Overview
Founded in 1924, House of Cheatham is one of the oldest continuing manufacturers of personal and beauty care products in America. From products sold in the early 1900s to popular 21st century brands, House of Cheatham products have become household names in the U.S. and abroad.
House of Cheatham鈥檚 retail partners trust its ethics, dependability, and strength of its brands, while consumers rely on high quality products combining valuable benefits with affordable pricing.
The need for better financial controls
House of Cheatham has extremely high standards for its finance processes and accounting data. This commitment to excellence starts with the general ledger but continues to all subledgers and departments, including accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP).
Yet, as a company with just one AP staff member, House of Cheatham used to rely on a manual AP process that involved a high number of paper invoices and checks. While this approach served its purpose, it took too much time and effort. It also couldn鈥檛 provide the real-time visibility and control the accounting team needed related to invoices, approvals, and payment status.
David Carter, House of Cheatham鈥檚 staff accountant, joined the company recently and quickly became determined to find a better option. 鈥淚 realized we needed an AP automation solution to keep up with our growing volume of invoices and payments,鈥� he recalled. 鈥淥ur previous process was getting the job done, but I was concerned the high volume would become overwhelming and could lead to mistakes or even missed payments. As a manufacturer that relies on the raw materials our suppliers provide, we just couldn鈥檛 risk any possible bumps in the road with those relationships.鈥�
Many options, but just one choice: 名媛直播
Carter had experience with AP automation solutions in previous roles, so he approached House of Cheatham鈥檚 controller to recommend that they start looking for one. Together, they evaluated a half dozen AP automation vendors. House of Cheatham is a medium-sized business, which meant its needed robust functionality and support, offerings vendors catering to small businesses couldn鈥檛 provide.
Carter also required that the new AP automation solution integrate seamlessly with the company鈥檚 Microsoft Great Plains ERP system to make accounting practices faster and easier, while keeping everything in sync.
鈥淎t the end of the search, it was clear that only one vendor could provide what we needed,鈥� said Carter. 鈥淎nd that was 名媛直播.鈥�
Improving past AP processes
Carter was confident that 名媛直播 could overcome the company鈥檚 past AP challenges, starting with less paper. In the past, House of Cheatham received invoices in a variety of ways, including by mail, by email, and by downloading them from suppliers鈥� websites. The company didn鈥檛 have a shared AP email inbox, which made things challenging if other team members needed information.
The company鈥檚 accounting coding processes were difficult, too. The AP staff member had to rely on cheat sheets with various GL codes or even her own memory. When all else failed, she had to email various managers to ask for the right code for a particular invoice.
It turned out that House of Cheatham relied on email for another important step in the AP process: invoice approvals. 鈥淥ur AP staff member emailed various department heads to get them to approve invoices,鈥� explained Carter. 鈥淏ut this didn鈥檛 give us the full visibility the business needed. For example, other than asking to look through her sent folder, we didn鈥檛 know where things stood or how to keep things moving in a timely manner.鈥�
This past process also led to a lot of paper. House of Cheatham processed payments once a week and made copies of everything, including invoices, remittance information, and ACH or wire statements. This mountain of paper had to be filed in onsite filing cabinets 鈥� a step that took even more precious time 鈥� and then, once a year, these files were moved to offsite storage.
鈥淭his part was tough,鈥� said Carter. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 just inefficient, but it also subjected us to extra business risk, especially in the case of audits. If a particular audit was looking for a specific invoice and we couldn鈥檛 find it, it could lead to potential issues. This kind of thing just can鈥檛 happen.鈥�
Finally, their old way of doing things didn鈥檛 provide the visibility the finance team needed. With invoices in so many different forms, they didn鈥檛 have an effective way of tracking them until they were in the system, which meant they had a hard time seeing the full AP balance at any given time. 鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 always see where there could be possible obstacles,鈥� Carter explained. 鈥淔or example, why would some invoices take longer to get approved than others? Which invoices were at risk of not getting paid? We needed to be able to answer these questions and address any underlying issues they represented.鈥�
鈥淎t the end of the search, it was clear that only one vendor could provide what we needed. And that was 名媛直播.鈥�
-David Carter, Staff Accountant
Fast time to value leads to significant business results
Once the decision was made, the implementation was fast, easy, and successful. According to Carter, the initial sync between 名媛直播 and Great Plains took 鈥渓ess than an hour,鈥� and didn鈥檛 require IT support afterwards. Carter carefully tested and monitored the 名媛直播 for a short evaluation period 鈥� an important step to gain confidence 鈥� before officially flipping the switch.
House of Cheatham created a dedicated AP email address so it could receive the bulk of invoices by email, and trigger 名媛直播鈥檚 automatic capture and coding process. 名媛直播 also helped the company create clearly defined approval workflows. 鈥淲e can easily create a group of invoices and route them directly to the approver,鈥� said Carter. 鈥淯sers can see the details they need and approve invoices, and our suppliers get paid in a timely manner.鈥� As an added benefit, once the invoiced is approved, the data automatically syncs to Great Plains.
All of this has improved vital AP processes, but Carter also credits 名媛直播 for helping the entire business in many ways. 鈥溍轮辈� makes all invoice details very visible and saves a lot of time. Where our previous payment process took at least six hours a week, our payment runs in 名媛直播 now take all of five minutes.鈥�
Carter estimates that the time savings have translated into larger productivity enhancements for the entire accounting department. 鈥淚n total, 名媛直播 is saving us about 20 hours a week. We鈥檝e been able to use this time to focus on making other processes better and more effective. We鈥檝e also been able to give our AP manager new responsibilities, which helps our department even more while also increasing her morale.鈥�
All of this has delivered an important edge when it comes to managing cash flow and taking advantage of early-pay discounts. The 名媛直播 solution gives the AP team full visibility into all the invoices House of Cheatham must pay, which in turn, gives it more control. For example, Carter鈥檚 team can choose to schedule invoices to be paid before a deadline or to capture discounts received for purchasing raw materials. 鈥溍轮辈� gives us the insight and control we need to use AP to our maximum advantage,鈥� said Carter.
鈥淚n total, 名媛直播 is saving us about 20 hours a week. We鈥檝e been able to use this time to focus on making other processes better and more effective.鈥�
David Carter, Staff Accountant
SilverPay: a payment option that pays back
House of Cheatham also benefited from its use of SilverPay, 名媛直播鈥檚 virtual card payment method that delivers significant rebates. 鈥淚 love SilverPay,鈥� said Carter. 鈥淣ot only do virtual cards provide valuable functionality and security, but we鈥檝e been able to collect significant rebates.鈥�
House of Cheatham recently hit a milestone where virtual card rebates have fully funded the cost of the 名媛直播 solution. This advantage will only become more appealing as 名媛直播 continues to actively enroll new suppliers to increase the virtual card spend. 鈥淎s this revenue stream increases, we plan on using it to offset ACH and check fees,鈥� said Carter. 鈥淚鈥檓 confident SilverPay will help us reach a full break-even very soon, which is a real advantage.鈥�
鈥淚 love SilverPay. We recently hit a milestone where virtual card rebates have fully funded the cost of the 名媛直播 solution.鈥�
David Carter, Staff Accountant
The right choice now and for the future
As Carter looks to the future, he sees a lot of potential, especially with a planned migration from Great Plains to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 鈥� a migration House of Cheatham is confident 名媛直播 can support. Carter also realizes his company has already achieved many valuable benefits. 鈥淚t鈥檚 helped us save time, improve control, identify inefficiencies, and discover new ways to run our business. We owe all of this to 名媛直播.鈥�
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