"Quadient Accounts Payable Automation by Beanworks' cloud-based automation solution offered more effective management of due dates, payments as well as overhead costs by an estimated 35% by eliminating paper routing costs."
- Diane T., Controller, Gateway Property Management
 | Industry: Property Management Company size: SME Accounting software: Yardi |
At Gateway Property Management, accounts payable was a significant challenge. Their volume was so significant while they continued to process everything on paper.
The Challenge
At Gateway Property Management, accounts payable was a nightmare. Their invoice volume was significant and they continued to process everything on paper. The finance team were overwhelmed with incorrect vendors, payments from incorrect properties and invoice coding errors. All the while, the management team had very little visibility into outstanding invoices and where they were in the workflow. Gateway’s nationwide branch structure lead to delays in receiving paperwork, which meant unnecessary late payments and penalties. The issues were compounded by a branch requirement for administrative staff to apply account coding, which was less reliable than having it handled by the accounting department. CEO Scott Ulrich and Controller Diane Trent knew they needed a solution.
Decision Making
Quadient AP had approached Gateway earlier with our proposal for a new cloud-based software that could streamline their AP process, which included about 7,500 invoices a month. After assessing the accounting issues, Ulrich and Trent began to look at Quadient AP as a potential solution, but there were others to consider. Quadient AP stood ahead of the pack because we didn’t require invoices to be sent to a third party, which meant that Trent’s team would have full control of the scanning and coding. Lastly, Quadient AP is Canadian, and with Gateway’s data hosted on a Canada-based server to ensure compliance with government regulations, made us locally located so we could provide them with strong support.
Implementation
Prior to implementation, Quadient AP was able to recognize that Gateway’s approval channel structure was incredibly complex. We quickly stepped in to help create a structure that allowed their staff more time to focus on supporting the regional offices with their rollouts. Ulrich and Trent were thrilled with the way we managed the integration process, noting our excellent customer service. Whatever obstacle arose, Quadient AP worked closely with Gateway to solve it. We listened carefully to what their team needed, and we were able to customize the paperless cheque back up payment report to produce the required data to gain more efficiencies. In short, from planning to training, Quadient AP provided their business the support to rollout the system to all of their branches with minimal interruption to their workflow.
Achievements
After Gateway introduced Quadient AP to their business, the gains were instantly noticeable. Trent was able to move the entire AP process away from the decentralized system to one centralized location. By reallocating the coding function to the accounting team, they were able to free up administrators’ time by 20% without a corresponding increase in accounting staff. Their eight regional offices continued to have access to invoices, but they gained more time for other tasks and initiatives, meaning increased productivity across the company. By eliminating paper invoices and the new workflow, which boasted more visibility and flexibility, Gateway was able to increase their efficiency. Our cloud-based automation solution offered more effective management of due dates, payments as well as overhead costs by an estimated 35% by eliminating paper routing costs. Finally, as a business experiencing constant fluctuations in volume, Gateway was able to take advantage of lower costs at times of lower volume through our volume-based pricing structure.
