Miryana Parmac, Corporate Controller at GoSecure, considers herself a big fan of NetSuite. So, when the cybersecurity innovator decided it was time to automate their accounts payable processes, they needed a technology partner that could enhance their experience, rather than rebuild it entirely.
“This is the third company where I’ve used NetSuite,” said Miryana. “I’ve always loved how customizable it is, but there were still certain accounts payable processes we wanted to automate.”
Her team’s biggest concern was one accounts payable professionals know all too well – the approval process.
Before Beanworks: Minutes, Days, Weeks…
Even with a system in NetSuite that was overwhelmingly well-liked, Miryana and her team struggled with the time they were losing to seemingly simple requests.
Before automating their accounts payable with Beanworks, Miryana said anytime GoSecure had an audit, it would take up to 15 minutes to simply find a particular email and the support documents that go with getting an approval.
“Let’s say someone wanted to see the latest bill from a particular vendor,” Miryana explained. “I would have to find the vendor, then I needed to go to transactions, then choose bills, then take a closer look to make sure I found the exact bill that was requested. From there I’d click on the bill and go to communications, then files, then open the file.”
In other words, even with a good system in place, the process was tedious. GoSecure also wanted multiple approval channels, which made the overall process even more complex and time-consuming.
“It was taking days to get invoices approved,” said Miryana. “Now, multiply that by two, three, or four people.”
After Beanworks: Seconds
In a vacuum, 15 minutes doesn’t sound like a huge deal, but as requests multiplied and approval chains became more complicated, the GoSecure finance team had a simple goal: save time and money by automating AP as much as possible.
And that’s exactly what has happened. Miryana describes the same process done as before – finding the latest bill from a particular vendor – done with Beanworks.
“If someone needs to see the latest bill from AWS, for example, it’s all right there in front of me in seconds – invoice, PO, everything,” said Miryana. “Without Beanworks, the same task takes two minutes. That may not sound like much, but once you multiply that two minutes by the number of these requests you get throughout the day, it is a lot of time.”
Added Benefits of Automation
Through Beanworks, GoSecure also found the automation of coding bills helpful. Previously, less-experienced employees had to look backwards to get the information needed to move forward.
“A lot of times, your AP isn’t someone with CFO or Controller expertise when it comes to knowing where to route each invoice through the appropriate department,” said Miryana. “Beanworks allows us to choose smart code and fills it out for us. So, basically, it takes ten seconds and you’re ready to submit it for approval. In NetSuite I’d have to create a bill and open the bill we’d previously entered and look at the coding on that bill, and that’s just to start the approval process.”
In addition to streamlining the approval process, one of the things Miryana and her team like best about Beanworks is having multiple VPs approving their own lines, with the ability to leave comments that can be tracked with ease, and daily reminders to make sure no one involved loses sight of a particular approval.
“All our VPs can see what’s going through each department, they can run reports,” said Miryana. “They aren’t reliant on finance providing all the information. They can look at everything and manage it themselves more than they ever could before.”
Dollars and Sense: Choosing the right partner
When they started researching automated accounts payable solutions, Beanworks wasn’t the first place GoSecure’s finance team looked.
“We started off looking at a larger competitor, but they were at least three or four times more expensive,” Miryana explained. “They had a monthly charge per user, where Beanworks is unlimited, which is great for small and mid-sized companies that don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to throw around.”
The cost savings GoSecure has experienced go beyond the initial cost of the tool itself. For their US operation, GoSecure has one person handling their AP needs, a college student working 15 hours a week.
The Real Value of Saved Time
Saving time and money is great, but the full value of any automated process is derived from what you’re able to do with the time you get back. For Miryana, the biggest benefit to that saved time is the ability to tackle more analytical projects and more automation projects.
“In finance, there is so much analysis you can do, and that you want to do to help your team and your company move forward, but without automation and without efficient, fast processes, it’s easy for that work to fall to the bottom of your daily priorities,” she said.
“When you’ve got an $86,000 invoice that needs to get approved, you’ve got to make sure everyone is looking at it,” said Miryana. “With our previous process, that took a lot of time. Now, we’ve cut that process down by three business days because we don’t need to go search the AP inbox and follow up with every person who needs to approve and see where we’re at.”
While the time-savings for accounts payable is obvious, Miryana estimates that she and the CFO save several hours each week through simplified and automated processes, and that number is even higher around month’s end when they would otherwise be working to run down approvals and going through everything with a fine-tooth comb.
“It saves time and gives you peace of mind,” she said. “It’s amazing.”
A Finance Professional specializing in the areas of Credit Management, Payment Processing, Collections and Accounts Receivable. Possessing over 20 years’ experience in the field managing large global teams with a strong focus on improving efficiency within the Order to Cash cycle. Hailed as an industry expert in the field, Sarah-Jayne makes active appearances in the space, frequently featuring on thought-leading panels and discussions.
