Date: 11/19/2020

To: CEO, VP/CFO, VP/COO

From: Larissa Fuller, Office Manager
Subject: Eliminating PDF Proposals
Hello,
Great Slate’s greatest issues are the time-consuming process of creating PDF invoices
and the cost of mailing printed invoices. The most efficient solution would be to convert the
billing program to allow invoiced to be output as PDF and automatically email customers their
invoices in the system. I understand that this is a change that will not happen overnight, it will
take months to plan, test and then implement. However, Great Slate would benefit significantly
from the cost saving as well as in other ways.

Problem
I have been conducting research and collecting data with the issues that I have recently
noticed thus far in these past three months involving the workflow of the accounting department.
Due to the tedious process of invoices having to be physically printed has become an
argumentative battle between coworkers. There is only one, very old printer in the office that
prints extremely slow and gets jammed rather easily leading to heated debates about whose turn
it is to fix the printer next. The average print rate for black and white only is 6pgs./minute, an
average of 12 printer jams/week, and the average amount it takes to fix the printer is about 15
minutes, which then puts our accounting employees under a lot of stress and cuts back on
productivity.
For those few people who request only electronic invoices, Great Slate attempts to do so
with a 20-year-old flatbed scanner to convert documents into PDFs. However, the scanner only
scans one page at a time when typically, there are more than one page in an invoice. This is
cumbersome process is followed by an average of 8 minutes to scan a multi-page invoice and
then another average of 2 minutes to compile the multi-page invoice into a PDF by retrieving the
singly-page scans from a folder on the company server, then combining them using Adobe
Acrobat. Every month, several existing customers are requesting to change their invoices from
paper to a PDF format.
Great Slate is also spending thousands of dollars annually on postage and envelopes,
mailing invoices. If the company was to offer PDF invoices, Great Slate would improve their
cost savings. The average number of envelopes used (mailed) per month is $1,000, the average
cost of envelopes per month is $50 at a rate of $0.50 each, and the average cost of postage per
month is $550 at a rate of $0.55 each. This equivalates to $600 per month that is invested into
mailing invoices that could just sent through via email. The average amount of time that it take to
prepare an invoice for mailing is 6 seconds, limiting the amount of time during the day for
employees to be able to do other tasks.
Proposed Solutions
I am proposing a two-stage solution. The first step to my solution is temporary but it
would alleviate the printing and scanning issues for the time being as well as start to build the list
of customers favoring PDF Invoices: Leasing a new top-of-the-line printer/copier/scanner/fax
machine. With extensive research, I have concluded that the Toshiba e-STUDIO2551C would be
the most beneficial to Great Slate. The Toshiba e-STUDIO2551C Color print speeds of up to 25
ppm, B&W- up to 25 ppm, Color scan speeds of up to 50 spm at 300 x 300dpi resolution, High
compression PDF scanning (Slim PDF), and a Universal Print Driver. Furthermore, the monthly
lease/maintenance cost to lease the machine is $150 per month with a 6-month lease.
The second stage is converting the billing program to automatically email clients a PDF
of their bill through the customer contacts in the system. Each conversion saves $0.60 per
invoice that is not emailed. With further research, I have determined how many customers
receiving paper invoices will accept PDF invoices, and how quickly. The estimated percentage
of customers accepting PDF invoices, based on similar companies’ conversions, after 1 month
and contact is about 20%, after 2 months and contacts is about 40%, and after 3 months and
contacts is about 80% which is the estimated maximum. Although, there are some companies
that are clients of Great Slate that still require printed and mailed invoices.

Financial Benefits
Months 1 2 3 4 5 6 TOTAL
Mailing & Supply
$600 $600 $600 $600 $600 $600 $3,600
Cost
Leasing Cost $150 $150 $150 $150 $150 $150 $900
Conversion
Percentage 20% 40% 80% - - - -
Converting
Invoices into PDF $480 $360 $120 $120 $120 $120 $1,320
Files
 Cost Differences
$3,600

$1,320
$900

Totals

Mailing & Supply Cost Leasing Cost

Converting Invoices into PDF Files

The lease cost per month will be $150, which equivalates to $900 after 6 months. The mailing
and supply cost are $600 per month, including the cost of the average number of envelopes and
postage stamps, which totals to $3,600 after 6 months. Converting 20% of our client’s invoices
to PDF files is $480, saving the company $120 per month. Converting an additional 20% of our
clientele, will cost the company $360 per month, saving $240. Lastly, converting the remaining
40%, which is 80% of our customers in total will save the company $480, making the monthly
payment for envelopes and postage stamps to $120 per month. With the leasing cost of the new
printer, envelopes, and postage stamps will $2,220

Operational and Employment Benefits

These implemented changes will not only improve the financial standing of the company
overall but also the non-financial burdens that lie within the office. For example, this will
improve the morale in the accounting department by creating a faster and less stressful process
for sending out invoices. This will eliminate the constant hassle of fixing the printer and arguing
over who was to blame for the inconvenience. The accounting department can be more
productive this way.
Another benefit to these solutions would be not having to prepare an invoice to be sent
out. This will also cut back on additional time that could be spent on other work. This again
would improve work productivity in other tasks. Employee will also potentially help others
within the office who may need help catching up because they would now have the free time to
do so. You must think that will the number of clients that we have, this process is almost a whole
days’ worth of work just in itself.
Lastly, the printer/copier/scanner/fax machine will improve the amount of time that it
tasks to complete simple tasks that once took us what felt like a lifetime to complete. We will be
able to get the jobs done faster thus allowing us to work on other things in the office that we may
not have had time for before. This new machine will better the lives of everyone within the office
and ensure that work is being done efficiently and effectively. In other works, we would be
working smarter, not harder and accomplishing more in the office.
Timeline and Employee Involvement
As office manager, I will be more than happy to take on the responsibility of
implementing the first stage of the plan. This will be converting customers to PDF invoicing and
setting up the leasing plan for the machine within the next month. Furthermore, I will be
addressing other issues including the argumentative behaviors in the accounting department.
Once the accounting department is back up to par with their performance and workflow, I
will be issuing them a line of tasks to prepare the billing system conversion. This conversion will
simply send a PDF invoice directly to the clients. Additionally, the conversion process will
eliminate the further steps that are needed for the orders to be considered as “fully” booked in
accounts receivable.

Evidence of my Ability to Deliver

Not only have I done this thorough research for the three months that I have been her at
Great Slate, but the research was to determine if this change would benefit us a whole, not just
this office. These implemented changes are time efficient, cost efficient, and it will also be for
the greater good of the people who work her trying to put their best efforts forward.

Conclusion
In conclusion, I strongly encourage you to take these solutions into consideration. Let’s
improve our team together by giving us the opportunity to do so and provide us the tools we need
to improve. I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed in this decision to better your team
and your office workflow.
Thank you,
Larissa
Office Manager at Great Slate Flooring and Finishing Company
Castleton, VT
https://amatteroffax.com/E014-329-01.html?gclid=CjwKCAiA7939BRBMEiwA-
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