Thursday 22nd January, 2015

SAICA, a paper and packaging company, has automated its statement reconciliation process with Statement-Matching.com.

The company, which also provides wate collection and disposal and energy generation, adopted the technology after a move to centralised invoicing saw the number of invoices handled by its Finance Shared Service Centre increase by 43%, from 70,000 to 100,000.

The company reports that by using Statement-Matching.com,  they've been able to reduce labour-intensive administration from their statement reconciliation process. Statements received are scanned into the system, which automatically cross-references them with the invoice processing system into which the constituent invoices and credit notes have been received. Any documents missing from the statement are flagged, so that SAICA’s accounts payable team can proactively request them from suppliers, rather than waiting until an overdue payment indicates that they have not been received. 

Statement-Matching.com therefore ensures invoices and credit notes are in the system faster, making it easier for SAICA to recover VAT quickly and accurately within the correct accounting period. It also makes it straightforward to recover ‘unallocated cash’, such as payments to suppliers that cannot be matched to an invoice. The combined effect of these factors is improved cashflow for SAICA.

Inputting statements and invoices onto the system more quickly allows SAICA to make more payments promptly. Statement-Matching.com also produces audit-friendly reports automatically; avoiding additional time previously spent preparing these manually. On top of that, SAICA has a more accurate and real-time view of its supplier ledger because it is immediately clear which invoices on each statement are not yet processed.

Daniel Kimpton, Co-founder and Business Manager at Statement-Matching.com says:  “SAICA has a diverse and complex business model which means its supplier base is extensive.  As a result it has to process a huge volume of statements and invoices.  Our technology enables its users to focus on the exceptions and introduces the additional business benefits of improved audit compliance and financial controls.