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Case Study

Manufacturer of Law Enforcement Equipment Converts to Paperless Accounts Payable

CHALLENGE

When Veronika Jungels, Chief Financial Officer of Paratech, a manufacturer of tools for technical rescue located in the Chicago suburbs, received an electronic payment from the company’s business office in Denmark, she started thinking about automating company payments stateside.

We realized how great electronic payments can be,” Jungels said. “We’re across the ocean and we’re able to approve payments.

Jungels joined Paratech in 2017 and, with the support of Paratech’s CEO, began investigating ways to automate their cumbersome Accounts Payable process, which included entering invoices, matching invoices to packing slips, printing checks, and obtaining signatures from the CEO or CFO. Next came envelope stuffing, stamping, and mailing. It was time consuming and tedious—not to mention occasional printer breakdowns and executive travel schedules. Recognizing the inefficiency, Jungels and her Accounting Associate, Diane Brock embarked on a journey to automate as much as possible so they would have less paper, fewer file cabinets, and a greener Accounts Payable solution.

OUTCOMES

As a long-time customer, Jungels learned about Finrails AP, the bank’s platform to automate B2B payments. When thinking about automation, Jungels said it was “almost dreamy” to think that they could automate single-use virtual cards, ghost cards, ACH, or check payments to vendors in a single platform that would allow executives to approve payments from any location. Paratech was assigned a team to enroll their vendors in Finrails and to troubleshoot any hurdles during the implementation. Jungels commented that they felt well-supported and “the time that they invested to work with our team was amazing.”

SOLUTION

TIME SAVINGS

It is an immeasurable amount of time savings, according to Diane Brock. You’re not bogged down, you’re not waiting for signatures, you don’t have to stuff envelopes or worry about stamps. You upload the file and it’s done. It’s a great feeling to know that the hardest part of your week is over.

SIMPLIFIED PAYMENT RESEARCH

Finrails records all payments by the number assigned in your accounting system, so it’s easy to log into the system to see if a payment went out via ACH, virtual card, or physical check. The system allows users to download an image of the payment for easy reconciliation.

A GREENER, PAPERLESS SOLUTION ALLOWING MORE TIME TO FOCUS ON ANALYTICAL TASKS

Technology is something you should invest in consistently, said Jungels. She suggests that each year, you should have a goal of which piece of your business you want to automate and focus on that. If you try to do too much at once, it can be overwhelming, but automating one system at a time worked successfully for Paratech.

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