Large Distributor Achieves Productivity, Accuracy and ROI

With 12 offices nationwide, bpi works with a tremendous volume of purchase orders, invoices and packing slips daily. The accounting department receives about 2,000 to 2,500 invoices per day or between 520,000 to 650,000 invoices annually. Since they handle freight, they are also receiving about 500 packing slips per day or 130,000 annually. 

Previously, all the paperwork was being handled manually. There were 5 employees in accounting and 1 employee in the mailroom handling all the documents. In accounting, they had 2 people scanning all the documents – and if the invoice was electronic or in a PDF, they would print it out for their files and audits. From there, the team had to manually index each invoice, which took 8 hours per day. “We never caught up,” explained Miranda Carr, Accountant at bpi. The processing was so time-consuming that they rarely were able to take advantage of vendor discounts for on-time or early payments. Additionally, errors were common when the team was manually keying in data. Miranda began exploring options to alleviate these challenges. 

As a large enterprise, management was apprehensive about implementing new technology and change management. But when they found out that Ephesoft’s platform could automatically index invoices, there was no turning back. 

“It was an easy transition for us to use the system. We took a 40 hour week of scanning down to 8 to 10 hours a week. Ephesoft captures the entire invoice, no matter what the layout is,” explained Miranda. “We don’t have to touch it anymore.” She mentioned that they sometimes must validate the invoice if there are coffee stains or smudged lettering, which is usually from the employees, not the application. The error rate went down significantly with about 85% of invoicing going straight-through the system without needing validation. In fact, Miranda was thrilled with the automated processing: “It’s 100% better automated than manual processing for errors. Before, we were constantly fixing errors. The system is amazing and is saving us so much time, effort and labor.”

The process improved so much that bpi was able to move one of the two employees who used to scan invoices into a new role outside of accounting, saving money on direct headcount in that department. “With Ephesoft, we’ve cut the time it takes to process invoices by 65%, along with labor savings.”

The mailroom employee, who used to spend about 30 hours a week scanning in documents and invoices from the mail, now only spends about 5 hours on the same task due to the new automation. 

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the bpi team was able do their job remotely since Ephesoft’s platform can be accessed from anywhere. Another advantage of using Ephesoft is that it physically and mentally helps employees. The scanning and data entry processes can be exhausting and mentally draining. Unfortunately, it was common to have sore necks and backs from scanning.

“Our return on investment with Ephesoft was less than 6 months, which has been great,” Miranda calculated. “Before Ephesoft, we would miss out on many discounts. Now, we’re saving more money than ever before, which impacts our company’s bottom line.” She noted that vendors often offer a 30% discount if an invoice is paid within 10 days. Miranda said that once vendors realized bpi was routinely paying early, they called her to offer new, better terms. “After implementing Ephesoft, a majority of invoices qualify for the 30% discount.”

“We like Ephesoft because we’re able to sculpt the system just the way we want it and need it to be. There are so many use cases and it’s accessible to any employee’s technical level,” said Miranda. “It’s very easy once you learn the system. I took the training class and it was worth the money! I ended up saving money in the long run because I was able to set up automatically scanning in barcodes from packing slips by myself. And, if I ever need anything, the Customer Support team is awesome, helpful and available on phone immediately. There’s no downtime.” She also explained that it was beneficial for the Ephesoft team to come on-site and be hands-on during the implementation so they understood bpi’s processes.

Miranda hopes that after the system has been running for a while, that she’ll be able to train and set up at least one user at each office location. This will enable even greater cost savings by having each location capture their packing slips. Currently, each office mails batches of packing slips to the accounting department at the headquarters, which is costly to mail – and unnecessary if they use Ephesoft. The accounting department uses the packing slips to match them to the invoices before payment is made, so automating the process will allow bpi to capitalize on more discounts and eliminate mailing costs. “We’re so happy with the Ephesoft platform!”