As part of a multi-year effort to transform trade finance, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is launching CashPro Supply Chain Solutions, a platform that will offer participants in a supply chain the benefits of digitization with improved process efficiency and working capital optimization.
CashPro is the banking platform “used by more than 40,000 business clients to manage their treasury and trade operations.”
Open Account Automation, the first module of CashPro Supply Chain Solutions, addresses invoice approval and payment, “one of the most common processes in global trade. This module speeds up the time to approve an invoice from what was often days or weeks to a matter of minutes.”
Geoff Brady, head of Global Trade Supply Chain Finance in Global Transaction Services (GTS) at Bank of America, said:
“Trade finance is still a paper heavy industry despite advances in technology, due in large part to the dependency on traditional manual processes. Eliminating that dependency was central to the design of CashPro Supply Chain Solutions, through which we’re introducing digitization on behalf of network participants.”
Open Account Automation absorbs and collates data “that exists within the supply chain ecosystem.”
Its goal is to improve the overall participant experience “by delivering greater visibility, speed, and automation and allow quicker decision making.”
Companies using Open Account Automation will be able to:
- Digitally on-board suppliers who then gain access to real-time data that provides near-instant visibility into whether their invoices have been approved for payment, or if there were discrepancies that need to be resolved.
- Extract data from document copies and include that data in the automated approval process.
- Match purchase orders with invoices and other logistics information.
- Let buyers control the approval of invoices based on information presented by their suppliers, their logistics providers and their own warehouse receipting process. Buyers can set automated rules for approval, including allowing them to automate discrepancy resolution.
- Automatically disburse payment to a supplier once an invoice is approved and matures.
And coming soon, suppliers will be able to select invoices for early payment.
Jay Davenport, global co-head of Corporate Sales in GTS at Bank of America, said:
“With global commerce operating 24/7, companies need the ability to view and act on information in as close to real-time as possible. Open Account Automation offers that transparency and the ability to self-serve.”