Success stories | Yahava KoffeeWorks | Integration: MYOB Advanced
AP Automation for Yahava KoffeeWorks
“Ocerra has been a very reliable system. We've had no issues with it going down or not working properly. It is impressively consistent.”
Paul Davies, owner of the business.
Quick Facts
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Industry: Retail & Wholesale
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ERP system: MYOB Advanced
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MYOB Advanced partner: Stratus Group
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Ocerra products: multi-branches, invoice capture and approval automation for PO and non-PO invoice
About Yahava KoffeeWorks
If you are a coffee lover, Yahava KoffeeWorks is a must-do experience when you are in Perth or Singapore. The Yahava team travels all around the world to discover the finest coffee beans and introduce the best ways to roast and brew them for you.
A favourite of locals and tourists alike (just check the thousands of positive reviews on Google), Yahava offers a variety of experiences, from tasting benches, coffee shops, cafes and drive-throughs to wholesale shops that fulfil orders for their coffee beans from other businesses in the area. You can learn more about Yahava here.
Supplier invoice chaos before Ocerra
Before discovering and implementing Ocerra’s AP solution, the process of managing supplier invoices was tedious, and extremely manual.
Invoices would come in all shapes and sizes, in different formats, some through email, some as paper copies or through the fax. The team had to be on top of managing this process; collating all information and then manually inputting the data from each individual invoice into the MYOB system. Quite a few people would manage this process, which also led to inconsistencies and errors. This entire process was inefficient and time-consuming.
“We had files and files of paper invoices, and if we had to go back and check something, recreating the history of it was a very painful process. It became easier once we moved to MYOB Advanced, but it was as good as someone typed it in, as there were no official documents attached for the audit trail", says Paul.
Cutting AP data-entry time by at least 80%
As the business grew over the last couple of years, it became evident that they had to find a solution. First, they had to minimise the number of man-hours required to manually enter each invoice and secondly, have a central repository where all that information was received and saved in digital format.
"We cut the accounts payable related data entry time by at least 80% and we can do so much more now! ”, says Paul.
With the implementation of Ocerra, the accounts payable process is now simple, modernised, and includes automated invoice approval. The team has instant access to all documents online and can easily track and audit them.
“It is much easier to look at something on Ocerra compared to manually going through volumes of paper files. We no longer need to print the documents and keep them in the cabinet files. The audit trail is easily tracked and followed”, says Paul.
Achieving high accuracy, visibility and meaningful insights
Having all the details on the invoices is very important but at the same time, ensuring that all the information is recorded in full detail is a time-consuming process.
“Previously, a supplier invoice would just say ‘food’ and the amount in our system”, says Paul.
The finance team had no idea how to analyse where exactly the money was going. Trying to save time often resulted in the consolidation of multiple invoice lines into one. Sometimes you do not need all twenty lines, and sometimes you do.
“By having this all feed through Ocerra, you are taking away somebody’s judgement on what’s relevant and what’s not. The beauty of Ocerra is that it instantly retrieves all the data, then you can take a look digitally and see what it was all about without any effort”.
The key component of Ocerra is to instantly extract all the line-item information. It brings all the details the team at Yahava needs and, at the same time, saves the time required to manually key all the details into their financial system
One-stop shop to collect, approve and export supplier invoices to MYOB
“We have asked our suppliers to send invoice documents to a unique email inbox address provided by Ocerra. This saved us a lot of time, as we are no longer collating these documents or following up with suppliers, as there is little chance that invoices will get lost”.
The new processes brought visibility and consistency; the AP team is no longer spending time on supplier calls about paying each invoice.
“Supplier queries are gone; we nearly don’t have it anymore, as everything is so efficient, easily searchable and tracked”, says Paul.
The automated approval process was another advantage for Yahava’s team. Because everything is now online, the approval process is so much more efficient.
“For me, being remote in one place makes it very easy to approve because we can now access documents online, and I don’t have to ask to scan invoices or go back to a supplier for a copy. It is now at my fingertips; it is effortless to access the data we need. Also, we now have it in two places*, in Ocerra and MYOB. I’ve got options as to how to look at it and get the data.”
*During invoice export and bill creation in MYOB, Ocerra creates file attachments from the original email.
“The PO matching is brilliant too. It brings more accuracy and visibility to what we are paying for”, says Paul.
Because Ocerra syncs Purchase Order (PO) information from MYOB and automatically matches with the PO invoice, the team has a much more thorough purchasing process.
“Having the system in place has helped everyone to operate at 100%.”
Insights into supplier management
Suppliers play an essential part in running any organisation smoothly. For Yahava, before their invoices were managed on Ocerra, the team had no insights into why they had so many suppliers, or where they could be consolidated to negotiate better pricing.
“It definitely helped us to sharpen our pencil about getting the most out of each supply”.
Ocerra was instrumental in providing a clearer picture for their business, whether by combining what they were purchasing from two different suppliers or by getting a quick overview of the volume from some suppliers and negotiating a better deal with others.
Feedback on the setup and onboarding process
“I was impressed by how fast the implementation came."
I thought it would be a much longer process. Irina at Ocerra did an extremely good job. Firstly, she was quick to understand what our business was and what the need was—secondly, having an implementation plan that was simple and fast to do.
I found the process very quick and smooth. Go-live support was fantastic, particularly with the time difference.
It didn’t matter whether it was night-time or evening. You were there to help.
And the ongoing support is very fast. The response is quick, no complaints and the implementation was much easier than I anticipated.”
Why is such automation so crucial?
“I would say it was a job before the people would do as a last resort because there was a burden to do it. As opposed to now, as you are not dealing with masses of paper and having to file them in order, it is click and go. Otherwise, it is a waste of resources”, says Paul.