Accounts Payable: Cost Optimization - Outgoing Payments

Target group:

  • Companies with many suppliers or a large number of invoices
  • Companies with international suppliers
  • Trading companies/production companies/ chain stores

Brief description/basic statement:

  • The topic is all measures that make payments more efficient and/or extend them over time
  • Costs are like dust - procurement optimization in cost areas that are not strategically relevant (especially B and C goods is highly recommended every 3-5 years)
  • The potential of double transfers and agreed but not deducted bonuses that take place in every company is massively underestimated

Cash relevance:

  • The longer the money stays in the company, the higher the company's internal liquidity
  • Incorrect/double transfers and/or non-negotiated purchasing conditions/prices depress the company's profitability.
Accounts payable management is about keeping the available money within the company's reach for as long as possible. Accounts payable management always plays an important role in the company's liquidity and, depending on the company's market power, can make a significant contribution to the company's results.

In our experience, optimization areas that are often overlooked in the area of accounts payable are sensible and efficient benchmarking of the procurement costs and contracts of the procurement suppliers, especially in the area of material and overhead costs (B and C goods), as well as the area of double transfers in which (mostly) internal errors in purchasing occur and/or accounting lead to double/overpayments or unused claims (discounts, bonuses, etc.) in the accounts payable area are not claimed. Through regular checks, which we have described here, you can claim these payments/claims within the three-year statutory period.

CASHFiNDER analysis in the area of accounts payable

  • Utilization of supplier discounts
  • Cash discount loss analyses
  • Analysis of the invoice verification process (flow and automation)
  • Payment terms (checking and reducing the number of payment terms, analyzing cash discount losses, maximizing cash discount income)
  • Examination and benchmarking of the payment instruments creditors (import letters of credit, debt collection, international payment transactions, foreign currency payments, etc.)
  • Purchasing conditions including procurement optimization in the area of non-strategic material and overhead costs such as:
    • analysis office supplies,
    • Analysis of printing costs and output management
    • Analysis of energy costs
    • Analysis of disposal costs and disposal revenues
    • Analysis facility management (guarding and cleaning services
    • Analysis IT (hardware, software and services)
    • Analysis of marketing costs (virtual, printing costs, advertising material),
    • Analysis Telecommunications
    • Analysis of packaging costs, etc.
  • Analysis of credit substitutes (ABS, forfaiting, factoring, leasing contracts)
  • Analysis and optimization of FX trades
  • Analysis of double transfers and/or non-deducted bonuses: CASHRECOVERY