Leggett & Platt: A Case Study in AP & AR Automation Success

Leggett & Platt: A Case Study in AP & AR Automation Success 

Accounts Payable Productivity Summit — September 22, 2011 

A Case Study in 

AP & AR Automation Success 

Leggett & Platt: 

A Case Study in AP & AR 

Automation Presented by Nikki Head Success 

Assistant AP Manager 

Leggett & Platt, Incorporated 

About Your Presenter 

Nikki Head 

Assistant Manager Accounts Payable, Leggett & Platt, Inc. 

With over eight years’ experience working with Leggett & Platt in 

various positions, Nikki Head is an accomplished accounts payable 

professional with a knack for leading her team toward its goals of 

greater efficiency and low costs. In her current role, Nikki works 

alongside management to ensure payments are processed on a 

timely basis, accounts are reconciled with vendors, and more. Nikki 

has implemented PeopleSoft Purchasing and Accounts Payable 

software for Leggett & Platt branches across the U.S. and handled 

branch cost accounting and payroll in addition i to traditional i AP 

functions. 

www.TheAPNetwork.com • 770-984-1184 

©2011 Financial Operations Networks LLC 

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About Leggett & Platt, Inc. 

• Diversified manufacturer 

• Variety of engineered components and products 

• Established in 1883 

• Committed to making everyday products more innovative, 

comfortable, durable and life-enhancing 

• 19 business units 

• 18,000 employee-partners 

partners 

• 140+ manufacturing locations in 18 countries 

• NYSE: LEG 

The AP Challenge 

• Invoices representing $3 billion 

• 120 AP personnel manually keying invoice data in 250 US & 

Canadian locations 

• 55,000 vendors 

• Email & fax invoices were printed 

• Data keyed into PeopleSoft, then transferred into GEAC mainframe 

for payment 

• Paper invoices stored in boxes 

• Questions required retrieval of physical invoice from storage 



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The AR Challenge 

• Processing $3.6 billion of checks 

• MICR transmission received only had a 5% auto-match rate 

• 95% of payments (350,000/year) applied manually 

• Cash application took 3-4 days 

• Questions required locating and routing paper copies of all materials 

– Checks, Envelopes, Remittance statements, Cash worksheets 

• Checks imaged for archival up to two weeks after deposit 

• 1 FTE prepped batches and removed staples 

• 3 FTEs and 1 PTE for scanning 

AP Solution 

• Centralized 

• No more sorting or printing of e-mail and faxes (automatic) 

• Automatically capture summary and line item details 

• No templates required for different vendor invoice formats 

• “Memory” technology remembers location of data to speed processing 

• Auto-balance line items to invoice totals and PO information 

• Rules applied for accuracy and to match existing business processes 

(date formatting, currency check, terms, blanket PO’s, etc.) 



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AP Solution 

• Invoices queued and sorted into PO or non-PO invoices 

• Data validated against PeopleSoft data 

• Data and images transferred to existing PeopleSoft and IPM, approved 

and then moved into the GEAC mainframe for payment 

• Accurately index invoice images for easy retrieval 

• No need to add AP staff 

AR Solution 

• Bank now images check, remittance and envelope 

• “Memory” technology remembers location of data to speed processing 

• Database lookups quickly identify customer accounts and match reference 

numbers to invoice data in mainframe 

• Auto-balance remittance total to line items 

• Auto-balance check to the remittance 

• Rules applied: Invoice # compared to customer, discounts confirmed, 

unmatched items flagged for exceptions 



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AR Solution 

• Validated data and images quickly transferred to GEAC AR mainframe 

application with seamless integration 

• 72% of the cash is applied automatically—up from 5% compared to the 

manual system 

• Volume of misapplied checks is greatly reduced 

• Remittances that do not match invoice data in the system are flagged for 

easy operator review 

AP Results 

• ROI achieved in just 7.4 months 

• Slashed $1.5 million in labor costs annually 

• Reduced invoice processing staff by 52, more than 40%. 

• Reduced per invoice cost by 46% in the first year alone, from $3.88 to $2.09, with 

additional savings to come 

• Boosted invoice processing volume by 75% with no additional staff required 

• Shortened invoice cycle time to just hours 

• Cut office supplies budget by 73% with the reduction of files, file boxes and paper 

• Saving more than 250 reams of paper annually, equating to 15 trees a year 



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AR Results 

• ROI achieved in 13.4 months 

• Slashed $100,000 in labor costs annually 

• Boosted the automatic cash application rate to 72%—up from 5% compared 

to the manual system 

• Shortened total cash application cycle—from 3-4 days down to ½ day 

• Decreased check images delay to a few hours, down from 1-2 weeks 

• Decreased number of misapplied checks 

• Reduced paper usage, toner expense, and need for equipment maintenance 

• Expedited manual check resolution with unapplied items automatically flagged 

AP & AR Award-Winning Results 

Achieved ROI in just over 10 months for both AP & AR departments 

“Automation allowed us to shorten 

invoice cycle time to just hours, and the 

results speak volumes. The average 

number of invoices processed in 2010 is 

nearly 220% higher than 2008.” 

-Mike Robertson, 

Staff VP of Corporate Shared Services 

Featured in ECM Connection magazine, Fall 2010 

www.AnyDocSoftware.com/CaseStudies 



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Wrapping it Up 

I'm a little confused about how the information 

gets from the AnyDoc system to PeopleSoft. 


And so for your POs and PO receipts how 

often do those get uploaded? 



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Does that jam up the system at all? 


So now the invoices are being sent to a 

general mailbox and to AnyDoc, or who is 

scanning? 



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Böwe Bell + Howell 


And so for the ones you have to scan, how 

many fields do you have to index? 



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Did you have any EDI volume at all, 

historically? Or has it all been paper? 


Are you looking to move some portions away 

from paper to electronic processes at some 

point? 



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Did you say that your suppliers are out there 

flipping POs too? 


You mentioned that initially you had all 

business centers entering into PeopleSoft 

after you used that platform. Did you 

consolidate invoice receipt and centralize that 

as part of this project or had you already 

started that ahead of time? 



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You have 2 people doing scanning, correct? Is 

that included in the 6 people you have doing 

your AP? 


So on your invoices you're matching them up 

to your receipts, do your processors have to 

visually check every invoice that comes 

through or does AnyDoc have a check to see 

if this, this, and this already match? 



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What is your percentage of PO versus non 

PO? 


Did you go back and scan all your old invoices 

that you'd been holding for seven years? 



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Have you seen boosts in DSO and the 

average days to pay? 


Do you cut checks? We match our checks to 

the invoices, and unfortunately that's when we 

find a lot of mistakes and remittance changes. 

How do you deal with making sure that the 

remittance address without the check is the 

one where the supplier wants the checks 

sent? 



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Questions 

To ask a question, please press *1 

on your phone or submit your question 

using the chat function within the 

Webinar interface. 

If you have further questions, 

please e-mail them to 

AMotuz@TheAPNetwork.com 

Wrapping it Up – Q&A 

Nikki Head 

Assistant AP Manager, Leggett & Platt, Inc. 

www.leggett.com 

nikki.head@leggett.com 

www.anydocsoftware.com 

1-800-775-3222 

ask for Client Services 

info@anydocsoftware.com 



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Leggett & Platt: A Case Study in AP & AR Automation Success

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