PRT-Forest streamlined invoicing and their use of IFS with Pagero

”We started to receive e-invoices in 2005 and began to send e-invoices in 2010,” says Anne Voho, Finance Manager at PRT-Forest Oy. ”B2B suppliers and their customers demanded e-invoices, and together with them, we started the digitisation of our invoicing processes.”

”Switching service provider is often a rather arduous process. All suppliers must be informed of the new invoice address, and although there is an established Finnish invoice standard, Finvoice, change always requires quite a lot of problem-solving and error corrections. The supplier letters might not reach the correct recipient, or get lost, and the information in the standard fields can also be wrong or missing entirely.”

”But these kinds of problems only occur during the initial start-up phase. The benefits start to become noticable immediately, so it is definitely worth putting in that extra bit of work during the transitioning period.”

”In 2013, 3% of our outbound invoices were e-invoices. Since then, our outbound e-invoice volume has already increased to 50 %, and we barely receive any paper invoices at all anymore. After updating our invoice management processes, as many as 78% of our inbound invoices are e-invoices. That is a huge difference! We could not really ask for more since many of our customers are private consumers and foreign suppliers that have not digitised their processes yet.”

”At PRT-Forest, we use IFS as one of our financial systems. When we decided to switch service provider, the plan was to find a solution that allowed us to send invoices directly from our financial system. Pagero offered something that the other service providers could not – IFS-expertise. The implementation process went quickly, and it was easy to get started using the solution, thanks to Pagero’s help and knowledge about IFS.”

”What made us switch to Pagero was the web portal. Thanks to the portal, we have been able to increase our inbound e-invoice volume. The portal helps both us, by increasing our e-invoice volume, and those of our suppliers who currently do not have a system for receiving e-invoices. Furthermore, the support services are excellent.”

”Pagero Online is a well-structured tool and it is very easy to find information in the system. Additionally, Pagero archives the invoices much longer than other providers. Those of our suppliers who use Pagero Online too have also been very happy with the solution.“

”There are many benefits with e-invoicing. Since we digitised our invoicing process, our workload has decreased, we have saved money on postage and we have reduced our paper consumption. The fact that all the data is automatically, correctly and quickly imported into our system, also saves us much time. We can pay our invoices in time and take advantage of all possible discounts. The eco-friendliness is yet another positive and pleasant aspect of e-invoicing, and we are happy that we do not have to print any invoices anymore.”

”Pagero’s sales staff contacts us regularly, which is good, and of course important, since it gives us a chance to give them feedback and get information about what is happening in various areas. We can, of course, also always call Pagero Support Center and ask for help should we ever need it.”

”The solution that we have now has worked splendidly ever since it was first implemented. We are very happy with our current situation and service provider. Imagine needing to scan all those 49 000 invoices manually, which we would have had to do if we did not have this solution. That would have been rather gruelling.”