REFERENCE

CASE
THE READSOFT EFFECT ON: MICROWAREHOUSE PROCESS: INVOICE PROCESSING INDUSTRY: WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTION COUNTRY: IRELAND

Fast and significant ROI

with invoice processing project
MicroWarehouse Ltd is Irelands largest independently-owned IT distributor
with relationships with more than 500 resellers. It sells PC systems, peripherals, software and licensing products from a focused vendor portfolio which
includes brands such as Microsoft, Apple, Nikon, and Sony. To save time and
money with the processing of thousands of invoices, they turned to (ReadSoft
partner) Adest, and ReadSoft for a solution.
The challenge

was a process that we believed should be automated.

Sean Dunne, Financial Controller, MicroWarehouse Ireland,

heads up a team of three responsible for a balance sheet
valued in excess of nine million euros. His team processes
between 10,000 -15,000 vendor invoices per year.

This was why the company engaged Adest, a leading supplier

and developer of Accounts Payable (AP) software solutions.

Dunnes original aim was to deliver a full blown electronic

data interchange (EDI) solution to transmit invoice data
between key vendors and MicroWarehouse.

Adest was challenged to design and implement an AP solution for MicroWarehouse that would enable all its vendors
to send their invoices by e-mail as PDFs. Received invoices
would then be automatically captured, identified, then
matched and approved by the ADESTAP system before
being electronically posted to MicroWarehouses SQL based
Microsoft Dynamics system.

Andrew Frazer,
Managing Director
of ReadSoft partner
Processing invoices
company, Adest,
was identified as
which worked with
a huge drain on
Dunne, explains the
resources.
unusual situation:
Despite trying to
get main suppliers
onto EDI, it was not
happening quickly enough and all invoices received had to be
processed manually. The ADESTAP product combined with
Readsoft INVOICES was the obvious answer for MicroWarehouse to process all their vendor invoices.
The invoices emailed to the team would have to be manually printed off before we could process them, observes
Dunne.
Processing invoices was therefore identified as a huge drain
on resource, resulting in delays, especially at month end. It

The solution

Adest began by integrating COLLECTOR, an add-on to

document management specialist ReadSofts data capture

software. This was used to automatically import the

invoices attached to an email. Working in the background,
COLLECTOR detects any attachment - including PDF, TIF,
PNG and JPEG - immediately transferring it to ReadSofts
data capture software where the information can be
extracted and interpreted.
The benefit for MicroWarehouse is that emailed data is
processed automatically by the Adest system in the same
way as paper invoices, allowing the team to handle every
type of invoice, applying the same business rules in the
same way.
Dunne explains how this has changed the working processes, Invoices arriving by email are now directed to a
single dedicated mailbox, the attachments are extracted
and those that
meet validation
are automatically
We no longer see
processed for
posting.
bottlenecks. The system

is quicker to manage
and more accurate.

As each email is
processed, it is
removed from
the mail server
and archived.
As a result, a limitless number of incoming invoices can
be processed and be ready for approval in a matter of
seconds without fear of overloading MircoWarehouses
systems.

That was very beneficial to MicroWarehouse as COLLECTOR and INVOICES could be configured to work at
both levels, with ADESTAP providing matching and approval of each invoice at line item level prior to posting to
their Microsoft Dynamics application.

The result
For Adest, MicroWarehouse was an ideal customer, Processing in excess of 12,000 invoices per annum into SQL
based Microsoft Dynamics is a perfect starting point, says
Frazer. That all came together to speed up the install, and
help MicroWarehouse realise a fast and significant return
on investment.
The system install was completed in March 2011, and the
results have been apparent to Dunne and his team: We
no longer see bottlenecks, the system is quicker to manage and more accurate. Now the team can be deployed
to resolve problems rather than pushing paper.
Automation represents a better way to operate; exceptions and the occasional OCR issue are dealt with immediately by the team and where necessary passed onto
management for approval, continues Dunne.
We are timelier when dealing with vendor invoices and
there are fewer delays, this means we are able to issue
financial reports faster. All round, there is a lot less stress.

Our invoice processing can now be achieved on a daily

basis, says Dunne. This is made possible because ADESTAP and ReadSofts INVOICES software work together
to integrate with the companys financial system.
The solution fitted well with the aims of MicroWarehouse
to eventually deliver a fully automated system. It automatically extracts and captures information of interest from
the incoming invoice; the information is then validated by
INVOICES passed to ADESTAP where they are matched,
coded, authorised and approved before being exported
to MicroWarehouses ERP by the accounts payable staff.
Adest provided MicroWarehouse with a helpful feature
of its system. Because the same product codes were
referenced on both the purchase order and the supplier
invoice, using line item extraction, the Adest system could
match each invoice to the corresponding purchase order
information at line item level says Frazer.

Want to find out how your company

can achieve similar results?

MicroWarehouse is a wholesale distributor which sells

IT and technology products and accessories.

The company improved their invoice capture and

processing with a joint offer from ReadSoft partner
company Adest, and ReadSofts own solution.

As a result of the implementation, MicroWarehouse

has achieved a fast and significant return-on-investment and they also have noticed improved accuracy in
their data, and less delays.

Visit our website: www.readsoft.com

Email us directly: info@readsoft.com
Follow us on Twitter: @readsoft
Contact us on LinkedIn or Facebook