Field Studies Council Anticipates Savings of £100,000 per Annum by Automating Purchase-to-Pay
27 November 2009
Field Studies Council (FSC), a leading UK environmental education charity with 17 sites situated across the UK, is anticipating cost savings in excess of £100,000 per year by automating its purchase-to-pay cycle using Version One’s document management and imaging solutions (www.versionone.co.uk). FSC is also significantly improving invoice processing efficiency, reducing manual data entry by up to 90% and is supporting its environmental agenda using Version One’s technology tightly integrated into its Sage Line 500 accounting system. Version One’s solutions went live in May 2009.
Richard Walker, Director of Finance at Field Studies Council, says, “Our reliance on paper made paying an invoice time consuming. We also experienced duplication of effort and were vulnerable to errors.”
Walker continues, “Invoices arrive at our 17 different centres and staff could often photocopy a single invoice several times before posting it to the head office for payment. We were also spending an inordinate amount of time re-keying information into our Sage system and due to an inadequate audit trail, we would occasionally end up paying the same invoice twice.”
FSC’s purchase-to-pay inefficiencies meant that it used to take a phenomenal amount of time just to process a small petty cash claim. Its paper-based processes were also proving expensive with FSC incurring significant costs as a result of printing, photocopying and posting paper in addition to the costs of making cheque payments.
Using Version One’s systems, which were recommended by FSC’s Sage software provider, Datel Computing, the 25,000 purchase invoices FSC receives each year are now scanned at its UK-wide centres and emailed through to the head office. These invoices are tagged to the appropriate record in the Sage accounting system and electronically stored. They can then be retrieved by authorised users at all FSC’s sites directly from Sage or by using Version One’s web browser, DbWebQuery.
Version One’s optical character recognition (OCR) technology, DbCapture, enables the data on all invoices to be automatically captured and verified before being uploaded to Sage, significantly reducing manual data entry. Using Version One’s authorisation module, once the invoices have been scanned, approvers are automatically emailed a link to the imaged invoices allowing them to approve, reject or query them with just a click of the mouse. Once approved, FSC makes payment using Version One’s BACS-iP automated payment system.
Walker comments, “Version One’s systems provide us with remarkable time savings and we expect to see even greater efficiencies moving forward. We anticipate up to £100,000 cost savings in the first year of using the systems. In fact, moving from cheques to BACS-iP payments reduces our costs from 60 pence to 32 pence per transaction. We have also significantly cut manual data entry with a 90% reduction in manual data entry of invoice information within the first three weeks of using DbCapture.”
Having instant access to imaged documents has improved the management of FSC’s finances including eliminating the risk of paying the same invoice twice. Furthermore, as FSC is now paying its invoices in a timelier manner, this has enhanced supplier relationships.
As an environmental charity FSC has to take its green agenda more seriously than most and so the environmental benefits of Version One’s document management was another important factor in its decision to move to this technology. Walker adds, “Since implementing Version One, we have dramatically cut paper consumption and no longer have to print, photocopy and post paper which is helping to mitigate FSC’s negative environmental impact.”
FSC’s Director of Finance, Richard Walker, and Finance Manager, Jason Cope, are presenting a Masterclass about their use of Version One’s solutions at Softworld Accounting and Finance (12:30 on 13 October 2009 at London Olympia 2).
About Version Onewww.versionone.co.uk
Version One Ltd is the author of electronic document management and imaging software. These solutions enable the automated electronic storage, retrieval, management, authorisation and delivery of business documents such as invoices, purchase orders and statements. This 'paperless office' technology is seamlessly integrated into all major ERP and accounting systems and with a typical ROI of less than six months, Version One's solutions are enabling thousands of organisations to save dramatic amounts of time and money.
Contacts:
Liz Ebbrell
Version One
E: Liz.ebbrell@versionone.co.uk
T: +44 (0)1625 856505
M: +44 (0)7917 634 705
Ben Carey
Version One
E: Ben.carey@versionone.co.uk
T: +44(0)1625 856505
