Quadient AP's centralized solution empowers Homepoint staff

Homepoint case study

"By eliminating the more administrative work of the email routing, follow-ups have become easy because we can sort by who we are waiting for approvals, and can send them email reminders. There are automatic reminders as well. But regardless, we've been able to save between three and five minutes per invoice."

- Sarah R., AP Manager, Homepoint

homepoint logo Industry: Financial Services
Company size: SME
Accounting software: Sage Intacct

Homepoint is a national, multi-channel mortgage originator and servicer in the United States, with corporate headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Its lending focuses on speed and consistency for customers and partners, combined with superior customer service. The company offers reverse mortgages, conventional loans, and refinancing services. Founded in 2015, it has evolved rapidly into a distributed and diverse workforce of over 1000 employees and is licensed in all 50 states.

The Challenge

Accounts payable (AP) is one of the most frustrating and time-consuming parts of accounting. Adopting an automation software was a challenge across Homepoint's five offices set up in multiple time zones and various departments. The company was concerned about the integration of an Accounts Payable automation software with its existing accounting system. They wanted a centralized AP solution and company-wide user adoption to standardize operations.

The Decision

Bill Fischer, Controller of Homepoint explains their decision: "We needed to look into an AP automation solution to standardize our processes, to add some more structure, to track outstanding items and report on it to give the business a standard way of operating, rather than invoices coming to them directly from a vendor or customer".

One of the most important factors in choosing Quadient Accounts Payable Automation by Beanworks was the capability to automate the entire AP process and view AP-related data in real-time. For Homepoint, this is critical to the business as their AP staff receives questions constantly about the status of an invoice or payment, especially when there is a rush, outside of standard timelines.

With Quadient AP, AP staff can log in and provide inquirers an instant status update anytime and in real-time. Homepoint also trained its staff company-wide to use Quadient AP so inquirers are able to check the status of invoices, approvals and payments themselves. This saves time for all AP staff, approvers, vendors and suppliers.

Implementation

Quadient AP provides end to end AP automation for Sage Intacct, the general ledger system where all of the general ledger activity is recorded for Homepoint. Sage Intacct is an enterprise-grade cloud-based accounting ERP software that can deliver efficiencies and insights for companies to help them grow from their first million to their first billion.

Invoices processed through Quadient AP automation automatically creates the journal entries in Sage, whether entering the invoice or the payment, as both systems are seamlessly integrated for a consolidated AP system. Home Point's AP staff can go into Quadient AP for paid invoices in the networks, pull the payment, and see everything that was paid, screenshot the payments and send them back to inquirers.

The AP process remains the same in Sage Intacct, as data flows over to Quadient AP where invoices are entered. When they are completed and approved, they flow back and sync to the Sage Intacct general ledger for a seamless process.

Regarding the effectiveness of modernizing the entire AP process, from the purchase decision to invoice approval with electronic payments, Bill Fischer, Controller says, "I can honestly say that with Quadient AP, AP automation actually happened and everything we wanted from it. We did it faster than planned. So it has delivered its promises and continues to."

Achievements

Quadient AP lived up to its value proposition to streamline AP with "Code. Approve. Pay". It enabled the AP associates at Homepoint to use Quadient AP daily – logging into it is the first thing they do to process invoices. Also, the company’s coding team uses Quadient AP for accruals, to pull each invoice and make sure they were coded correctly. Finally, the AP manager and all higher-level AP associates who are the approvers also use Quadient AP.

Before Quadient AP, the company had a shared AP mailbox. They received invoices and scanned them into the AP system. One staff member would monitor the mailbox, and send out every single invoice manually via email for approvals. After waiting for approvals, they would send follow up emails for outstanding approvals, which was a manual and tedious process. Following approvals, the AP staff would match the invoices to the downloaded approvals, and uploaded them into Sage Intacct. Finally, they would key in the data entry of invoices. This all took a lot of work upfront before paying any invoices.

The process before Quadient AP automation meant AP associates were processing invoices every day. After integrating Quadient AP into their AP system, AP associates can now focus on invoice payments for two days and work on other tasks for the rest of the three days. Quadient AP automation has delivered on reducing both labour and data entry errors for Homepoint.

They have a clear view of accounts payable at any all times. Sarah Rehbein, AP Manager of Homepoint says her favourite feature is the time-savings in invoice processing. "I can see who on the team needs help because they were off or sick, or which vendor to follow up on outstanding invoices. I no longer wonder what is missing in the email or did something get deleted. I’m able to have confidence on AP statuses, easily send out follow up emails to approvers and we save about between three and five minutes per invoice in processing."