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Porta Mouldings case study
The implementation of AP automation has drastically cut invoice processing time from potentially two weeks down to less than half, with an average document processing time of just 48 seconds – a significant enhancement. This streamlined approach has provided greater managerial accountability, eliminated paperwork losses, and provided heightened supply chain efficiency as invoices are consistently tracked in a central repository.
About Porta Mouldings:
An Australian-owned and locally operated company, Porta has a rich history spanning over 70+ years proudly manufacturing and distributing a broad range of timber products using various local and imported certified timber species. We take pride in being one of Australia’s leading suppliers of decorative timber products to the home improvement, building, trade and commercial sectors.
The challenge:
Our previous accounts payable (AP) process required staff to scan and email invoices to each other for approvals. This became increasingly difficult as the volumes rose to more than 2,000 a month and our AP staff found themselves struggling with time having to manually process all the invoices.
Record keeping also became a challenge. There was difficulty tracking invoices that had not been approved and the team had to continuously follow up with the relevant managers to get them signed off – a tedious and time consuming practice.
Compliance was another area of concern for us. To be compliant with ATO regulations, we needed to archive invoices for a minimum of seven years. This was a massive challenge as we were receiving and approving invoices in both email and hard copy formats. We needed a better way to manage this.
The solution:
After discussions with Pacific Commerce, we decided to go with a customised AP automation solution. Our system will be configured to automatically retrieve PDF invoices from emails, scan and extract the data, and create AP entries directly in the ERP system. All hard copy invoices are scanned, digitalised and put through the same process.
To further alleviate the manual work we were doing, our customised AP solution includes an online, smart invoice approval program (Clearway) which is able to recognise and automatically assign invoices to relevant managers. We are now able to track the status of each invoice easily and who we need to follow up with.
The result & benefits
Previously it could take up to two weeks to process our invoices, but now with AP automation implemented the duration has reduced to less than half. On average, it now takes 48 seconds to process a document, a big improvement from before.
The team is no longer losing paperwork, and this is making our supply chain more efficient. Invoices are always accounted for in a central repository and there is also increased accountability from all our managers.
The new system also automates the assignment of GL codes, and this saves the hassle of being contested for the codes. Fewer resources are required as a result and this helps to reduce overheads.
Our team members are also able to spend more time doing higher value work such as analysis and providing critical advice to support management decision making.
Why Pacific Commerce?
Pacific Commerce was the preferred choice because of the ability for their solution to recognise invoices in all formats and convert them into a digitalised format that our system is able to read.
Having worked with them previously on another project also made things easier and this allowed us to focus on achieving our goals and quickly resolve the issues that would otherwise have taken a longer time to fix.
- AP Manager, Porta Mouldings