12-Week Business App Builder Program
A multidimensional program that trains Mastercard teams to design, build, and deploy end-to-end AP & AR Process Intelligence Business Apps — guided by the T314M 9-Step Value Cycle.
The 9-Step 'Value Cycle'
The T314M Value Cycle is a structured methodology that transforms business problems into automated solutions. Each step builds on the previous one, creating a complete architecture from business context to execution. Every module in this program follows this framework, ensuring systematic and repeatable results.
Context
What is the business process?
e.g., Procure-to-Pay, Order-to-Cash
Design Approach:
- • Map the "happy path" — ideal process flow
- • Identify deviations and failure points
- • Document stakeholders, systems, and touchpoints
- • Create process swimlanes and BPMN diagrams
Example:
P2P flow from PO creation → invoice receipt → 3-way match → payment release → bank clearing
Metric
What is the goal?
e.g., Save cash, reduce working capital
Design Approach:
- • Define value dimensions: cash, time, risk, compliance
- • Prioritize goals based on business strategy
- • Connect process steps to financial impact
- • Establish baseline and target states
Example:
Optimize DPO to preserve $50M cash, capture 2% early payment discounts worth $15M annually
KPI
How do we measure it?
e.g., DSO, DPO, Late Payment Rate
Design Approach:
- • Translate metrics into quantifiable KPIs
- • Define calculation formulas and units
- • Set thresholds for green/yellow/red zones
- • Create KPI dictionary with ownership
Example:
Discount Capture Rate = (Discounts Taken / Discounts Available) × 100%; Target: 85%+
Logic
What is the math?
e.g., Late Payment = Clearing Date > Due Date
Design Approach:
- • Write business rules in plain language
- • Convert to mathematical formulas
- • Define edge cases and exceptions
- • Document logic with decision trees
Example:
Duplicate Payment = Same Vendor + Same Amount + Same Reference within 7 days
Source
Where is the data?
e.g., SAP tables, billing docs, payment logs
Design Approach:
- • Identify source systems (ERP, CRM, billing)
- • Map tables, fields, and relationships
- • Document data quality issues
- • Create data lineage diagrams
Example:
SAP FI tables: BKPF (header), BSEG (line items), LFA1 (vendor master), REGUH (payment runs)
ETL
How do we extract & model it?
e.g., SQL joins, event logs, variants
Design Approach:
- • Design SQL queries and joins
- • Create event logs from transactional data
- • Build activity tables with timestamps
- • Implement data quality checks and filters
Example:
Join invoice, PO, and payment tables; calculate aging buckets; flag exceptions
Visual
How do we show it?
e.g., Process mining flows, KPI dashboards
Design Approach:
- • Create process maps and variant views
- • Design KPI scorecards with traffic lights
- • Build drill-down dashboards
- • Add filters and slicers for exploration
Example:
Process mining flow showing invoice-to-payment with bottleneck highlighting and conformance checking
Insight
Why is it failing?
e.g., Root cause, pattern analysis
Design Approach:
- • Analyze deviations and anomalies
- • Perform root cause analysis (5 Whys, Fishbone)
- • Identify value leakage and waste
- • Segment by process variant and vendor
Example:
82% of late payments occur in Asia due to manual approval escalations and currency mismatches
Action
How do we fix it?
e.g., Automation, alerts, redesign
Design Approach:
- • Design process improvements and automation
- • Create action plans with owners and timelines
- • Build monitoring and alerting systems
- • Track execution and measure impact
Example:
Deploy RPA bot to auto-approve invoices under $10K with matching PO and GR, reducing cycle time by 70%
12-Week Learning Path
Each week applies one step of the Value Cycle to real Mastercard AP/AR scenarios, building toward a complete Finance Intelligence Suite with working prototypes and business cases.
What You Will Learn
Participants move through the full value cycle across Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable. Each step produces a concrete artifact: KPI definitions, SQL logic, dashboards, and execution flows.
Process Intelligence Foundations
- • Understand P2P and O2C happy paths and failure paths
- • Map Mastercard-specific process variants
Value Discovery & Working Capital
- • Identify 'gold nugget' opportunities in AP/AR
- • Model DSO/DPO, discount capture, and revenue protection
AP & AR Business App Building
- • Build apps for duplicate payments, discount loss, credit memos, late payments
- • Develop unearthed discount, dispute, and cash application solutions
Automation & Execution
- • Design Action Flows for reminders and master data corrections
- • Build payment term optimization and dispute routing
Who This Track Is For
Finance & treasury teams
Business analysts & data analysts
Product managers in payment domains
Process intelligence teams
Automation & operations teams
Operations leaders focused on working capital
Program Outcomes
You will be able to:
- Identify and size AP/AR improvement opportunities
- Design KPIs, logic, and dashboards for finance value
- Build and iterate on execution-ready Business Apps
- Connect insights to automated actions and write-backs
You will take away:
- AP + AR Context & KPI Blueprint for Mastercard
- Logic and ETL specifications
- Reusable dashboard and app templates
- T314M Business App Builder certificate