The company

Skipton Properties is a family company, founded in 1986. It has a workforce of around 100 and is based in Yorkshire. This award-winning developer has earned a strong reputation for creating distinctive homes with traditional elevations, a quality finish and beautiful landscaping. 

The challenge 

The company has been using RedSky software since 2013. Finance Director Luke Davis, who joined Skipton in 2018, said: “We receive around 1,000 invoices a month and 90 per cent come through electronically. The team was actually printing them off, then keying them into the Purchase Ledger. They were also scanning the invoices and keying them into a secondary document repository. The whole process was inefficient and time-consuming, with lots of duplicated effort.” 

The solution

An online demonstration of RedSky’s Invoice Register module was a light-bulb moment for Luke: “Straightaway I could see the efficiencies we would achieve. Firstly, we’d be moving from two systems to one. And secondly, we’d be capturing electronic images automatically, so there’d be no need to print and rescan the invoices.” 

A RedSky Consultant spent a day at Skipton Properties installing the Invoice Register module. He also delivered a day’s training to the Finance team. Luke said: “It’s a dead easy process. The supplier invoice comes in by email to a dedicated email address and within 30 seconds the system has automatically pulled in the invoice image, ready for processing. 

“The invoice is displayed on one side of a split screen and the text fields are on the other, so it’s quick and simple to key in the details. In fact, it’s so easy that when we had some staff away from the office, I was able to log on from home on my laptop and work down the list of invoices while I was watching TV.”

Each invoice is automatically allocated a reference number. “That’s good,” said Luke, “because wherever I am in the system, preparing my accounts, I can just double-click on the reference number and the invoice image pops up immediately.”

The Finance team also uses RedSky to produce live status reports that list every invoice needing to be worked on. When an invoice has been processed, the team member does a quick refresh, which deletes it from the live list and moves it on to the next stage.

“We’ve achieved some definite cost-saving and environmental benefits through not having to print out 1,000 paper invoices every month. We’re getting things done far more quickly, cheaply and sustainably”

– Luke Davis, Finance Director

The results

The number of houses Skipton is building annually is at an all-time high, as is the volume of work being dealt with by the Finance team. However, thanks to the efficiencies brought by the Invoice Register module, Luke has not had to increase the headcount of his team. 

“We’ve achieved some definite cost-saving and environmental benefits through not having to print out 1,000 paper invoices every month,” said Luke. “We’re getting things done far more quickly, cheaply and sustainably.” 

But it’s not just about cost savings. Whereas Luke’s team used to focus solely on processing the Purchase and Contractor Ledgers, the efficiencies brought by the Invoice Register have freed them up to take on a lot of the ordering too, so their role is more involved and rewarding.

Looking to the future, Luke hopes to be an early adopter of the next release of the Invoice Register, which will enable him to cost and match the invoice directly to the purchase order. He also plans to use additional modules to maximise the efficiency of Skipton’s Purchase Ledger, Subcontractor Ledger and ordering processes. 

RedSky software enables construction companies to achieve and maintain competitive advantage. We make real-time actions visible, enabling you to control change, eliminate risk and achieve ongoing incremental gains from improved operational efficiency. Across all types of construction and contracting projects our software is scalable, modular and proven to improve performance and productivity.

Download the full case study here.