The Challenge
To support its rapid growth, in mid-2018 Allied Credit deployed the Sage 300 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software suite. The suite is designed to support a range of accounting functions including accounts payable and receivable, general ledger, and payroll.While the software had already delivered significant benefits to Allied Credit, the rapid growth of operations was putting pressure on its invoice processing capabilities.
“We were heavily reliant on manual invoice processing which was beginning to cause some issues,” says Allied Credit Chief Financial Officer, Matt Devine.
“We found incoming invoices were getting lost in people’s email inboxes and not being processed as swiftly as they should have been. At times, vendors would be chasing payment for invoices that had not even been seen by the accounting team. We knew we needed to find an alternative approach.”
The Solution
Working with technology partner MicroChannel, the Allied Credit IT team examined a range of options for a new invoice processing system. After features and capabilities were compared and evaluated, a solution from Pacifictech was selected for deployment.“We could quickly see that the Pacifictech option was the best fit for our requirements,” says Devine. “We made the decision in June 2020 and the rollout was completed within just six weeks.”
Components deployed include Pacifictech Payables Workflow, PW-Web, DPS and Go App for smartphones. All were integrated with the existing Sage 300 ERP system. Devine says the new system was quickly embraced by staff who found they required no additional training.
The Benefits
- Rapid implementationOnce fully operational, the new Pacifictech tools were quickly delivering benefits to Allied Credit.
- Streamlined and Efficient Approval ProcessThe company’s invoice processing workflow has been dramatically streamlined and the approvals process greatly improved.
- Saves valuable time for all staffDevine says PW-Web incorporates an optical invoice reader. As invoices are received, they are scanned with details extracted and automatically entered into the system. This saves significant staff time.
- Automated invoice processing improves accuracyThe Pacifictech Payables Workflow module has automated the company’s invoice processing methods. Business rules have been created that ensure invoices are sent to the right person for approval and allocated to the correct cost centre vastly improving accuracy.
The Conclusion
“The Pacifictech Go App for smartphones then allows managers to quickly approve invoices from anywhere they happen to be,” he says. “Having this capability has greatly improved the rate at which they can be processed.“We are now able to receive an invoice by email, have it processed, approved, and paid within 24 hours.”
Devine says the fact that the new tools could be easily added to the company’s existing Sage 300 system made the whole deployment very simple.
“There was no need to install and manage an additional application but instead we were able to add extra capabilities to what we already had in place,” he says.
“We feel we now have much more control of our invoice processing, which is important when the company is experiencing an annual growth rate of around 45 per cent.
“Pacifictech and MicroChannel have delivered a capability that will help us reach our goal of having a $2 billion loan portfolio in place within the next three years,” he concludes.
Matt Devine. Allied Credit CFO. Sydney, AustraliaAs a rapidly growing company, Allied Credit required a solution which simplified and automated invoice processing so that they can focus on their core business without the distraction of complicated internal systems.