Accounts Payable

Overview

Understanding accounts payable as part of Financial and Supply Chain Analytics.

The pre-built reports and metrics of the Cognos Accounts Payable Analysis application give you a better understanding of your payment-related activity and trends. You can:

• Increase managerial productivity by reducing reporting and analysis time.
• Increase working capital by optimizing cash outflow strategies.
• See how much is due and when and the value of overdue accounts.
• Keep better control over cash outflow while maintaining strong vendor relationships.

Cognos Accounts Payable Analysis gives you more than 60 key performance indicators and more than 30 reports. These metrics and reports are grouped in four key areas of analysis, answering a variety of business questions:

• Accounts Payable Performance
  • What money is owed this period? What percentage is past due?
  • How quickly is the organization paying?
  • What percentage of accounts is not meeting terms? What is the value of overdue accounts?
• Accounts Payable Vendor Account
  • What is the current balance for a vendor account?
  • Which vendors are problematic? Why?
  • What is the cost to pay vendors, including errors, method of payment, and adjustments?
• Accounts Payable Cash Outflow
  • What is the expected cash outflow if no/all accounts take advantage of discounts?
  • What is the expected cash outflow based on the expected days to pay for each account based on payment patterns to date?
• Accounts Payable Organizational Effectiveness
  • How has account distribution across analysts changed as business has increased?
  • What was the total cost/savings for being in variance as related to payment terms?
  • What is the average/weighted average days past due?