Paperless Transformation of Finance Department using emSigner

eMudhra helps Finance department of a Large Enterprise go paperless in no time

Overview

In any company, Finance is one of the most paper-heavy departments with a large number of documents pass through it every day. Every document requires thorough review, approval and transfer back to the appropriate person before being archived for future reference, accounting and audit purposes.

Similar is the case with this particular company, which was dealing with a constraint of spending significant time and effort by using outdated paper based processes. eMudhra outlined the following key areas where emSigner combined with eSign would significantly improve the document processing capabilities of the finance department and gain real time visibility

• Collect information to properly invoice customers and feed data directly into your billing system, thereby reducing errors and accelerating billing
• Get employees to electronically sign expense reports, improving cash management and increasing compliance
• Embed emSigner into the organization’s existing inventory management forms and processes, thereby saving time, reducing errors and increasing visibility
• Maintain proper control and records for all assets you’re transferring by embedding emSigner within your existing forms, and linking to the Organization’s financial systems

Business Matters

Finance Department of a large Enterprise wanted to move to a completely paperless environment using digital signatures/ AADHAAR based eSign to accelerate invoicing and cash flow, improve compliance, and gain real-time visibility into critical document processes.

Business Needs

Usage of outdated paper based processes had left the financial department out of sync with the times and as a result had built up higher costs. Hence the company was looking to reduce paper footprint and go digital by using a solution that allows paperless movement of files within and outside the Finance Department thereby reducing cost and increasing agility.

Approach

Deploy an integrated solution to digitally sign and encrypt documents that are legally binding and guarantee authenticity, integrity and confidentiality of data. The finance department should be able to use emSigner to facilitate multi-party physical signatures and real time signing of documents related to invoice processing, regulatory compliance and audit sign off, expense reporting, inventory sign off, policy management and asset transfers.

In a phased manner the organisation would integrate all of their internal as well as external applications with emSigner to facilitate signing of approximately 10,000 invoices per month, 500 proposals and contracts & 50,000 other documents.

• Encrypt and secure sensitive information related to compliance Streamline approval processes where it becomes critical for the right approvals in order to process payments

eMudhra Solution

eMudhra (a Licensed Certifying Authority in India and a PKI solution provider) implemented eSign and emSigner — Secure Paperless Office solution — to enable Digital Signature based workflow for Finance.

The typical lifecycle involves:

• Budgetary approvals for making vendor payments
• Invoice generation and signing with Digital Signatures
• All expense reports to be signed by the employees
• Signing and presenting all audit and financial reports
• Sign and review all the documents by using bulk sign feature

The paperless office solution uses following broad modules:

• emSigner 
  Digital Signature enabled workflow management solution used for defining paperless workflows 
  This includes
  • Issuance of Purchase Orders
  • Vendor Invoicing & Accounts Payable
  • Customer Invoicing & Accounts Receivable
  • Employee Reimbursements
  • Issuance of Tax Statements
• SecurePass - 
  eMudhra Authentication Server To authenticate, verify digital signature certificates on a real time basis
• e-Sign -
  AADHAAR basedDigital Signature To e-Sign documents digitally on a real time basis.

Digital Signature Technology

The Digital Signature Technology works on the Public Key Infrastructure framework which uses a Cryptographic Key Pair – Private and Public Key for secure access and transmission of information.

Digital Signatures are generated by the issuer for the client in a secure device.

Benefits

The Finance Department reaped significant benefits by implementing digital signature based workflow signing.

These includes:

• Legal non-repudiation thereby reducing frauds
• Signing and approving documents from anywhere, anytime
• Faster turnaround time, increased employees efficiency, productivity and transparency
• Meeting compliance & regulatory requirements
• Completely paperless workflow thereby resulting in huge savings