The Ivy Collection is a distinguished multi-brand restaurant business with over 100 sites. The company offers an all-day casual dining experience in sophisticated brasseries and neighborhood cafés across the UK and Ireland.
The Ivy Collection sought a solution like PaperLess to address the slow processing of invoices and the lack of an authorization audit trail. The objectives were to introduce software that offered simple, logical and flexible approval workflows, and over which the AP team had full control and ownership.
Initially, the company began by implementing PaperLess at only one of its four brands. However, due to the positive results achieved, the decision was made to gradually expand the use of PaperLess for Sage across all four brands of the group. PaperLess is now used daily not only at The Ivy restaurants but also at Bill’s restaurants, Caprice restaurants, and Birley clubs.
…the AP team did not expand for over four years, despite the company doubling in size, indicating significant savings and increased productivity.
The Ivy Collection, Accounts Team
The Choice – PaperLess Software to Automate Sage Accounts Payable Processes
As a Sage Approved Developer Partner, PaperLess’s seamless integration with Sage meant that as soon as the software was implemented, The Ivy would have instant access to automatic invoice data capture. Furthermore, the company also gained instant access to the best online invoice approval software for Sage. Such gave the Accounts Team the possibility to easily automate approval workflows and access the approval history directly from within Sage.
A powerful set of features together with the possibility to create rules to automatically process invoices received via email, the unique pricing policy – which includes an unlimited number of invoices and transactions – led The Ivy to decide to implement PaperLess.
The decision was also influenced by PaperLess’s non-corporate approach and easy access to its developers. This ensured the establishment of a close business relationship and that, if needed, any issue would be solved in a prompt manner.
The Implementation – Easy and Straightforward Implementation Process
The implementation process was well-executed, with comprehensive training provided in person and supplemented by thorough supporting documentation.
According to the company’s representatives, PaperLess offered options for both complex and straightforward scenarios. Hence, giving the company a vast array of choices to automate accounts payable processes.
Once the implementation was completed, The Ivy Collection noticed that a report to track unapproved invoices across multiple entities would be extremely helpful. A request that the PaperLess Development Team analysed and, since it would also benefit other customers, was promptly implemented.
According to The Ivy representatives, due to the group structure and Sage’s handling of separate entities, this new report effectively addressed what until then was a significant challenge for the company.
The Results – The Benefits of Going PaperLess to Automate Sage Accounts Payable Processes
The main benefits for The Ivy Collection included time savings for senior management as well as a reduction in costs with staff and storage. The software enabled the company to clarify responsibilities and easily track the status of invoice approval processes.
According to The Ivy, despite the company doubling in size, notably, the AP team did not expand for over four years. Something that could only be achieved by the significant time savings and increased productivity levels delivered by PaperLess.
The representatives also consider that the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) rules for automatic invoice processing upon email receipt have been crucial for the business. A feature that enables the company to minimise manual work even further, delivering a significant increase in productivity by processing the majority of invoices received via email in a fully automated manner.
Furthermore, the company’s representatives also stress the fact that continuous small improvements to PaperLess have enhanced the user experience without major changes to the system logic.
Nowadays, PaperLess has become integral to The Ivy Collection’s strategy, providing competitive advantages through efficiency and cost savings. Results that led the company to decide to roll out PaperLess to their 4 brands: The Ivy restaurants, Bill’s restaurants, Caprice restaurants and Birley clubs.
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