Press the scan button and open the browser: that’s how Nicole Huschka starts off her weekly procedure with the 45 incoming invoices for the week. She types in her password and clicks on “upload batch”. Ephesoft Transact takes over and separates every single document of the scanned stack and generates a virtual date stamp (ER-Seal) with an ongoing number for every image. Now, it’s Nicole Huschka’s turn again. She selects the right product group for every invoice and enters booking text and supplier. Half an hour later she quickly finishes entering all the invoice data.

Although the office administrator isn’t the typical technical or IT user that many software programs require, using Ephesoft Transact to process invoices doesn’t bother Nicole with its user-friendly, simple interface. Nicole processes only 40-50 incoming invoices per week and works at Wintersperger GmbH in Kematen, Austria. The service enterprise employs 16 workers and covers the trades of electric, gas, water and heating.

Wintersperger GmbH uses MD Systemhaus GmbH, which offers a cloud service specifically designed for small businesses.

The service is based on Ephesoft Transact and is marketed under the name KMDS Online Cloud. Users pay an annual fixed price and save on investments as well as ongoing maintenance costs. Most document capture software is usually expensive and used in organizations that process hundreds of incoming invoices daily. However, MD Systemhaus offers business of all sizes the ability to capitalize on what used to be only attainable for large enterprises with the use of KMDS Online Cloud powered by Ephesoft Transact.

MD Systemhaus supervises more than 130 small and midsize companies, in all matters relating to documents, starting from printing hardware and scanning to document capturing and archiving. “Our strength is individual consulting. We know every customer personally and develop customized solutions for automating office life,” emphasizes Thomas Kraft, CEO and owner of MD Systemhaus.

“A large number of customers know they should automate their accounting process, but cannot afford a purchase license,” said Thomas Kraft, which is how the idea to start MD Systemhaus came about. He wanted to develop a capture platform on a rental basis that was usable for small and midsize companies as well as their accountants. He found the best solution was using Ephesoft Transact’s platform. “The performance is excellent and fully scalable, low maintenance and multitenant. In addition, the license model fits perfectly.”

The cloud service is available in different units. The smallest unit includes up to 5,000 pages per year, which applies to most of MD Systemhaus’ customers. A flat rate is charged for the initial set up, followed by an annual SaaS fee. “Using Ephesoft allows our small and midsize customers to gain access their modern and innovative technology. The potential is correspondingly high,” explained Thomas Kraft enthusiastically. “Once we process more than 1,000 bills or invoices per year, we recognize the return on investment.”

IT experts typically rely on standards to keep the effort for basic configuration low, but they still allow enough freedom for customized processes. Often, they first develop an application with integration into the tax calculation program BMD, which is widespread in Austria. Further applications such as RZL, Datev or Sage will commonly follow. The standard functions include the assignment of internal invoice numbers, automated document separation and indexing, so that the receipts don’t have to be sorted by date or have text sheets inserted. Defined data fields are extracted by the system via OCR and any questionable results are passed to the customer for validation.

The invoice data is processed and sent as a collective CSV data file via email. The portal is encrypted using SSL and is hosted in a professional data center. Specific guidelines for account payables, general ledger accounts, workflows, extraction rules and logic checks are made during the implementation phase. Data fields are determined and extracted using OCR are also part of the initial configuration and can be adapted at any time. Every user receives its own batch class to ensure data security is consistently provided.

Personnel changes in accounting were on the agenda at Wintersperger and Thomas Kraft was asked to give a recommendation. The goal was to achieve more efficient and flexible processing of incoming invoices.

The longtime IT partner already had an answer: Nicole Huschka and a colleague had been using the KMDS Online Cloud since summer 2017. Ephesoft Transact reads the headers and footnotes for the company, including gross and net sums, VAT rates and invoice date, which is included in the file name to allow for structured archiving.

The validated data is sent to the tax consultant automatically for posting. The platform seamlessly sends the billing data into the accounting system, while images of the invoices are stored and classified in the company network. These can be easily searched and accessed by date or supplier. After the tax consultant’s feedback, payment is made.

Automated invoice capturing saves valuable time for employees. In addition, potential sources of errors are reduced, including typing errors or lost documents. KMDS Online Cloud and Ephesoft Transact ensure higher accuracy for better reporting and tax purposes.

“MD Systemhaus has implemented a solution that meets our needs and helps us to process incoming invoices more efficiently.”

— Nicole Huschka, Wintersperger GmbH