Delivered in PeopleSoft Update Image 42, Invoice & Payment Assistant provides a conversational user experience on the inquiry aspect of eSettlements. Invoice & Payment Assistant leverages PICASO PeopleSoft Intelligent Chatbot ASsistant from Oracle, to provide Suppliers with answers to their Invoice & Payment queries.
Let’s understand the capability of the Assistant using the Persona of James Scott. James, a Supplier of BST Enterprises, is responsible for Invoice creation, Dispute resolution, and Collections.
When James logs in, he is taken to the eSettlement Homepage created by BST Enterprises. James could use the Invoices and Payments Tile or click on the Widget to start a conversation with PICASO.
If provided with access, James could also view and access two other Assistants viz Collaboration & General Assistant. The Invoice and Payment Assistant is placed after the Collaboration and General Assistant.
The Welcome Screen provides James with an understanding of the queries that could be addressed by the Assistant. James can click on any of the buttons or type his query.
The scenarios below will explain how James could use Invoice & Payment Assistant to address his questions.
Scenario 1-Invoice Inquiry
James has uploaded some Invoices in the current month and wants to know the status of those Invoices. He could type any of these in the message dialog box.
- Show invoices from this Month. This will retrieve invoices for the current Month or
- Show invoices for Month name (February / Feb)
James could refine his search using date, amount, or a combination of date and amount.
Invoices matching the given criteria are displayed in the form of a Card. Each Card contains Invoice ID, Invoice Status, Invoice Date, and Gross Amount.
The maximum number of invoices displayed in a Carousel is 20.
Clicking on the More Details button provides additional details like Payment Due Date, Payment Method, etc.
If James cannot find the Invoice he could either retype his query with additional filters or use the Invoice hyperlink. The Invoice Inquiry hyperlink will take him to the Invoice Inquiry page to search for Invoices.
Scenario 2- Disputed Invoices Inquiry
Disputed Invoices Inquiry provides the ability to search for Invoices placed on Payment Hold.
James can type
- Show disputed invoices or
- Show invoices on payment hold
James wants a list of Invoices from last year which are still in disputed status. Adding From ‘Last Year’ or ‘2021’ to the above utterance will filter results based on the year.
Clicking on More Details provides the reason for the dispute.
View Dispute resolution enables James to view all conversations that have occurred on the Dispute.
Scenario 3 – Payment Inquiry
As James is also responsible for Collections, he wants to know the Payments he is going to receive from BST Enterprises in the current week. ‘Invoice due this week’ will fetch all details of invoices that are due for payment in the current week. James could also search for Invoices based on statuses like Unpaid, Partially Paid.
Scenario 4 – Help and Exit
The Help intent is an extension of the Welcome message. Typing ‘Help’ will list down the activities that are performed by the Assistant. It gives users helpful hints upfront and is very useful.
As and when James wants to exit the conversation he can type ‘Thanks’ or just click the Close Widget Icon.
PICASO enables Suppliers to track their Invoices and Payments in a simple conversational manner. It eliminates the need for Suppliers to navigate to various tiles and inquiry pages thus saving valuable time.