Monday 22nd September, 2014

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust has implemented Cloud Invoicing, a hosted cloud management solution as part of a service improvement and efficiency drive.

Over the next two to three years, the Trust plans to use the system by Advanced Business Solutions (Advanced) to process up to 50,000 invoices a year issued by 150 suppliers.

It's estimated that this will help save an estimated 140 man hours per month, freeing up Accounts Payable staff as well as reducing paper.

Leicester is the first NHS Trust to implement a Cloud Invoicing solution ahead of new European and government directives which will make it mandatory for all organisations to offer e-invoicing to suppliers as part of e-procurement measures to drive down costs.

Cloud Invoicing integrates with eFinancials; a financial management system used by over 80 NHS organisations. Suppliers use Cloud Invoicing to post invoices online and all information is automatically imported into eFinancials for approval by accounts payable staff.

Mick Cook, Finance Systems Manager, The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust comments: “Our 30 day payment terms are based on the date the invoice is received, not when it was issued by the supplier. So if an invoice is posted to us, this will naturally have an impact on when the supplier is subsequently paid.

“Invoices sent to us via the Cloud are received and uploaded into our purchase ledger on the same day, so the supplier can be paid on a more timely basis and the Trust can potentially benefit from early payment discounts. It’s still early days but we are encouraged by what we have seen so far.”