"The faster we can process invoices, the faster we can pay."

Gazelle makes about 300,000 bicycles every year in its factory in Dieren, Gelderland. Manufacturing one bicycle requires roughly 200 parts. For this, Gazelle relies on approximately 100 regular, strategic suppliers, who collectively account for about 6,000 order invoices per year.

The timely processing of these invoices is crucial, becomes clear from Edwin's story. "If we miss 1 part, then we can't make the bike and production comes to a temporary halt. We can't. So we absolutely want to prevent a supplier from not delivering to us anymore because we pay late."

Automated invoice processing with Basware

That's why Gazelle wanted to get started with automated invoice processing several years ago. The choice quickly fell on Basware, says Edwin. "We wanted an invoice processing solution with a good name in the market, not a small package. That gives us more confidence. Basware is highly regarded everywhere." Especially in combination with SAP, which Gazelle also works with, Basware has earned its spurs in the invoice processing market.

"We absolutely want to prevent a supplier
from no longer supplying us because we are late in paying."

After first trying with another implementation partner, Edwin and his team finally knocked on ICreative's door in 2016 to realize Basware. Edwin: "Sales manager Jeroen Rozeboom's honest story had impressed us. Things had unfortunately not gone quite right with the previous implementation partner, so we hoped that he and his colleagues could solve that for us. In the end, ICreative re-implemented Basware and we have made a lot of strides since then."

Matching invoices to order line

For example, Gazelle made the switch to e-invoicing in cooperation with ICreative. "We match order invoices at line level and not at total amount," Edwin explains. "That makes invoice processing complex. Especially when you consider that we regularly receive unstructured invoices of 60 pages. If one line is not recognized and read correctly, then you have a problem. I can still remember us printing out 60-page invoices so that we could check off hundreds of lines with a pen to see which ones were missing. Drama," he looks back on earlier times.

With e-invoicing, that's no longer an issue. "Then you can be sure that the data on the invoice is correct. The match with the purchase order or goods receipt is established automatically as soon as the e-invoice arrives. Employees no longer have to do anything with it; you only see the invoice when it is already ready in the payment list," says Edwin.

Processing e-invoices goes much faster

So invoice processing is much faster and more accurate thanks to e-invoicing. Edwin: "That is nice for all parties. The faster we can process invoices, the better we are able to pay invoices on time. That is of course nice for the suppliers because they get paid faster. But it's also nice for us, because it gives us quicker insight into expenses." In addition, a customer often also qualifies for early payment discounts with regular suppliers if they pay faster.

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To illustrate the speed of invoice processing, Edwin says that in his early days at Gazelle, 18,000 invoices were processed. "And then we regularly had a backlog, so people from other Finance departments had to step in to process the invoices."

Now a total of more than 30,000 invoices come into the bike shop's Accounts Payable department each year; some 6,000 order invoices and 24,000 expense invoices. The number of FTE dedicated to invoice processing has increased only minimally. That small increase, according to Edwin, is mainly due to the fact that the majority of invoices are cost invoices. These require more manual intervention by employees. Edwin: "After all, there is no goods receipt or purchase order with which to match the invoice. An employee creates the entry and then the budget owner has to approve it."

Suppliers with most and largest invoices first

Once you've decided to make the switch to e-invoicing, where should you start? Edwin outlines how they approached it at Gazelle. "We started the rollout with suppliers who send the most and largest order invoices to us. If you can get the top suppliers to connect, then you have a large portion of your invoices to deal with right away."

"E-invoicing also benefits suppliers:
speed up the processing process and thus payment"

By now, he estimates, about 80% of incoming order invoices already involve e-invoicing. A significant portion, in other words. "ICreative has guided us during the onboarding of suppliers. When writing to them, we mainly tried to make it clear why we opted for e-invoicing and that it also benefits them. Namely that e-invoicing speeds up the processing process and thus ultimately the payment."

Not everyone can or will connect

A good onboarding campaign can be very important to the success of e-invoicing rollout. After all, not every supplier can or wants to connect to the chosen e-invoicing solution just like that. "Some need a little more of a push than others," agrees Edwin. But even when the will is there, it doesn't always work out. "Some of our suppliers have outdated software, which makes it impossible for them. Especially for suppliers from Asia, it is sometimes still difficult."

In such a case, a customized solution can provide relief. It doesn't have to be complicated. Edwin explains that Gazelle has two major suppliers, with many large invoices, which could not connect to e-invoicing. ICreative has devised a solution for this. The supplier notices in principle little of it; they send their invoice as usual via e-mail. Then, with a small detour, it arrives in Basware the right way.
 

Supplier onboarding: best practices When you have invested in a solution for electronic invoice exchange, you would also like suppliers to use it and thus submit their invoices electronically. This often proves challenging in practice. How do you get them to move? >> Download the white paper on best practices in supplier onboarding

Process expense invoices automatically with e-invoicing

In addition to order invoices, some of the cost invoices are already coming in via e-invoicing. For example, an employment agency always sends large invoices with many order lines to Gazelle. "Those order lines have to be posted to a different cost center each time. Sometimes we had to create as many as 20 or 30 booking lines with different cost centers. That took a lot of time. But now this supplier delivers the invoice via XML. ICreative has set up that it comes in at line level and is immediately booked automatically in the right way, even if there is no purchase order attached to it."

The Accounting Manager half laughing, half sighing explains that occasionally we even have paper invoices coming in. Then we just manually scan them in with the copier. From there they come in in the mail and continue their way as a normal expense invoice."

Process expense claims as cost invoices

About 3,000 of the expense invoices involve employee expense claims. In fact, Gazelle uses ICreative's Expense Portal. "In the past, expense claims were submitted manually and then paid out at the end of the month with the salary. That was inconvenient at times. Especially when larger amounts were involved and the purchase was made at the beginning of the month, not everyone would or could just advance it," Edwin looks back. "Because then you had to wait a long time for your money. Giving an advance was of course a kind of solution, but that was a lot of hassle. Then we had to manually add the payment and later offset the advance again with the statement..."

Now Gazelle employees submit their expense reports via an app. In it, they can check the cost center themselves. "Then the expense claims are simply processed as expense invoices and payment takes place weekly. So the employees have their money back much faster. You can imagine that this app was immediately very popular with our colleagues," says Edwin.

"Besides that, it's just a good app that works pleasantly and looks professional. Finance and Control is not a sexy department; it has a bit of a stuffy image. With an app like this, we do score points," he adds with a wink.

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