Amethyst Group, a leading provider of warehousing and distribution services, has centralised and streamlined its purchase-to-pay (P2P) processes with the implementation of Poynton-based Version One’s document imaging and authorisation software.

Amethyst has also reduced the time taken to close its financial accounts by four days and has significantly cut invoice approval times using Version One’s technology tightly integrated into its SunSystems v5.3 accounting system. Version One’s software went live in June 2009.

David Nolan, Financial Director at Amethyst Group, says, “We sought a document management and imaging solution to enable the more efficient handling of financial documents and to streamline our invoice authorisation processes. The chosen solution also needed to seamlessly integrate into SunSystems.”

Using Version One’s software, Amethyst has eliminated time-consuming, paper-based P2P processes and is now electronically storing and retrieving purchase invoices directly from its SunSystems package or via Version One’s web browser. Purchase invoice authorisation is now centralised and done electronically meaning that instead of purchase invoices arriving into the finance department, being manually logged and then posted to approvers based at six locations around the country, the invoice authorisation process is fully automated. This has dramatically cut invoice approval times.

Nolan says, “We now have instant desktop access to our financial documents which has reduced the time taken to close our accounts by four days. As a result of the improved efficiencies we’re now experiencing, we have also saved the equivalent of half a person’s time in our accounts department and as we no longer need to employ an expensive third party archiving facility to scan our documents, we are saving thousands of pounds each year.”

With Version One’s technology, Amethyst now has a 100% record of all purchase invoices and knows exactly where these invoices are in the approval chain. This has helped to reduce the number of supplier queries and has provided the company with a firm audit trail of who has approved which invoices and when.

Nolan adds, “As well as eliminating lost invoices, Version One’s technology has streamlined our purchase-to-pay cycle, significantly speeding-up the processing of 15,000 invoices each year whilst helping to avoid late payment penalties.”

Moving forward, Amethyst plans to roll-out Version One’s software to store and circulate additional financial documents as well as a range of non-financial documents including supplier contracts and personnel records.