UFA Cooperative
The problem
UFA Cooperative received hundreds of invoices each week; each invoice had to be manually entered into their ERP system. Employees read specific fields from the invoice, such as the PO number, the date, the service or product procured, and the amount; then click by click, entered the fields into their ERP. Data entry opened the door for human error and inconsistency.
In addition to the human error component, UFA employed a team of 4 people, just to handle the incoming invoices. This was not sustainable, and UFA began to look for a solution to save time and money, and to make their business scalable.
The solution
After exploring the options in automation, Emma was the obvious choice for UFA-Emma offered a specific Accounts Payable bot that would completely automate the process of entering individual invoices into their ERP.
The Emma team worked closely with UFA to develop custom parsers to read invoices that UFA received in high volumes. These custom parsers read invoices accurately 100% of the time. The only human component for UFA would be approving invoices within the Emma Portal.
The results
UFA immediately saw benefits from completely automating their accounts payable process. Their Robot saves an entire team of 3-4 people from data entry throughout the day.
UFA’s employees have a very small part in the new process. The Robot receives over a hundred thousand invoices to process across numerous vendors. These Invoices, POs and statements are sent directly to the Bot's inbox for processing and data extraction. From there, the Bot enters in all information into their ERP, saves the invoice in the system, and creates reporting within the Emma Portal for UFA’s employees.
The biggest value add for UFA employees was the ease of troubleshooting exception reports created by the Bot. These reports have eliminated errors and increased compliance, protecting the company's bottom line. Timely payment to vendors is critical in this industry, and their Bot enables fostering good vendor relations.
Automation has completely transformed UFA's Accounts Payable process and they are looking for new, innovative ways to incorporate other Bots into their processes.
The benefits
- Bots allowed us to repurpose 2 FTE towards operational activities
- 87% of the inbound invoices are fully handled by the robot
- Robots read templates at 100% accuracy and Non- templated invoices at 94% accuracy
- 7.5K a month of hard savings
Company Spotlight
UFA Cooperative is one of Canada’s largest cooperatives that provides products, services, and solutions to owners and customers in rural communities. They pride themselves on allowing each group member to have a voice and their members are at the heart of all their decisions. They are committed to adapt to changing times and are always interested in new technology that will revolutionize the way they do business.
My entire department depends on this bot. If the bot doesn't run even a single day, hundreds of unpaid invoices stack up on our desk.
