The invoice automation challenge

It is no secret that invoicing is a fundamentally key part of any business, without revenue, there is no business! Unfortunately it is a process that often comes with a large amount of complexity. From discounts, to contracts, to payment terms, to correctly coding line items, to client details, there are a lot of extremely key bits of data that go into an accurate invoice.

Therefore it comes as no surprise that in the majority of SME’s, invoicing is often an extremely manual process that requires the following complex steps

1. Multiple systems of input data
2. Intimate knowledge of business processes
3. Static data for commissions / contracts
4. Edge cases for certain clients
5. Currency conversions / splits
6. Producing the Invoice Template csv or manual data entry into the accounting platform
7. Then manually checking
8. Repeating this process on error

The ineffectual by product of this complicated set of steps is that it then becomes far too often dependent on one or two people in the business. And no one wants a single point of failure in any function or business. What if that person is ill? Or has a bad day? Or leaves?

 

The invoice automation benefits

So before we get to the solution, what if we mapped out the benefits of automated invoicing…

• Turn hours of manual tasks into a few button clicks
• Highly repeatable and robust
• Move the capability from 1-2 internal people, to anyone with a Standard Operating Procedure document or video
• Improve the quality of data tenfold
• Improve the frequency of the process
• Allow staff to do more valuable tasks

The invoice automation Solution – ExcelAddIns

But what are ExcelAddIns?

They are applications that run from Microsoft Excel and are very importantly installed on your machine, and NOT, repeat NOT functions or macros. The exact same way that Microsoft developers create the Ribbons in Excel, is how we can create a bespoke Excel application that can automate pretty much anything in your business.

So in bullet point form, Excel AddIns are;

1. Applications that run in Excel (not VBA, not functions or formulas)
2. They are robust, not brittle like functions or formulas can become
3. They are secure, you can’t email them around, they live on a users machine, not in the spreadsheet
4. You can pull data in from anywhere
5. You can move the logic and manual tasks from peoples heads and put them into repeatable robust programs
6. You can then push data to anywhere, and repeat the process

But how do you create them?

It is a specialist software development effort, however, the benefits are that they can’t easily be tampered with, so when done properly will run for years without maintenance required.

Solution Scenario 1

A manufacturing business using MS Access, VEND, static SalesCommissions & Xero

Step 1 – getting data

Data is actually pulled in from their cloud DataLake which can be done without custom Excel Buttons, they just use standard Excel Data Connectivity.

Step 2 – generating Invoice template sheet

The magic is in the Generate button. There is a significant amount of custom logic behind this button. All this logic was previously only in the internal finance functions head. However now, the invoice processing can be done by anyone in the business with the ExcelAddIn installed and watching a 30 second SOP video. Click. Boom.

Step 3 – Uploading to Xero

They still manually upload to Xero, but that’s their choice, see the other examples for full automation!

Solution Scenario 2

Top 10 accounting firm spending 8 hours per month on one clients Xero invoices.

Step 1 – getting data

This business pulls in timesheet and Xero data from their dataSights datalake, specifying date parameters to keep things speedy and efficient.

There are a host of lookup tables, for mappings and extra metadata which we make it very easy for them to maintain with the various upload and download buttons. This means that no one is emailing around Excel spreadsheets with data, EVERYTHING is centralised and can be run by multiple people from multiple locations.

Step 2 – generating Invoice template sheet

The magic again is in the Generate button. There is a significant amount of custom logic behind this button. All this logic was previously only in the internal finance functions head. However now, the invoice processing can be done by anyone in the business with the ExcelAddIn installed and watching a 30 second SOP video. Click. Boom.

Step 3 – Uploading to Xero

This is uploading to Xero and attachments, however it could be any system that has an API, the options are limitless. Another thing to note is that this is a highly repeatable process, if a mistake is made, then re-uploading voids the previous attempts and ensure the invoices in Xero are absolutely perfect.

Solution Scenario 3

Not for Profit – consolidating multiple Xero’s to a dedicated reporting Xero entity

Step 1 – getting data

This Excel AddIn pulls in Xero Trial Balance and Chart of Accounts data from the Xero API for several Xero entities and consolidates them into easy to use sheets.

There are a few mapping tables which map the Chart of Accounts differences. There is an FX table as most entities are in different currencies. And importantly, these tables are centralised in a cloud database, so each person in the accounting firm has access to the latest and most accurate set of lookup data at any given time.

Step 2 – generating manual journal template sheet

The magic again is in the Generate button. There is a significant amount of custom logic behind this button. All this logic was previously only in one accountants heads. However now, the manual journal processing can be done by anyone in the business with the ExcelAddIn installed and watching a 30 second SOP video. Click. Boom.

Step 3 – Uploading to Xero

This is uploading manual journals to the dedicated Xero Reporting Ledger where the comparative reporting is done out of, and presented to the board each month, saving the accountants on average 8 hours of effort per month, and making the whole process far more robust, repeatable and done by anyone within the firm.

 

The Invoice automation – Results

At the end of the day, we have helped not only these businesses but a host of others solve a common problem. Manual data collation, manual tasks living in peoples heads being applied to that data, data validation and then correct data entry into a downstream system. Instead of 1-2 people being able to do this in a business, it is now a highly repeatable, robust and scalable process that can be done by almost anyone with Excel installed. A few button clicks has replaced often a twenty to thirty step manual error ridden process.

 

So the question is, how many manual, cumbersome and error prone data processes could you automate in your business?
 

Get in touch, always happy to chat, anytime!

kevinw@datasights.com.au