to give the users all of the tools they needed for the AFE process on a single screen. Users now:

• Have a record of all of their AFE eForms that are routing for approval
• Can see all AFE eForms that they have approved
• Perform a search to find historical eForms
• The desktop displays any AFE eForms that needs to be approved by the current user
• A link to create a new AFE eForm

As a result, AFE approval times have been substantially reduced, and the filing and retrieval time of historical AFE eForms has been virtually eliminated.

Distributed Accounts Payable Integration with Oracle’s PeopleSoft

Client Issue

The client has 40 divisions with separate Accounts Payable departments. They recognized the benefits of consolidating all these departments into one Shared Services Center however; the cost of having approver’s access Oracle’s PeopleSoft to make these changes was cost prohibitive.

The client needed a way to bring invoices into a central location and distribute the work to 50 Accounts Payable Clerks. They also wanted to give users the ability to easily send out invoices for approval. Approvers were responsible for validating and, if necessary, correcting the General Ledger account distributions.

Solution

InQ consultants looked at the process and designed a web-based user interface with workflow using several integration points with the Oracle’s PeopleSoft Accounts Payable system.

Line item details from the invoices were automatically imported into InQ’s web solution with invoice data as the voucher was being posted into Oracle’s PeopleSoft. When the invoice details were imported into the web interface, the system automatically added additional details such as line item information to the invoice. When approvers entered into the new web based system, they were able to manipulate the line item detail including the general ledger codes as it went through the approval and review process.

Any changes in InQ’s web application to the line item detail were updated in PeopleSoft through specific integration options developed by InQ.After the invoice was fully approved inside the web application, the voucher was released in PeopleSoft. Approvers have full access to view and update their own invoice information in Oracle’s PeopleSoft without having to log into Oracle’s PeopleSoft. As a result, voucher entry and invoice approval times were substantially reduced cost effectively.

Medical Charts Process Workflow

Client Issue

The client had a virtual workforce and needed a way to quickly and easily distribute medical charts to their staff for entry into their billing system and chart coding. This process using existing systems could not be justified.

Solution

InQ consultants looked at the process and designed a workflow solution that distributed the medical charts evenly to the data entry clerks for entry into the billing system. Integration was used to properly index the charts in the document system. After the charts were entered into the billing system, they were distributed to the chart coders based on the coders’ preferred chart types.

The coders entered data into an electronic form (eForm)which was designed and developed to facilitate the entry of the codes with validation. After the chart was coded, the charts were placed in a queue and automatically upload to the billing system. After the file was uploaded, the charts were released from the workflow process.

Patient Adjustment Workflow

Client Issue

A University Health System client needed to replace the paper and manual-intensive process of making adjustments to a patient accounts while maintaining HIPAA compliance and internal/external audit compliance standards.

Solution

InQ consultants looked at the process and designed a workflow to automate the process by removing unnecessary keying of patient information. This entailed integrating data directly with the core patient accounting systems. This also included an elegant system for grouping teams of approvers with automated approval path assignment based on the client’s complex protocols. They used Hyland OnBase workflow to route and notify approvers of escalations, pending approvals, or rejections to automatically post to the core billing systems. This removed significant manual processing and shuffling of paper from desks and departments.