The challenge
Chandos Construction is a national technical builder with over 700 staff in Alberta, B.C., and Ontario. The accounts payable team manually processed approximately 2,500 invoices per month and data entry took up nearly 70% of their time. This process was an inefficient use of the skilled accountants’ time and energy. The monotony of manual data entry also increases the likelihood of human error.
Procurement of the necessary materials and support services is a critical and ongoing part of any major construction project, and rapid procurement requires quick and efficient invoice processing.
The solution
Chandos needed an automated invoice entry solution that could reduce the cost of processing invoices, integrate with their existing financial system with minimal risk, and rapidly adapt to new requirements as needed, including scalability as their company continues to grow.
AP Portal adapted seamlessly to Chandos’ accounts payable process, providing an automated solution which is reliable, easy to use, and guaranteed to deliver 99.5% accuracy on the extracted data.
The new AP process begins with Chandos personnel scanning or uploading invoices through our secure, browser-enabled portal.
On a scheduled basis, AP Portal automatically processes the invoices, extracting metadata information including the vendor’s name, invoice date, taxes and PO number, then validates the extracted information against criteria defined by Chandos. Finally, the system reviews all invoices and data for accuracy and quality assurance.
The majority of invoices pass all the validation steps and are queued for transfer to Chandos’ payment system for processing.
Invoices which do not meet validation criteria (such as duplicates, unverified vendors, missing invoice numbers, etc.) are flagged as exceptions by AP Portal to be investigated by Chandos’ accounts payable team. Scanned images of the invoices are easily viewed alongside the data extracted, making for quick and simple comparison.
The outcome
AP Portal has helped Chandos enhance its invoice processing, providing significant savings both in costs and time. With data entry effectively automated, their talented accounting team has recovered time in their day to focus on more valuable work like coordinating and resolving issues with vendors and clients.
The increased speed and accuracy mean their vendors will always be paid promptly and properly.
