Streamlined invoice processing flow for better overview and efficiency

The company has been active on the German market for decades, with solutions and services specially tailored to the needs of organisations in the banking and Financial Services industries.

Industry

Finance

Service

Cloud Solutions Intelligent Workplace

Company Size

8.000+ employees

Duration

2016 - present

Challenge

Challenge

Due to constant growth and progress, the organisation faced challenges with their current invoice processing workflow, which involved company-wide manual work. Employees had to deal with high volumes of paperwork, especially during peak weeks, resulting in lengthy processing and approval times and a lack of overview. These factors resulted in lowered employee satisfaction, as well as the risk of errors and slowdowns in the invoice processing flow.

Solution

Solution

The organisation was determined to employ a viable, robust digital application as soon as possible and required a dependable technology partner to help them. Based on their requirements, we created a Microsoft 365-based solution to digitise, streamline, and improve the process of working with invoices. The software was designed to integrate as seamlessly as possible into existing processes while automating the repetitive tasks previously handled by employees.

Impact

Impact

The solution we designed and developed enabled company-wide modernisation and increased efficiency by streamlining the invoice processing flow and automating many touchpoints that were previously being handled manually by employees. Additionally, by creating a centralised invoice archive that tracks each document’s history, stakeholders have a much better overview of the process, enabling further optimisations.

Project Overview

Given the insights provided by a thorough analysis of the partner’s business, as well as the pain points of the invoice processing flow, we identified the digital solution to best suit their business needs: a Microsoft 365-based solution to digitise, simplify, and modernise the process of working with invoices.

To fully support this solution and bring benefits to the company, we:

  • Designed a flexible and robust workflow engine to support the approval process.

  • Integrated Microsoft Azure Form Recognizer for quick text extraction, which supports the accounts receivable team and all company departments every month in the management and approval of invoices.

  • Implemented a mechanism for automated archiving of processed invoices to minimise manual work.

In carrying out the project, we opted for the agile methodology with milestone-based delivery. Not only did this support the priorities set by the customer, but it also enabled us to deliver quickly, enabling the organisation to quickly undergo a highly effective digital transformation.

We focused on maintaining a constant and transparent communication flow with our partner, as we do with every Accesa project, to ensure the application was delivered quickly and met their business needs and objectives.

Results

The Microsoft 365-based application we designed and developed for our partner’s processing flow resulted in increased time efficiency, the elimination of possible human errors, ease of processing information, as well as documented approval processes. More specifically, the solution brought the following benefits:

  • Company-wide modernisation:high volumes of time-consuming, error-prone, manual work were eliminated.

  • Increased efficiency:the software application provided is a one-stop shop for processing invoices, enabling employees to quickly and precisely manage incoming data in just a few clicks; the approval process is automated and thus considerably simplified.

  • Boosted employee satisfaction:digitising and automating the accounts payable flow led to employees dedicating their newly gained time to value-adding tasks.

  • Centralised, traceable invoice processing:every processed invoice is added to the archive, whenever and wherever available, for further checks; at the same time, the platform provides a history of every action the invoice has been subjected to, providing everyone involved with a clear overview.

  • Mobility:adhering to the principles of a modern workplace, employees can access and use the provided application via mobile devices as well, enjoying a personalised user experience and the means to get the job done quickly and effectively.