The Challenge

Manually processing approximately 35,000 invoices a year with 20% paper and 80% email and with an active base of over 650 suppliers was an administrative challenge.

Tolerances were set in line with Weetabix SOx requirements, any variances had to be manually approved either by signing a hard copy invoice or electronically by email. Not surprisingly collating evidence for the monthly SOx check was time consuming and prone to human error.

The first step towards a more effective future was to get a clear understanding of the manual process to identify areas where an automated solution would add value.

From Process Data to Smarter Decision-Making

A further  improvement is the ‘straight through processing’ statistics. Being able to measure performance on a regular basis, looking at the percentage of invoices which are going straight through, and drilling down on the ones that are not means that bottle necks and problems can be easily identified.

One of the biggest wins has been the introduction of a dashboard which gives the team visibility of invoice processing statistics within the department. This gives sight of the number of invoices which flow through the system and those which require intervention. Thus, allowing targeted remedial action.

Identifying and addressing issues at source enables quicker processing of invoices and ultimately happier suppliers that are paid on time or even early!

Another significant gain is the use of the Power Bi suite which means Weetabix don’t need the services of a third-party resource to produce the Supplier Payment Practices report as this can now be done in-house.

Gathering audit information used to take many hours of sifting through manual documents, they can now produce audit information in a matter of minutes.