Costpoint Supplier Portal: Collaboration, Automation, and Centralization

Do your procurement and accounts payable processes often have you feeling like you are wrangling cats? Sifting through emails for purchase order (PO) negotiations and approval information? Keeping up on order status, late deliveries and shipment notifications? Organizing, reconciling and approving vendor invoices? Then, your Contractor Purchasing System Review (CPSR) audit rolls around, and all of your communication and documents are scattered in different systems and file locations?

Sound familiar? 

What if you had an easy way communicate and collaborate with your suppliers and proactively take action on purchase orders, shipments and invoices without even having to leave Costpoint? Plus, all of your communication and actions were tracked right within the purchase order and invoice records. Well, the Costpoint Supplier Portal from Deltek does just that.

Costpoint Supplier Portal has three main aspects that allow you to extend your Costpoint Procurement and Accounts Payable solutions, improving your Days Payable Outstanding, speeding up cycle times and having all of your CPSR audit data up-to-date and available at your fingertips in one central location.

As a buyer, you have access to the Buyer Dashboard which allows you to quickly see all of your open purchase orders and invoice statuses on one screen letting you be proactive on any pending actions. With one click in the Manage Purchase Orders screen, you can send the purchase order to your supplier rather than leaving Costpoint to email a copy. You can also, submit purchase order changes, cancel the request or respond directly to a supplier’s change request.

In addition to streamlining communication and transactions involving purchase orders, for parts and goods, you can now receive shipping notifications from suppliers and have instant access to the status of a shipment against a PO. This information lets buyers and planners evaluate the timing impact on project status, requirements, and the manufacturing process.

As an accounts payable team member, you can receive and approve invoices that were entered directly into Costpoint and submitted by the supplier, saving you tons of time rummaging through emails and figuring out different invoice formats. If you utilize the Costpoint Subcontract Management module, the supplier can immediately access the Costpoint generated invoice through the Supplier Portal. Enabling this faster reconciliation and approval of submitted time and expenses on the invoice, is sure to improve your Days Payable Outstanding as well as the supplier’s Days Sales Outstanding, which is a win for both parties.

Another new feature in Costpoint 8 allows you to make your invoice transactions legally binding without the physical signed copies, by using the innovative digital signature technologies in Costpoint Supplier Portal. If you and your supplier are set up for digital signatures, both will approve the invoice by signing the document with a FIDO compatible device.  The technology brings more efficiency to the payment and agreement process as well as additional assurance and accuracy for both the buying company and the supplier.

Messages and transactions are tracked on all actions triggering email notifications that are sent back and forth during negotiations, acceptance of terms, approvals and status updates on orders, invoices, shipments and delivery of services. Users can link directly from the email to the record of interest in Costpoint, saving time and frustration in searching for what you need.

Not only does the Supplier Portal benefit you as the Buying Company, but your suppliers, vendors and subcontractors will also see great value in using this tool. Suppliers are setup as unique users in Costpoint with limited access to see only the Supplier Portal screens and purchase orders and invoices with which they are involved. Suppliers also have a similar dashboard that helps them quickly see the status of their items and any pending actions they must take. Having this real time access gives them the ability to receive and provide timely updates, keeping your purchase orders organized and of top priority.

Here are just a few of the benefits that the Costpoint Supplier Portal provides to both the buying and supplying companies:

1. With smoother negotiations and collaboration as well as faster and more organized communication and approvals, first-time match rate and Days Payable Outstanding are improved, allowing you to take advantage or early payment discounts and reduce the overall cost of doing business.
2. By keeping documentation on all transactions and negotiation history in one system, you have a key component of the Contractor Purchasing System Review (CPSR) ready in a matter of a few clicks.
3. By digitalizing and streamlining the data flow between you and your suppliers, cycle times, costs and transactional issues are reduced, improving efficiency so both parties have more time to foster better relationships, and focus on winning new business and strategic initiatives other than just finding the best price.
4. The proactive displays on the dashboards and access to instant communication leaves suppliers and buyers feeling more attentive and collaborative, driving up customer service and better relationships.
5. Allowing the supplier to reconcile, submit and approve invoices directly in the system helps reduce their Days Sales Outstanding which is sure to improve the bottom line.

To see how Costpoint Supplier Portal can help you with shorten cycle times and collaborate with your suppliers and subcontractors, schedule your Supplier Portal demo. 

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• Costpoint Townhalls
• The Costpoint Product Blog