Bridging the Gaps in REO Vendor Invoice Management

With the level of REO properties continuing to grow, asset managers and asset management companies are facing more challenges than ever when managing invoices from their vendor partners. Asset management companies also have the unique challenge of ensuring that they receive timely reimbursements from servicers.

Traditionally, vendor invoice management required the asset management company to collect and scan disparate invoice formats from a multitude of vendors and invest a great deal of time managing these invoices, including submitting payment, gathering supporting documentation, bundling invoices and submitting them to the servicer for reimbursement. In turn, the servicer would then review the information and ultimately pay the asset management company.

Given the unprecedented volume of REO properties, this process has become even more burdensome and difficult to manage.  Fortunately, today there is a better solution. With the introduction of the new LPS Desktop™ Invoice Management Flip solution, REO asset management companies are now able to use LPS technology to significantly streamline the process to everyone’s benefit.

Through LPS Desktop Invoice Management Flip, REO asset management companies can take advantage of automation to manage invoices and reimbursements, reducing, or even eliminating, the need for the REO asset management company to scan and package invoices and supporting documentation for routing to the servicer. The same is true for the creation of new invoices sent upstream to the servicer for reimbursement.

LPS Desktop Invoice Management Flip also brings capabilities such as reviewing and approving invoices – which were traditionally the responsibility of the servicer – directly to the REO asset management company. An easy-to-use Web-based interface not only allows vendors to submit their invoices to the REO asset management company, but also allows the REO asset management company to “flip” the invoice to the servicer for reimbursement. Servicers benefit from being able to quickly view vendor invoices and process reimbursements for the REO asset management company.

LPS Desktop Invoice Management Flip interfaces with the REO asset management company’s accounting system, eliminating the need for manual re-entry of information to cut checks and pay vendors. When vendors submit invoices to the REO asset management company, they are imported into the REO management queue. Payment can be made directly through LPS Desktop Invoice Management to individual vendors, and since all invoices and supporting documents are already in LPS Desktop Invoice Management, a simple point and click will flip the invoice into the appropriate servicer queue for review, payment and reconciliation. 

But, it goes further than that. On the servicer’s end, the LPS Desktop Invoice Management system incorporates business rules to determine allowable expenditures, preventing reimbursement to REO asset management companies that exceed predetermined cost limits. LPS Desktop Invoice Management Flip brings that same capability to the REO asset management company, ensuring they are not automatically paying vendor invoices that exceed set thresholds.

Perhaps most importantly, all of this occurs online and in real time. As invoices are submitted, they are immediately brought into the queue. The REO asset management company can quickly monitor and access the same reports the servicer would traditionally receive. In addition, since the invoice is already in the LPS Desktop Invoice Management system, it can be flipped and reformatted within a matter of seconds, positioning it to be sent automatically – again, online and in real time – to the servicer’s queue, with no manual intervention required at all.

With REO inventories growing every day, the capabilities of LPS Desktop Invoice Management Flip provide an invaluable service to REO asset management companies, the vendors they employ and the servicing organizations they serve.

For more information regarding the LPS Desktop Invoice Management Flip, click here or contact Pam Beck-Janssen at 651-234-3698 or via email at Pamela.Beck-Janssen@fis-lps.com

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