Pinsly Railroad

Challenge

Invoices processed at each secondary office were physically routed to headquarters at an average volume of 5,000 documents annually. They could change hands five times during approval processes and several times, went missing en route. Staff Accountant Jonathon Deich states, “A piece as small as a $1 invoice would go through multiple pairs of hands, coughing up a lot more money than what the paper itself was worth.” Authorized approvers were not always available, and to avoid missing tight deadlines and discounts, employees would often over-rush items which became stressful and interruptive. Once approved and recorded in the ERP, multiple copies of the paper invoices would remain for archival for years with color-coded cover sheets. The filed paper seemed insurmountable, and this was only in AP.

Solution

Deich took the initiative to call a DocLink customer as part of his research. Because the customer did not know Deich was going to call, the praising feedback of DocLink was genuine. Based on their Sage 100 software, Pinsly Railroad Company opted for Altec’s PaperlessPLUS solution.

PaperlessPLUS expanded on Sage’s Paperless Office through a secure repository and provided options for limited access across the company including restricting ERP access. The product also took advantage of automated workflow to increase business’ efficiency and remove steps in the approval process that were tedious. Pinsly sought PaperlessPLUS’ ability to archive images of physical checks and vendor payments as a way to increase visibility and accountability as well.

Deich stated of the Altec consultant, “You couldn’t have asked for a better person to do it. He was absolutely perfect. He set us up, he handled difficult people we have in our organization with utmost professionalism and he knew what he was doing. We were up and running quickly.”

Benefits

Pinsly anticipated a seven-year ROI but with the savings they have been experiencing, the timeframe has narrowed to five years or less. Employee time is freed up with the new functionality. A staff-oriented organization with members who have been at the company for many years, Pinsly has repositioned personnel to new roles created by expanding business.

Outside of physical paper and storage space savings, accessibility to information is the largest impact. The visibility of expenses has greatly increased, giving decision-makers the ease of making quick, accurate decisions. Any suspicious activity can rapidly be found and inspected. Pinsly is able to better forecast sales by tracking account progress, leading to encouragement for quicker processing and correct expense allocation. Deich stated, “We’re not waiting for the paper to come up here; it’s already in PaperlessPLUS. We already see it, and you do not have to chase down paper. Everything is at your fingertips.” AP is now running more smoothly and effectively than before as employees have more flexibility with their time and visibility to important information.