A rising percentage of organizations are choosing e-invoicing to reduce processing costs, accelerate approval cycles, and increase on-time payments. Australia’s TRN Group, a family-owned Civil Engineering and Haulage contractor based in Camden NSW, has adopted an ABBYY FlexiCapture solution to manage the processing and approval of approximately 3,500 creditor invoices per month.

Challenge

The TRN Group was established in 1966 and has grown to employ 240 employees and has an annual turnover in excess of $A150 million. Current clients include Landcom, Mirvac, Stocklands, Dart West Developments and Cornish Group. Current projects include Oran Park Town, Gregory Hills, Central Hills and Spring Farm.

NSW business technology specialist, Inland Technology, has deployed an ABBYY FlexiCapture solution to automate the capture and processing of data from paper and PDF invoices.

The task of processing creditor invoices involved regular delays, lost and duplicate invoices and time spent handling inbound calls from suppliers.

Solution

The solution enables all invoices to be scanned upon the opening of the daily mail or captured from the attachments in emails to an accounts payable email address.

Invoices are then OCRed to identify essential data such as ABN, invoice number, date, order number, job number, invoice total, GST.

This data is then verified by an accounts payable team member prior to being imported to Infoware, their financial accounting system and distributed for electronic approval.

“In addition, we have a PDF image of the creditors invoice that saves on filing time and enables any user to quickly access the invoice to check details by simply clicking a link from the various reports within our accounting system.

“Inland Technology worked very closely with TRN Group throughout the implementation of the project and more importantly listened to our needs and provided a solution that reflected these needs.”

Results

TRN Group deployed a Canon DR3010C scanners and integrated existing MFDs to scan invoices as they arrive.

Rajesh Patel, Director of Imaging and Document Management at Inland Technology, said the solution incorporate the ability for FlexiCapture to look up creditor details in the Line of Business system from within FlexiCapture.

“If the client doesn’t exist it is possible for staff to create a new creditor from within FlexiCapture and submit those details with the scanned data and invoice image. They don’t need to enter into the financial accounting system.

“Invoices come in many shapes and sizes. FlexiCapture looks for the invoice number wherever it is on the form and captures it without relying on the need for a strict template. It is a major strength of the software,” said Patel.