91快活林

Overview

Paytronix, an Access Group company, is a cloud-based digital guest engagement platform for the hospitality industry that provides loyalty programs, online ordering, gift cards, branded mobile applications, and strategic insights to 1,800+ restaurant and convenience store brands across 50,000 sites globally.

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Key Accounts Payable (AP) challenges

• Highly manual AP processes creating hours of tedious busywork
• A high volume of check payments and rising costs to print and process them
• Slow payment approval processes leading to late payments, unnecessary fees and growing vendor frustration
• A lack of transparency about invoice approvals, payment status and cash flow
• No integration with NetSuite ERP system, requiring additional manual inputs and duplicate work for the finance team

The Solution for Improving the AP Process

• Five-week implementation with easy onboarding supplemented by 91快活林 Academy self-paced training
• Custom workflows with multi-level approval settings for different employees and vendors
• 2-way sync between NetSuite and 91快活林 for automatic PO matching
• Digital payment options including SilverPay virtual card with high-value cash rebates
• Conversion of a large portion of vendors to digital payment options with help from 91快活林 payment services
• Comprehensive 91快活林 support including Live Chat function

The Results of AP Automation

• SilverPay virtual card payments offset the costs of 91快活林 AP software
• Automated workflows eliminate at least four hours of manual work every week
• Streamlined AP process delivers invoices and approvals digitally via pre-set rules
• Easy payment scheduling means significantly fewer late payments
• Streamlined vendor payment communications build trust and confidence
• Connection to a wider range of financial controls translate to better cash management and business forecasting

Customer Background

In 2020, Paytronix had ~200 employees working at their main office in Newton, Massachusetts, including their finance and AP teams. At that time, like many AP teams, their processes were highly manual. The manual nature of the work is a story many AP professionals can still relate to today: invoices arrived by mail and email, were printed and added into folders, then physically walked to department heads鈥� desks where they鈥檇 sit for days or even weeks, waiting for approval. After a long, slow approval process, AP teams would manually print checks, stuff envelopes, and cross their fingers that payments would arrive on time. The effects of the manual process were late fees, vendor frustration, and hours of tedious busywork that AP teams could have spent better elsewhere.

When COVID hit and remote work was the sudden new norm, Paytronix could no longer operate with the manual processes that were in place. In late 2020, Paytronix began working with 91快活林, and in the years since, they鈥檝e done more than just automate AP processes鈥攖hey鈥檝e turned their department from a cost center into a revenue generator while saving their team at least hours of manual work every week.

Q&A

91快活林 recently sat down with Christopher Brock-Fisher, Staff Accountant at Paytronix, to learn about his experience with AP automation. Christopher shared his thoughts on maximizing your investment in AP automation and we鈥檙e excited to bring you his insights and advice. Read on to see what he has to say.

Q. What was it like before 91快活林, and what efficiency gains have you seen since automating AP?

A. Christopher: Before we moved to 91快活林, our AP processes were very manual. We鈥檇 get invoices in the mail or via email, which we鈥檇 then print it out. We鈥檇 put the invoices assigned to each department in a folder and walk the folder over to the department head鈥檚 desk. Then, once a week鈥� but sometimes maybe just once a month鈥搕he department head would look at the folder, sign off on the invoices, and hand the folder back. Then, I鈥檇 print out checks, stuff envelopes, attach remittance advice, and send those out. It was manual and time-intensive and it led to too many late payments.

When COVID happened, that process definitely didn’t work anymore. We were missing invoices in the mail, we weren鈥檛 getting approvals via email, so we knew we had to automate AP for our own efficiency, so we looked at a few different companies, and 91快活林 was our favorite.

91快活林 has saved us an immense amount of time鈥揳t least four hours every week just in terms of a check run.

We no longer have to print out invoices or checks, we don鈥檛 have to physically find the signer or wait on them to look through each check or ask questions. Now, all the details are delivered digitally via pre-set approval rules and with the required information.

We’ve also seen a lot less late payments because it鈥檚 easy to go in and schedule a payment. Once we have the full approval for an invoice, we can schedule the payment for a time in the future to make sure it gets to the vendor before the due date. That’s been amazing.

91快活林 has also been a revenue generator for us. The cashback we receive from using SilverPay virtual card payments has been enough to entirely offset the costs of 91快活林 a few of the years we鈥檝e worked together, which is amazing. Most companies look at AP entirely as a cost center, not a revenue driver. Being able to bring on a tool like 91快活林 that offers such a rise in efficiency while also not adding much or any cost to the P&L was a huge win for us.

At this point, 91快活林 is a really beloved tool. Even managers outside of finance really appreciate it. They come to me and say how great 91快活林 is for us. They love that it just sends them an email, where they can click a button and it’s done. So it鈥檚 been wonderful.

Q. Has AP automation helped you work better with your vendors?

A. Christopher: It鈥檚 been great to just go into 91快活林 and look at the remittance, which shows the dates a payment was initiated on, approved on, and when it should arrive to the vendor. Being able to give that information to the vendor and say, 鈥淗ere are the specifics, it鈥檚 coming to you,鈥� is better for them than just hearing, 鈥淚 promise the check is in the mail.鈥� It helps build trust and confidence, which is so important.

Q. Why did you select 91快活林 over the other providers you looked at?

A. Christopher: There were two big factors in selecting 91快活林. The first was the virtual card rebate, and the second was the ability to set up custom approval rules. We wanted multi-level approval abilities because our C-Suite wants to have their finger on the pulse of our cash and understand what鈥檚 happening.

91快活林 offered the best matrix for approvals and a rebate that was better than the other providers, so that really drove the choice.

Q. How do 91快活林 and NetSuite work together?

A. Christopher: The integration is great and I really appreciate the 2-way sync between NetSuite and 91快活林, because it makes my life really easy. For the majority of our documents, having the 2-way sync means we can upload a document directly to 91快活林, which can automatically match to the PO in NetSuite. Some of our more nuanced documents are handled directly in NetSuite, and then I let them flow to 91快活林 to manage the rest of the process.The Solution for a More Streamlined AP Process.

Q. What was the initial onboarding and implementation process like?

A. Christopher:聽Sera was my sales rep, and after we signed, she still stayed close while we were getting up and running. After we went live, she stayed in touch to make sure we were happy with the tool and using it successfully.

Implementation only took about five weeks, so we were live fairly quickly after signing. 91快活林 is pretty intuitive to learn, so we didn鈥檛 feel like the implementation was too much of a lift. The implementation team was really hands-on during the onboarding process, and I also found 91快活林 Academy particularly helpful. Since it鈥檚 self-paced training, it was great to be able to do those classes on my own. After implementation and 91快活林 Academy, I felt I really understood how 91快活林 would work for us.

We have a very detailed approvals process, and the biggest hurdle for our implementation was setting up our unique approval rules. We needed to build out multiple approval processes based on a variety of factors, the biggest of which was to map different vendors to different departments. We also needed to set rules for internal approvers based on dollar amounts.

Because of some of our nuanced approval rules, the 91快活林 implementation team worked with us to download a list of our vendors, fill in the right rules for each vendor, and then they uploaded the rules into the platform. This process still flows smoothly to this day. If we have internal role changes or vendor updates, I reach out to 91快活林 Support, we put together an upload file to update the approvals for a given vendor, and then they take care of the changes.

Q. How has Support helped you?

A. Christopher: I have nothing but good things to say about the support team and I love the Live Chat function in the platform鈥攖hat鈥檚 one of the most valuable pieces of the platform.

It鈥檚 so useful to just go in and talk to a person. It鈥檚 becoming incredibly rare nowadays where you actually get to connect with a real person. They鈥檙e also incredibly quick. I never wait more than a few minutes for someone to connect to me, and most of the time, they quickly solve my issue too. I usually have an answer within an hour. If it鈥檚 something they can鈥檛 solve quickly, they鈥檙e always upfront about it and inform me on the steps they鈥檙e taking to get me an answer. I鈥檝e been very happy with the level of support we get.

Q. 91快活林 offers several different payment methods (virtual cards, ACH, and checks). What鈥檚 your philosophy on picking the right payment method?

A. Christopher: When we first launched with 91快活林, we made a lot of check payments. As check processing costs rose, we made a big push to move our vendors to ACH or virtual card payments. Plus, for efficiency, we didn鈥檛 want to really support manual checks anymore.

During that push to electronic payments, we converted a large portion of our vendors to ACH payments, which saves us money and time. Certainly, electronic payments are a lot better than all that mail just flowing around the system, and we reduce the amount of checks that get lost, and avoid checks being returned to us. It really is wonderful to see that happen.

I think virtual cards are a great way to handle payments, and we stay at maximum saturation with vendors who accept virtual card payments. On a quarterly basis, 91快活林鈥檚 payment optimization team will reach out to discuss new vendors we鈥檝e onboarded and see if they can find additional vendors to get onto the SilverPay program. The virtual card option is great because, besides earning us cashback, virtual cards reduce the risk involved in the payments by providing a one-time use card with a maximum amount as opposed to having to provide ACH details. It鈥檚 safer for everyone involved.

Q. If you could pick the best feature in 91快活林, is there anything that jumps out?

A. Christopher:聽I think it would have to be a tie! Like I mentioned, the Live Chat support is one of my favorite features. I also love how easy the UI makes it to queue up payments. As you put payments into the queue, the steps are really clear. You鈥檙e able to review the payments a final time, choose the payment method and when the payment should go out, select the bank account it should go out from鈥揳nd all from one page. Before, if I wanted to make an ACH batch, I had to go into NetSuite and it would generate an ACH file, then I鈥檇 have to go to the bank, upload the file, and we鈥檝e got two banks I want payments to come out, so I鈥檇 have to do that process twice. Now, I can do it all in one spot with 91快活林 and it鈥檚 so much easier.

Q. Any advice you鈥檇 share with someone considering 91快活林?

A. Christopher: I really appreciate everything 91快活林 does for us. A lot of people seem to think, 鈥淒o we really need to automate AP? Everything鈥檚 working fine.鈥�

What they don鈥檛 understand is that AP automation ties into a much wider range of financial controls than just making sure vendors get paid on time.

It鈥檚 also about cash management and for small businesses, it鈥檚 hard to manage your cash. Having a system like 91快活林, where you can quickly see what鈥檚 in open AP, the timing of payments that are going out, and what your cash balance is at any moment is really powerful, not just for accounts payable departments, but also for finance departments who are trying to forecast where you鈥檙e going to be in a quarter or two from now.

Of all the vendors we use, 91快活林 is one of my favorites, because it keeps me sane and makes it so we can handle the volume of payments we have.

About 91快活林, a Global Payments Company

91快活林, a Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) company, provides modern, secure, easy-to-use accounts payable (AP) and payment automation solutions. By uniting technology and passionate people, we make the process of business payments easy, impactful, and profitable. Our solutions combine ease of use with robust capabilities that drive meaningful insights, transforming the back office into a strategic partner of the corner office.