The Problem

H&H Reeds were spending a lot of time doing relatively mundane, repetitive tasks using print outs, files and photocopying a lot of material. Due to H&H being a group of companies, the invoicing process was often drawn out and involved printing and posting, a very time-consuming and tedious process which they decided they needed to change. "People could have 50 invoices to approve a week, which doesn't sound a lot, but if they land on someone's desk all at once, they're likely to keep putting it off, a week has gone by and a backlog is created. We wanted to change that by having a system in place instead." Roger Blake, H&H

THE GOAL

H&H Group wanted to remove touchpoints and unnecessary paperwork throughout the workflow to make their estimate to delivery journey quicker and simpler, and wanted to stick with Tharstern as their print MIS provider. They want to automate whatever can be automated to free up the team to do more beneficial tasks for the business, whether it be investigating of anomalies, or allowing them to develop new skills and expand their roles into areas that mavbe weren't offered before.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PAPERLESS

Roger Blake at H&H Group, Group Financial Accountant, had the whole team involved in the implementation, “I wanted those who would be using it on a day-to-day basis to be fully involved and part of the assessment process to which software we would choose.” 

Before H&H Group introduced them, Tharstern and PaperLess Europe had never worked together so it was a new integration to build. The two software providers have worked together to create a workflow where the purchase order can be checked against the invoice amount and then posted onto Sage. PaperLess then attaches the document to the corresponding transaction that Tharstern creates.  

Due to always working with Tharstern and Sage and having a good setup, the implementation was seamless and H&H didn’t see any disturbance in their work.  

H&H over the past few years have experienced a culture shift and want more people to embrace change and they did when it came to the implementation of PaperLess Europe, “This was quite a project for us, and some people have been working in purchase ledger for 20 years, so moving from paper to automated technology was a huge step, but we’ve done it.” 

WHAT’S NEXT?

The results achieved in the first stage were such a success that H&H Reeds decided to expand the use of PaperLess Europe out to the rest of H&H Reeds. 

While H&H had to review a few internal procedures, staff are now able to focus on more added value work rather than mindless data entry etc. There has been an impact for their suppliers in that our purchase order procedures and accuracy improved and they are able to “buy smarter” using the time regained, so they want to expand this out to the whole group.  

The integration between PaperLess and Tharstern will allow H&H Reeds to have all their emailed invoices automatically matched to the corresponding purchase orders in Tharstern. The purchase orders in Tharstern will then automatically close and the transactions will be posted into Sage. If 50/60% of invoices match the purchase orders it means that H&H Reeds accounts team will have to look through less than half of the invoices they used to have to manually process.

about H&H REEDS

H&H Reeds has been in business 140 years and offer a multichannel approach to marketing including web design, digital marketing, print and signage. They are part of a wider company, H&H Group.

Based in Cumbria in the North West, H&H Reeds pride themselves on their exceptional printed products created using the latest technology.

ABOUT PAPERLESS

PaperLess Europe is a market leading product in United Kingdom, Ireland and Scandinavian countries for both accountants and accounting departments who want to save time and reduce the costs of managing business documents throughout the organization. 

Currently being used within organisations from 1 user to over 250 users, PaperLess has provided significant time and cost saving benefits to many companies throughout Europe, helping them to better manage the whole routine from scanning or adding electronic documents to processing them in the accounting systems. 

www.tharstern.com/hh-paperless-case-study