Warwickshire County Council enhances spend control with Proactis Invoice Capture
Warwickshire Council automated AP with Proactis, enabling straight-through processing, stronger spend control, and enforcement of ‘No PO, No Pay’.
Sector
Public Services
System Integration
Unit4 Business World
Invoices Processed
60,000+ per year
Employees
2 full-time & 3 part-time
Customer Since
2024
How Proactis Helped
“Our work with Proactis and Unit4 has enabled straight-through processing of our invoices through automation of our activities. We now have complete visibility of the status of each invoice.”
Don Page, Payments Team Leader, Warwickshire County Council
Enabled straight-through invoice processing through full automation of accounts payable activities
Delivered complete visibility of invoice status at every stage of the payment process
Reduced administration time and manual effort associated with invoice processing
Strengthened enforcement of the Council's 'No PO, No Pay' policy, with non-compliant invoices automatically returned to suppliers via the query desk
Improved communication with suppliers, enabling faster resolution of queries and invoice exceptions
Provided management reporting data on payment performance, late payments, and missing invoice information
Streamlined supplier onboarding and training through an intuitive, easy-to-adopt system
Overview
Warwickshire County Council provides a wide range of services to over half a million residents across Warwickshire. Following a migration to the Unit4 Cloud in early 2024, the Council took the opportunity to review its invoice processing arrangements and selected Proactis Invoice Capture to automate and streamline its accounts payable function. The result is straight-through invoice processing, full spend visibility, and tighter enforcement of the Council's existing 'No PO, No Pay' policy.
Challenge
Warwickshire County Council provides a wide range of services to over half a million residents, from education and roads to social care and fire and rescue. The Council has a long-standing relationship with Unit4, dating back to 2011, and migrated its ERP to the Unit4 Cloud in early 2024.
The migration prompted a timely review of existing systems, with a focus on spend control and invoice management. It quickly became apparent that there were opportunities to refresh and improve the processes associated with invoice handling, including increased automation and better visibility of spend data.
The Council sought a solution that would reduce administration time, support its 'No PO, No Pay' policy, and integrate seamlessly with its Unit4 environment - ensuring transparency and control across ordering and invoicing.
Solution
Following a full procurement exercise, Proactis Invoice Capture was selected to manage the Council's entire invoice process. The implementation was smooth and well-supported, with regular communication before and after go-live.
Proactis provides a fully automated invoice scanning and PDF import solution with intelligent data capture. Invoices are scanned, checked, matched, and dropped straight into Unit4 - with the majority of validation already complete. A web-based query resolution desk enables the team to rapidly resolve any non-conformance issues, such as missing or incorrect supplier information, giving clear visibility of why any invoice is held and how it is being resolved.
A large volume of management data is also now accessible from the system, including details of late payments, unpaid invoices, and invoices received with incomplete information - supporting better performance reporting and decision-making across the Finance team.
“Overall, Proactis has given us more visibility of our invoices, and provided the automation we wanted. The administration time required to process invoices and associated paper trail has been vastly reduced.”
Phil McGaffin, Exchequer Manager, Warwickshire County Council
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