With the growth in University operations, the Finance Department recognized that handling and processing large volumes of paper invoices was no longer viable. With the support of the SBF Team, they decided to automate invoice processing by moving to electronic invoicing – making KAUST the first organization in the Kingdom to adopt electronic invoicing in this way.
Electronic invoicing or “e-invoicing” solves many of the problems and challenges associated with processing of purchases. It centralizes transactions so they can be easily found and processed. It also allows vendors to submit invoices over the internet, routing them automatically for processing.
In January 2014 a leading e-invoicing tool was selected and KAUST received its first vendor e-invoice. By April 2014, 16 major international suppliers had sent over 1,600 e-invoices. More suppliers are committed to join the program in future.
E-invoicing is now helping KAUST process invoices faster and more accurately with less manual intervention. It allows KAUST to operate smarter, better, faster. It also helps cut down environmental waste, saves storage space, and decreases error and abuse. More is to come with e-invoicing, as it is further extended to international and Saudi vendors.