Gebroeders Pol BV

The need

Traceability of purchase invoices was a pressing problem within Gebroeders Pol BV. After receipt, paper invoices were booked and circulated within the organization for approval. Then the financial administration had to wait for the approval – often in uncertainty. When this finally came, various additional actions were required to physically archive the invoice. The process could be a lot faster. That is why Gebroeders Pol BV started looking for good scanning and recognition software.

The solution

Because Gebroeders Pol BV uses InfraOffice, the company asked BouwInfosys’ account manager for advice. Soon, partner Whitevision came up – a name that had previously come up on LinkedIn, so Gebroeders Pol BV already had some knowledge of the solution. The company had great confidence in BouwInfosys and therefore decided to go with the recommendation. Shortly thereafter, the collaboration with Whitevision was a reality.

The benefits of Whitevision

1. Shorter turnaround process from entry to archiving of an invoice
2. Excellent traceability of purchase invoices during and after the processing process
3. Saving time and increasing efficiency
4. Clear implementation process and helpful, pragmatic support desk
5. Automatic detection of fraudulent invoices

“The big advantage of Whitevision is that we now know exactly where invoices are located,” says Ronald de Bruin, controller at Gebroeders Pol BV. “The throughput process has become much shorter. This saves us time and increases efficiency. Moreover, the problem regarding the traceability of purchase invoices has been solved: we can now follow the entire trail.” Ronald also notices that the approval process is faster: “Approvers receive an email three times a week informing them that purchase invoices are ready for them. Such a message triggers them to actually look at the invoices. That used to be different. Back then, the invoices were in a paper folder on the desk somewhere, which automatically made them less of a priority. In no time, a week had passed – and we didn’t know exactly where an invoice was or who it had already gone to.” With Whitevision, that shortcoming is a thing of the past: “When the invoice is approved, we see the entire trail textually!

“Before we used Whitevision, we did everything on paper,” says Ronald. “But now we require our suppliers to provide digital invoices in PDF form. They send these to a special mailbox for purchase invoices, which we look at twice a day. Then we process the incoming invoices immediately. First we open the Whitevision Scanclient, to which we drag all the documents. Then we make the physical booking in BouwInfosys. Then we link the approver to the invoice in Whitevision’s solution, with which we determine the routing.” This is very simple at Gebroeders Pol BV: “Most of our procurement invoices are project-related. If we link a contact person to an invoice in InfraOffice, Whitevision automatically selects this person as an approver. We have no extra work to do with that!”

The fact that InfraOffice and Whitevision fit well together is an advantage, Ronald believes. “I myself am experienced in using such packages, so I had an idea in advance of how the integration would work. But my colleague had never worked with a solution for purchase invoice processing before and was therefore quite apprehensive about it.” Fortunately, that changed on the day of installation: “Whitevision’s implementation consultant explained to us nicely which steps we had to go through. As a result, after 1-2 days we knew exactly how to use the solution.” Of course, this does not mean that Gebroeders Pol BV never has to call in the support desk. But Ronald is very satisfied with that too: “The lines of communication are very short. Whitevision’s support staff are there for you when you need them. Whether you enter a problem through the customer portal or call them, they work very pragmatically. If necessary, they take over your PC to take a look at it. That’s how they solve problems.

“We process about 3,000 to 4,000 purchase invoices on an annual basis,” Ronald says. “The processing process does not cover our core business. So an automation solution has to relieve us. And that’s what Whitevision does! The big advantage is that the whole process has now become clear to us. At the same time, we spend less time on it. That is the result we had envisioned.” Ronald is therefore happy to continue working with Whitevision. “As long as we use InfraOffice, there is certainly no discussion about this for me. Whitevision offers customers excellent cooperation and is on top of innovation to keep up with developments. In addition, Whitevision cooperates with the Fraud Helpdesk, which is also very handy. A fun anecdote: during installation, a fraud invoice came in, so we immediately saw the solution ‘in action’! A big red notification appeared on the screen stating that the company in question was registered with the Fraud Helpdesk. It is of course a big plus that as a Whitevision customer you automatically use this database ” (this IBAN check will no longer be active as of 01-05-2020). Whether Ronald would recommend other companies to choose Whitevision’s solution? “If you work with InfraOffice, you definitely should! The solution is fully integrated into your existing package, so you’ll benefit a lot from that. You really have to go for that kind of integration.”