THE FULL STORY
When Greentree Partner Verde Group told Ryman Healthcare about how Greentree 4 eDocs could revolutionise its invoice processing, Ryman didn’t hesitate to give it a go.
“We process on average 15,000 invoices every month,” says Rebecca Payne, who runs Ryman’s Accounts Payable department. “eDocs is saving us hours of work each week and since the company is continuing its rapid growth, we’re confident that the system will comfortably handle the extra workload.”
Ryman is a leading builder and operator of retirement villages in New Zealand and Australia. It’s one of the New Zealand Stock Exchange’s top performers and a long-time Greentree user.
Ryman generally has half a dozen building projects on the go at any one time, along with a regular refurbishment programme. It receives thousands of invoices every week as a result and its previous, separate invoice capture system was generating an ever-growing stack of unnecessary tasks.
NO DATA ENTRY REQUIRED
“Because [the invoice capture system we were using] couldn’t talk properly to Greentree there was quite a lot that we couldn’t do with it,” Rebecca says. “We spent too much time printing and scanning paper invoices.”
eDocs enables the electronic loading and processing of invoices directly into Greentree. Ryman uses eDocs OCR, a Cloud-based data scraping application, to electronically transfer the relevant information (invoice, GST, bank account numbers, etc) off a PDF and into Greentree – with no data entry required. The information is then dispatched electronically to the relevant managers for approval, with the original invoice automatically attached as a PDF for reference.
NO MORE COSTLY COURIERS
Getting approval from managers in different locations was once a time-consuming process involving costly couriers and requiring multiple phone calls – not any more.
“Previously we used to send invoices out to our villages by courier for approval,” Rebecca explains. “If there was a problem with an invoice it would generally sit in someone’s drawer till payment day approached, then we’d have to call people and ask them where the invoice was or if there was something that needed chasing up. Invoices could sit around for days or weeks and then there was always a last-minute rush to get them approved.”
A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER
As well as experiencing major reductions in paperwork, Rebecca’s staff now have live visibility of the invoices in the system as well as the number of invoices being handled every day.
“Previously we could never really keep up with how many invoices they would have at the villages,” she says. “Now each day I can check up on how many invoices are with which person and I can let my staff know who to chase up if they’re having any problems with approving or if they need any help.
