Overview

An electric service provider had a variety of accounts receivable ancillary to their main business functions. These receivables were being billed and maintained using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Word mail merge applications. Surety brought in a Lawson Accounts Receivable expert and as a result, the electric provider now benefits from a modern and efficient process.

Challenge

An electric service provider had a variety of accounts receivable being billed and maintained using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Word mail merge applications.

Solution

Surety Systems provided a consultant who implemented the Lawson Accounts Receivable module to manage, track, and report on their miscellaneous receivables.

Result

With the implementation of the Lawson Accounts Receivable module, the energy provider benefitted from a more modern and efficient process and additional functionalities.

The Challenge

An electric service provider had a variety of accounts receivable ancillary to their main business functions. These receivables were being billed and maintained using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Word mail merge applications. Payments received were posted to a paid column for the invoice line on the spreadsheet. Journal entries were being posted manually to the Lawson General Ledger. Selected receivables were subject to manual finance charge calculations if unpaid. There was also no ability to generate aging reports for management review.

The Solution

The provider had purchased the Lawson Accounts Receivable (AR) module when they bought the Lawson Financial Suite but weren’t using it. Surety Systems provided an expert Lawson consultant who reviewed their miscellaneous receivables and determined the Lawson Accounts Receivable module to manage, track, and report on their miscellaneous receivables. It was also determined that they didn’t need to buy the Lawson Billing module to create invoices. Instead, invoices could be generated from the data stored in various AR Tables using Crystal Reports, which they already had.

The Result

As a result of Surety’s involvement in the Lawson Accounts Receivable implementation, the electric provider now has a GL code for each account allowing entries to post to the correct AR account. Each GL code was coupled to its own unique process level, and invoices in the Lawson AR system were also assigned a process level.

With this approach, three objectives were accomplished: 1) AR Control Accounts to be posted in the GL for an invoice were identified, 2) Ability for management to group and report on open/unpaid invoices by GL AR Control was created, and 3) Structure by which each GL AR Control Account could be reconciled/balanced to its portion of the Lawson AR database was set up.

Additionally, Major and Minor Class Code combinations were created for each type of miscellaneous receivable and entered on the AR Customer record. This approach allowed management to generate AR reports for just those customers having a certain type miscellaneous receivables.

Since the provider allowed employees with certain types of miscellaneous receivables to make payments via payroll deductions, Lawson Cash Ledger was set up. This allows payments to be processed and applied to the employee’s unpaid invoice just as if they had mailed in a check payment.