Smart City

Challenge

The Accounting department at Smart City was challenged with managing the approval routing process on a manual basis. Invoices were simply not moving quickly enough during the approval process. “With paper, we were experiencing a lot of situations where an invoice would end up on someone’s desk and either they would have it awhile or it would end up in the trash,” said Sujei Llanos, AP Supervisor. The company needed a way to route invoices to the appropriate personnel without the risk of losing important records in the process and to receive those approvals back in a timely fashion.

Solution

Wanting to make the approval process for invoices more efficient and being motivated to “go green”, Smart City started using DocLink in 2010. They were especially impressed with DocLink’s ability to integrate with their existing software program, Sage 500. All of their accounting records are now available to access virtually and because everything is electronic, items can no longer be delayed on someone’s desk or inadvertently thrown in the trash. “We’ve really enjoyed the solution so far. It’s done wonders,” said Llanos.

DocLink has also streamlined the process for Smart City to work with their auditors. Documents such as packing slips, invoices, and other relevant information can be found quickly and easily by searching the repository. “It used to take anywhere from several hours to an entire day to search through paper files but all needed documents can now be retrieved in as little as 30 minutes,” Llanos commented.

Benefits

Smart City has made massive reductions in storage costs and processing times. Invoices used to take three to five days to physically work their way through the system. “Now we’re down to one day,” said Llanos. The time to input invoice data has been cut by 90%. “After vouchers are scanned in, employees just need enough time to verify that the data is correct.” DocLink has also almost completely eliminated need for offsite storage, saving $18,000 per year. As a communications company, Smart City is required to store invoices for a longer period of time than most companies and now can simply access everything online using DocLink. “We don’t really have any physical storage for invoices any more,” Llanos said.

Smart City plans for more ways to integrate into other departments. Llanos explained that they would like to start using DocLink for work orders, work authorizations, and their entire purchase requisition process. She even foresees using DocLink to store reports and journal entries to save office space by eliminating paper filing cabinets. “It’s been a great tool,” Llanos stated.