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Wigan Council achieves
66% AP process
efficiency savings

Executive overview

Profile

Operates in
United Kingdom

Customer since
2014

No. of employee
4,000+

No. of invoices processed
90,000+ per annum

Vertical sector
Local Authority,
Public Sector

Objectives

  • To drive the centralisation of invoice processing to improve efficiency and controls.
  • To establish a fully-automated paper invoice scanning and PDF import solution with intelligent data capture and query desk resolution.
  • To support direct integration of Accounts Payable (AP) process flows with Unit4 Business World ERP solution, facilitating a culture of upfront purchase ordering.

How Proactis helped

  • Supported the centralisation of the AP function and optimised process efficiency of over 90,000 invoices per annum.
  • Automated invoice processing and established AP best practices and controls.
  • Provided an in-house invoice capture solution that allowed the Council to leverage existing Unit4 Business World functionality.

Benefits to Wigan Council

  • Automating the AP process resulted in annual invoice processing savings of over £120,000.
  • Capturing all 90,0000 incoming invoices directly increased AP process efficiencies by 66%.
  • Increasing the level of control and transparency of invoice processing delivered greater internal controls.
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 Solutions

Profile

Wigan Council is a local authority serving approximately 318,000 citizens in the North West of England. With over 4,000 employees and 90,000 invoices processed per annum, the Council was looking for opportunities to further automate its financial processes, specifically around reducing costs and improving efficiency in Accounts Payable.
 

Objectives

The company was undergoing enterprise system change, upgrading its Unit4 Business World ERP system and centralising the AP function. The ultimate objective was to automate the Purchase-to-Pay process, which was drawn out and dominated by paper and inefficient manual methods.

The organisation took the opportunity to look at what further improvements could be made to the Accounts Payable and Purchase-to-Pay processes with the aim of reducing costs, increasing throughput and agility, and reducing risk.

How Proactis helped

Proactis introduced a fully-automated paper invoice scanning and PDF import solution with intelligent data capture and query desk resolution. This in-house invoice capture solution enabled the Council to leverage existing Unit4 Business World functionality with purchase invoices being received faster, with less effort and with greater accuracy.

Paper invoices are rapidly converted and stored as electronic images to increase visibility and transparency, eliminating the source of bottlenecks and errors. This has resulted in accurate payments and adherence to business rules. Queries are also resolved quickly through dedicated, web-based query resolution functionality.

Benefits to Wigan Council

The implementation is exceeding its objectives of AP automation with annualised invoice processing savings of over £120,000. Increasing the level of control and transparency of invoice processing throughout the organisation has also delivered compliance that was not previously possible with a decentralised process.

Capturing all 90,000 incoming invoices directly into the system to support ‘minimal manual effort’ has dramatically reduced the complexity and cost of the Accounts Payable operation, increasing AP process efficiencies by 66%.