Fleet Support Group Automates Invoices and Realizes Dramatic Savings on Cost and Labor

Fleet Support Group, UK’s largest independent vehicle management company, receives approximately 120,000 invoices per year. Prior to implementing Kofax, handling invoices was an inefficient, manual process often given to night or weekend staff. Since implementing Kofax, Fleet Support has seen an immediate savings of nine hours per day by reducing time dedicated to processing invoices.

Fleet Support Group receives approximately 120,000 invoices per year. Invoice processing took an inordinately long time and was often given to night and weekend staff to complete. The manual process was inefficient and with paper invoices the accounting team was always at a risk of losing or misplacing them. Fleet Support investigated alternative ways to process documents faster and with less administrative effort.

In June 2011, the company approached Data Capture Solutions (DCS) to provide one centralized solution that would ensure it would never lose another invoice again and each invoice would be logged and tracked with an accurate audit trail. Following a review of existing processes and an in depth discussion of requirements with Fleet Support staff, DCS worked with Kofax, leading capture enabled BPM providers, to install an on-premise solution for scanning, capture, indexing and automatic classification of all incoming invoices and credit notes. The solution was designed to be integrated with the existing ERP system and Microsoft SharePoint, making best use of existing system investments.

To improve the speed and accuracy of all transactions, invoices and credit notes received are scanned on arrival through a Kodak i4200 scanner; Kofax Capture and Kofax Transformation Modules are then configured to enable automatic extraction and classification of information from the invoices including order number, supplier name and supplier code. The system also has the capability to capture different types of documents with high accuracy; for instance invoices that cannot be matched are then routed to the right business approvers via automated workflows without any manual intervention. The documents that are successfully matched are posted straight through to the ERP system ready for payment. In keeping with Fleet Groups requirements, DCS also customised the Kofax system to help reduce the time spent in validation and significantly improve accuracy of capture.

Since implementing the system, Fleet Support has seen an immediate saving of nine hours per day by reducing staff time dedicated to authorizing and processing invoices. In fact, invoice chasing requests have almost reduced by 50 percent leaving the accounting team with more time to get the jobs logged in correctly in the first instance so the invoices are processed straight through on arrival. A further benefit of installing Kofax can be seen in the reduction in requests for copy invoices, fewer invoice disputes, improved supplier relations and a significant reduction in manual errors.

Sharon Avery, Accounts Manager at Fleet Support Group confirmed this by commenting: “Fleet Support has been able to redeploy staff to concentrate on core quality processes outside of invoices and is now looking to extend the scope of the solution to process other type of documents, such as invoice statements, MOT documents and service slips as well.”