We’re going to share some restaurant accounting industry secret sauce: the MarginEdge EDI and Reconciliation tool. The MarginEdge EDI and Reconciliation tool helps restaurant managers and accountants process invoices and bill pay much faster than doing everything by hand by implementing AI and automation, so that all the legwork happens in the background – instead of taking up precious man-hours.
MarginEdge EDI to the Rescue
MarginEdge’s electronic data interchange (EDI) feature allows invoices to be seamlessly entered into the MarginEdge system once the invoice is entered into the Vendor’s system. MarginEdge receives an electronic version of the invoice and marks it as “Image Pending” until an actual image of the invoice is sent to MarginEdge, at which point MarginEdge automatically matches the uploaded image with the EDI invoice that is waiting; this “match” creates only one copy of the invoice to avoid duplicate invoices from being entered into the accounting system.
Under MarginEdge’s default EDI settings, if no invoice image is received, EDI invoices will be flagged in MarginEdge’s Weekly Snapshot email to the restaurant accountant for approval and if no approval is given within 28 days, the EDI invoice will auto-delete after 28 days. The MarginEdge EDI settings can also be adjusted from default mode to process EDI invoices without requiring either “approval” of an EDI invoice or a “match” with an uploaded image of the invoice.
Next, the MarginEdge EDI and Reconciliation tool together really shine.
The MarginEdge Reconciliation Tool in Action
MarginEdge’s Reconciliation tool (accessible via the side Navigation Bar, Accounting -> Reconciliation), identifies four types of discrepancies that may arise between EDI and image uploading of invoices:
- Missing EDI (EDI Pending) – for invoices whose images have been received but whose EDI versions have not come through from the Vendor
- Missing Image (Image Pending) – for EDI invoices that have not been matched with an uploaded image of that invoice yet
- Duplicate Vendor Credits – for invoice credits that MarginEdge identifies as duplicates and suggests merging but asks you to double-check and confirm
- Missing Vendor Credits – for invoice images received with handwritten adjustments on the invoices that provide a credit for the restaurant which has not been sent yet as an EDI by the Vendor (sometimes Vendors can take as much as 7-14 days to issue EDI credits arising from handwritten adjustments of invoices)
The Reconciliation page in MarginEdge allows the restaurant accountant to resolve any of these four flagged issues by uploading a missing image of an invoice or credit, deciding to wait for the Vendor to upload an EDI version of the invoice/credit in question, approving an EDI invoice/credit without uploading an image, or approving an image of an invoice/credit without having the corresponding EDI.
MarginEdge EDI and Reconciliation Tool in a Nutshell
In summation, EDI provides another layer of invoice and credit processing to make processing faster and more accurate, and the “Reconciliation” screen in MarginEdge empowers the accountant to manage discrepancies between the EDI layer and the actual image uploading layer that may occur.
For more information on MarginEdge, or for general restaurant accounting questions, grab a seat with us!
Written by Ben Wojnar, CPA | Originally published 11/15/2022.
