After just one day’s training, the Finance team at Skipton Properties was up and running with RedSky’s Invoice Register module. Processing invoices is now a much quicker, slicker and cheaper operation.
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 company has been using RedSky’s flagship software since 2013. Finance Director Luke Davis, who joined Skipton last year, 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 Invoice Register module provided the solution Luke needed: it would involve using a single system, rather than two; and electronic invoice images would be captured automatically – so his team would no longer waste time printing and re-scanning.
Efficiencies and enhanced roles
Skipton purchased a day’s consultancy for installing the module and a day’s training for 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 automatically pulls 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.”
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.
More modules in the pipeline
In the near future, Luke hopes to be an early adopter of a new piece of functionality that will enable him to cost and match invoices directly to purchase orders within the system. He also plans to use RedSky software to maximise the efficiency of Skipton’s Purchase Ledger, Subcontractor Ledger and ordering processes.
And that’s not all. Luke is exploring the benefits of implementing two further modules, including Mobile Timesheets, which will enable Skipton to digitise its current paper processes. Luke also plans to maximise the sophisticated reporting capabilities offered by Business Analytics, which he currently uses as a fast way to access detailed data.
Read the Skipton Properties Case Study
