Invoice approvals usually within one hour
Since going live in June 2018, DocuWare has proven its worth on a daily basis. Each year, the foundation receives around 1,500 incoming invoices. About 95 percent are now received digitally; the rest are scanned. After an email containing an invoice PDF is received at the foundation's "Invoices" address, index data (such as vendor name, date, gross and net amount, cash discount, etc.) is automatically generated and forwarded with the invoice to the accounting department, which checks and post-processes the data. From there, it goes to the respective purchasers, usually the relevant staffers in Purchasing and to additional stations for larger amounts that require board approval. Invoice approvals, which in the past could often take many days or even weeks, are now usually completed within just one hour. In exceptional cases, such as when a technician is involved who is not permanently in the office, it can take a day. As a result, cash discounts can no longer be lost. Reminders or disputes, which are now extremely rare, are resolved immediately, as it is possible to see where things are going wrong in the workflow with just one click.
Optimizing other processes
"Digitization was urgently needed" summarizes Yannick Mueller almost three years after introducing DocuWare. And this is especially true since administrative tasks and challenges continue to grow. For example, in 2020, the previously leased hotel operation was taken over under the company's own management. But the administrative workload is also increasing in the area of leased catering, facility management, and the many events they host. A start has been made with the invoice receipt workflow, but they plan on building out the system. For a variety of topics - from correspondence with customers (which is to be transferred to the DMS in 2021) to contract management and the integration of outgoing invoices - process optimization with DocuWare is the obvious choice.
The special highlight from the point of view of the Finance, Controlling and IT Manager: "With DocuWare, we can adapt the processes ourselves. Recently, for example, we integrated a new organizational chart with corresponding authorization levels all on our own."
