City of Granbury staff have taken another step toward eliminating inefficient paper processes in the City’s operations by implementing a completely digital accounts payable process. Through a collaborative effort from several City departments, the City has been able to optimize the current business processes, shrink paper overhead costs, improve access to information, reduce storage needs, improve internal controls, and achieve more reliable auditing and reporting processes.
After recognizing that the cost and problems associated with paper-based systems are the most apparent in the accounts payable process, the Information Technology Department, along with the Finance Department, worked together to achieve the paperless automation. The previous accounts payable process was time-consuming; invoices were printed, processed manually, passed physically from department to department, and stored in file cabinets.
Employees save paper and time with the new digital accounts payable process. Instead of printing and passing around invoices and related documents, they are scanned into the system. From there, the documents are digitally routed to the correct staff for approval. Once invoices have been approved by the appropriate supervisors, they are automatically stored in the digital repository. The system that once took five days to complete now only takes three.
The digital system also automatically keeps track of all actions taken with a document and creates a reliable and secure audit trail. The Finance Department no longer needs to manually search for the needed paper documents during an audit; this has proven to be one of the greatest benefits since implementing the system.
It took work from every member of the Finance Department to implement the new system. Finance Director Eva Gregory said, “I would like to commend the leadership of Katie Moses, Accounting Specialist, who is now the lead and support for all City departments to ensure that the digital accounts payable process continues to be fully implemented and everyone is fully trained to use it.”
For a more technically in-depth look at the City’s new accounts payable system, read the recently-released article “How the City of Granbury Digitized AP Processing” at www.laserfiche.com.
