Swift-link's plan to reduce invoice entry for Sage 50 clients
In this March 2015 account, Alan Peace described scanning client invoices, selecting legible documents for Datamolino capture, then exporting Excel or CSV data for import into Sage 50. He hoped to spread the work across the week and support remote working.
Was this a direct Sage 50 connection?
The process described used Excel or CSV files prepared for import into Sage 50. It did not describe a direct connection between Datamolino and Sage 50.
A practice working from source documents
Swift-link Business Services was an owner-operated practice led by Alan Peace. When this account was published on 10 March 2015, its clients included independent tradespeople, lawyers and dentists. The firm also undertook subcontract work for other accountants.
Many clients relied on Alan and his team to make decisions about their accounting tools. As Alan put it:
I think it is fair to say that many do not want to burden themselves with those tasks, preferring to concentrate on their businesses and outsource their requirements to somebody like me.
One client and around 150 monthly documents
A motor vehicle repairer illustrated the workload. The business bought components as needed to keep stock levels down. That produced as many as 150 invoices a month, about 130 of them printed invoices or PDFs. The rest were mainly petrol and supermarket receipts.
The purchase invoices are sent to us and then keyed, manually, into Sage 50. This is a laborious task which, due to its repetitive nature, is open to error.
This was the repeated task Swift-link wanted to change: reading purchase invoices and credit notes, then typing their contents into Sage 50.
The planned capture and import process
The practice was introducing a shared cloud folder for scanned PDFs. Alan's proposed sequence was to review those scans, select legible documents for capture in Datamolino, then export the results to Excel or CSV for the client's Sage 50 accounts.
His initial impression was positive:
My first experience with Datamolino was relatively simple and the results were impressive.
He also described the working pattern he hoped to establish:
I am hoping that this type of invoice processing can be achieved on a daily basis and therefore spread the workload evenly across time. It also creates the opportunity to distribute the work remotely and remove the requirement for too much office space and overhead.
The account describes the process Swift-link was planning after its first experience of capture. Alan's proposed next step was daily processing, using the file-export route for the client's Sage 50 accounts.
Try the document flow
If a client still gives your practice a mixed set of scans and receipts, start with one representative batch. Check the captured information and the file or accounting connection you will use next. The current invoice automation guide explains the document-preparation steps.
