AP Automation Keeps Ontario Trucking Association Moving
When you spend every day advocating for responsible trucking and the safety of all Canadian truck drivers, you can't afford to have your organization slowed down by back-office inefficiencies.
Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) is a not-for-profit organization representing the trucking industry. Their members range from large carriers to individual owner/operators. They work with federal and provincial governments and maintain a close relationship with the Ministry of Transportation to monitor day-to-day activities on the highway.
Accounts payable (AP) may seem far removed from the mission of OTA, but without a clear, accurate view of their cash flow, it would be difficult to plan and execute the events and efforts that have a real-world impact on Canada's drivers.
That's why Joanne Benac, OTA's Vice President of Finance, worked with BAASS Business Solutions and Quadient AP Automation to eliminate manual AP processes, improving her team's speed and efficiency.
Too much paper. Too many hassles.
Prior to automating AP, OTA relied entirely on manual processes. When asked to describe some of the inefficiencies that created, Joanne relied, “How much time do you have?!”
OTA received all invoices by mail, fax, or e-mail, and lacked the means to have them automatically scanned into the system to begin processing. That kicked off a lengthy, tedious, and often repetitive process.
“You would open the mail and stamp the invoice to show when you received it,” Joanne explained. “Then we had another stamp showing it was ready for me to review and do the distribution codes, all done manually, on a daily basis.”
One of the most inefficient pieces of the process for the team revolved around invoices the organization received monthly but still had to put through the same manual process each time. A monthly invoice for the same amount, from the same supplier – like replacing mats or replenishing coffee in the office – would require the same labor as any other invoice.
“Those things take a heck of a lot of time for my staff to do – opening mail, stamping in, making sure it's all in an envelope or a file folder so I can review them. It takes my time, too,” Joanne said.
Losing valuable time and bandwidth to low value tasks caused Joanne to lean into her own computer background and seek out a technological solution to eliminate tedious activities and free up time for her staff to focus on more important work.
Finding the right solution
To initiate the process of automating accounts payable, Joanne worked with Dan Quesnelle from BAASS Business Solutions to analyze their existing processes and see which solution would be the best fit. After weighing several options, Joanne and Dan embraced Quadient AP for the features it provided and the ease with which it could be implemented with OTA's existing tech stack.
“I have been a Sage 300 user for many years, and I wasn't about to find another accounting software,” said Joanne. “There are five of us on the administrative side and there's a lot to do. So, I wanted to make it as easy as possible for our team to adjust to a new tool and new process.”
Dan added the ability to quickly and easily implement a turnkey solution was critical in choosing the right automation partner.
“When it comes down to AP automation, Quadient is number one, there's no questions in our minds. We don't have another software offering we look at that can compete in terms of implementing a turnkey solution as quickly and efficiently as Quadient AP,” said Dan.
Saving time and creating opportunities
Joanne said the implementation of Quadient AP was smooth and quickly paid dividends, simplifying the invoice approval process and giving she and the organization accuracy and predictability regarding cash flow.
OTA's suppliers now e-mail invoices, which are automatically scanned into Quadient AP. From there, the finance team double checks the distribution. Once they've reviewed, Joanne is able to sign off on everything in one shot.
In addition to relieving the weekly AP backlog, simplifying their process allows each member of the finance team to support larger initiatives, like helping to prepare for events, manage new projects, make important calls, and handle membership issues.
“We've freed up a couple hours each day for two people on my staff because they no longer have to look at each invoice, manually stamp them, do the distribution, photocopy it, and then make sure I see it,” said Joanne. “There was just so much time wasted in the old process.”
Cutting storage costs
The benefit of automation is also felt across the finance team when there is an audit. With the new, cloud-based system, auditors can easily find the invoices they need.
“Before we had to photocopy everything they wanted to see as part of the audit. Now, I just give them temporary access to Quadient AP, and they can review everything,” said Joanne. “All the information is there – invoices, payments, POs, they can verify everything in Quadient AP, Sage 300, they can verify it in our bank for the payment. It works like a charm.”
The new process isn't just more convenient – it saves the organization money, too. For tax purposes, all documents need to be stored for seven years. By moving away from paper documents and storing everything in the cloud, OTA is experiencing substantial savings.
“It used to cost an arm and a leg to have these invoices stored,” said Joanne. “I used to have years and years of boxes. We had boxes we needed to ship to our record box and have our record company archive for seven years and then eventually get it removed there and purged. I don't have to do any of that now. Everything is online.”
Happy employees, open to change
Once a new technology becomes standard, people sometimes wonder aloud how they ever managed without it. That has been the case for the OTA finance team. Joanne says the individuals on the team no longer feel bogged down by manual tasks.
“Sometimes we talk about how we did things in the past and they'll say, ‘Do you remember how time consuming and tedious this used to be? I can't believe we were doing that!’”
Accounts payable isn't the only back-office process Joanne has automated, and she doesn't intend to let it be the last. One of the most important benefits she has seen from the team's success with Quadient AP automation is that her team is more open-minded than ever to the idea of new technology.
“When you're trying to introduce something new, there's always resistance because people get so used to the process they were using in the past,” she said. “But when they try the new tool and realize how much better it is than how they were doing it before, their attitude toward implementing new things changes.”
“At the end of the day, you can go home at 5 o'clock having completed everything you needed to do that day. And if they have a sick child or there's a bad storm, they can work at home.”
The finance team at OTA has experienced what many individuals realize when their organization embraces automation – technology is not a replacement for talent, but rather a tool meant to remove barriers to let people showcase their talent in a more productive and impactful way.
