Tradeshift helps Birmingham NHS agency to streamline invoice system
Birmingham Primary Care Shared Service Agency (BPCSSA) has selected Tradeshift to streamline their invoicing. The BPCSSA is the Financial Services Directorate that provides Finance and Procurement to 3 Primary Care Trusts and one NHS Trust across Birmingham.
selected Tradeshift to help achieve cost-savings and support the Government’s prompt payment drive for public sector suppliers, by transforming how it interacts with over 6000 suppliers.
Initially BPCSSA plans to bring 2500 suppliers onto the Tradeshift network in November 2011 and is working towards all 6000 suppliers to be on board by March 2012.
How it works for BPCSSA suppliers
As from now all suppliers can start submitting invoices electronically via the secure network. With built-in validation, suppliers will be automatically alerted to any inaccuracies in each invoice. This ensures that all documents are correctly formatted. It also reduces the risk of errors. Tradeshift also provides a tracking service to give suppliers a clear view of exactly where the invoice is in the system, whether it has been accepted and when payment is due.
Quotes
Time to get some tears in our eyes. Time for some quotes:
- Jennie Grant, CFO (Chief Finance Officer), at BPCSSA:
“Processing up to 140,000 paper invoices per year was proving a logistical challenge. With Tradeshift, suppliers can access the status of an invoice throughout its journey and contact us in real-time if they have any questions. This new process will provide time and resources savings for all involved.” - Christian Lanng, CEO at Tradeshift:
“Of every paper invoice processed, up to 40% come into dispute – costing both businesses and their suppliers’ time and money in resolving them. Managing thousands of invoices from thousands of suppliers is a challenge however you look at it, let alone working with email and paper formats. By rejecting archaic time and cost draining forms of email and paper invoicing and fully embracing e-invoicing, BPCSSA will significantly improve its supplier relationships through prompter payments.”
Electronic invoicing packs a punch for estate property owners too
Bell Partners is an owner of approximately 60,000 apartment units. Announced in October that it realized an annual savings of approximately $100,000 since requiring all its vendors to submit invoices electronically.
Electronic invoicing allows Bell Partners process and approve invoices without additional data entry via an automated workflow that integrates directly into an accounting system.
Bell dropped its paper invoicing and adopted a paperless system. Since the decision to accept only electronic invoices, the adoption rate for their vendors grew more than 90% in the first six months. They currently receive close to 75% of all invoices online, and is rising.
The only exceptions to Bell Partners’ paperless invoice requirement have been to government entities that are unable to comply, and to a handful of vendors that are not ready to make a switch but are currently under contract for services.
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