Process of Merchandise Vendor Management

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Recieving of the document Tracking of Invoice in Walmart System Accounts payable Invoice entry Reconciliation of Invoice Controlling & reviewing accuracy of Invoice Vendor reconciliation Resolving of the open issues Reconciliation signing off Payment of the vendors

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Receiving of the documents

The first step that Bharti Wal-mart follows to maintain its Vendor records is to receive all the bills & invoices. As we all know that Bharti Wal-mart is planning to open many stores all over India, but as for now the invoices of all the existing stores (i.e. all the bills of all the items that are available in the stores), in whichever city they are, are sent to the Home Office in Gurgaon, for its payments through courier. It is important to note that payments of all the perishable items (such as fruits, vegetables, grocery products) are made from the particulars stores itself for which they have been purchased for. All the other non-perishable items bills are sent to Home Office for its payments, of which payments have been made within 60 days.

Tracking of Invoice in Wal-mart System

Once the bills or invoices comes to Home Office through courier, then the second step is to systematically benter all the invoices information in the excel sheet for further process and filtrations.

Accounts payable Invoice entry (APIE)

Now the third step is to copy all the entries done in the excel sheet to the APIE for the systematic and permanent records. In this a systematic records of all the invoices which have to be paid is maintained according to the dates of their payments. This is a software designed by Wal-mart itself for its convenience. Note- Data entry has been made in APIE, just for a simple reason so that it can be used in WAPR for invoice reconciliation.

Reconciliation of Invoice
After all the information that is available in the invoices is being entered in excel and then systematically arranged in APIE, then the next step is to reconcile all the invoices using WAPR software (WAPR stands for- Wal-mart accounts payable reconciliation) . Now there are 2 types of Invoices in Bharti Wal-mart system1. DC- Direct from company.(the material issued on these invoices are first collected in the warehouse & then sent to the stores according to demand ) 2. DSD- Direct store delivery. (the material issued on these invoices are directly delivered to the stores ) DC invoices are entered in excel, then APIE, & then finally to WAPR for its reconciliation. DSD invoices are directly reconciled in WAPR as their payment has been made through stores and then sent to Home Office for Reconciliation. In WAPR these invoices are being checked & Reconciled if any difference occurs between the invoice amount & the quantity mentioned in the invoices with the records of amount per unit, and quantity ordered for each vendor. WAPR is being used to check that -y y y y Quantities mentioned in the invoices are correct or not. Amount per unit is correct or not. The amount mentioned in the invoice are correct or not and if any difference occurs then reconcile the amount by checking the per unit quantity with its per unit price. Reconcile each invoice & pass on for further payment process.

Controlling & reviewing accuracy of Invoice

Controlling & reviewing accuracy of Invoices is the part of WAPR only, or you can say it is the continuing step of WAPR. In this the company review that each invoice is properly reconciled or not, the differences in the invoices are been knocked off or not, etc.

Vendor reconciliation
The most important part of payment is the reconciliation of merchandise vendors. In this the ledger which is sent by each vendors are checked with the BWM report FI140(which is for the imbalance amount left to be paid). On the basis of the Reconciliation the Remarks are given accordingly y y y y y y Invoice paid but not accounted Deduction not accounted Invoice in process Invoice not received Unidentified debit Unidentified credit

On the basis of these remarks a proper reconciliation is made that knocks off the difference between the vendor amount & BWM amount.

Resolving of the open issues

After the reconciliation is prepared then it is sent to the vendor for verification. y y The vendor checks the reconciliation & if satisfied with it its signs off the Reconciliation and then its payment are made of the amount finalized in the reconciliation. If the vendor is not satisfied with any of the remarks mentioned above then those remarks are considered as an open issues and then a meeting is arranged with the vendor in order to make them understand and convince them on the reconciliation made. If the vendor provide the details of the invoices related to the open issues which he has the record off then those invoices are revaluated and taken into account so that payment can be justified accordingly.

Reconciliation signing off

Once the vendor is satisfied with the reconciliation and all its queries are answered then the finalizing step is to take the sign of the vendor on the reconciliation sheet which is prepared by BWM which signifies that the vendor has no issues of any sort regarding that reconciliation, & is ready to accept the amount mentioned in the reconciliation sheet.

Payment of the vendors

Finally once the reconciliation is signed off by the vendor then the final step is to make the payments to the vendors. Note y y The payments are made three times a week i.e. Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Credit duration in of 60 days, i.e. payment to each vendor will be made after 60 days.