Lean Machine teams with Planergy to implement automated AP workflows and establish accountability & increase spend visibility
- Company Overview
With a combined total of 35+ years of production and engineering experience, Lean Machine launched a small machine shop in 2006. In years to come, that small shop evolved into a full-service steel fabrication and component supply facility – becoming their customers’ go-to for solving their manufacturing challenges.
- Why Planergy
The Lean Machine team needed an automated solution that would reduce the number of hours spent on manual tasks and paperwork, while improving the efficiency and accuracy of their accounts payable workflows. The solution had to also be remote-friendly.
Key Challenges
- Inefficient accounting processes that included paperwork and manual data entry
- Prone to human error and billing mistakes
- Required a customizable solution with the ability to grow with the company
- Lacked visibility and control over spend
- No efficient way to track trends to maximize purchases and savings across key vendors
- Needed a solution that was remote-friendly
Key Benefits
- A seamless, digitized AP system, saving hours of manual work every week
- More efficient and accurate invoice authorizing, processing and matching
- Full visibility into spend data and improved accountability
- Real-time analyzing, reporting and tracking of invoices
- Removed data entry errors
- Enabled remote access and functionality
The Story
Customer
Steel Fabrication and Component Supply Facility
Key client
Controller
Industry
Manufacturing
Company Size
30+ employees
Before Planergy
As Lean Machine continued to expand their services and acquire more customers, they became overwhelmed with the amount of time and energy required to manually process the number of invoices they were receiving.
Processing 100+ invoices per month by hand, Corwin Klassen, Controller, began searching for customizable automation solutions to ease the “keyboard” and processing time.
The more Lean Machine grew, the more their antiquated, manual workflow exposed them to overworked staff, data entry errors and inaccuracies, lack of “real” visibility and control over spend, potential revenue losses, and no efficient way to analyze or track invoices.
Further, having remote staff members exacerbated some of the vulnerabilities.
After exploring options Corwin decided Planergy cloud-based AP Automation Software was the solution to remedy their challenges.
“What we were using prior to Planergy was Sage Accounting and it was all paperwork and manual entry of information. So finding an automated system was a real push for me,” explained Corwin.
He adds, “I used to have to match all of the PO paperwork with the invoices and try sorting them to ensure I was doing the same vendors at the same time”.
After Planergy
During a time of unexpected growth, at the height of COVID, the number of invoices increased from about 100 to 400+ per month, proving the investment in Planergy’s AP Automation Software invaluable.
An immediate result of using the seamless AP software was the reduction of paperwork and manual hours involved in accounts payable by half, which enabled the staff to focus on higher priority, revenue–driven tasks.
Shelley Haider, Purchasing Agent shared, “Once we added Planergy, my time was cut in half. I could get through 75 invoices in a matter of a couple hours, as opposed to all day”.
Other benefits include remote access to all software functionalities, ease of use, and customization, allowing the creation of bespoke processes and workflows that support greater efficiency, and increased accuracy and accountability – mitigating potential revenue loss.
“To me, it’s very user-friendly. Knowing I can go in and look around Planergy, and not hurt anything is amazing. If I want to see what I’ve spent or what I bought, it’s all there,” said Shelley.
Also, essential analysis tools are embedded in Planergy’s AP Automation Software, delivering instant visibility of real-time spend data; the ability to generate custom, in-depth reports and forecasts; and extremely powerful search features.
Shelley added, “We started adding many items to Planergy, whether one-offs or recurring purchases, because we can track everything. We don’t have to rely on the vendor’s website for our history”.
Testimonial
It has helped to organize our approval processes and has allowed our company to go almost completely paperless. The approval process is easy, the ability to link directly to QuickBooks Online and the price are all great.
Corwin Klassen
Controller
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