Suncoast Christian College (a ministry of Suncoast Church) is a Prep to Year 12 Christian co-educational College located in Woombye on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
Established in 1979, the College is known for its sense of community and true commitment to excellent Christian education for Sunshine Coast families.
“In addition, the team at Think Office Technology were genuine and upfront. They worked with us during the training process and helped us get up to speed with the technology.”
Kerry Paulsen, Assistant Business Manager, Suncoast Christian College
The Suncoast Christian College accounts team was receiving accounts payable invoices via mail and email. When the invoices came in electronically, they would be printed. Where required, invoices would then be moved throughout the College to obtain payment approval from department heads.
Once approved, invoices would be manually entered into the school administration software (PCSchool). Upon entry, a ledger batch report would be raised which would be handed to the Business Manager along with the associated invoices for payment and coding approval.
Upon approval from the Business Manager, the invoices would then be scheduled for payment in PCSchool, and the paper invoices would be marked and filed.
Kerry Paulsen, Assistant Business Manager, Suncoast Christian College, said, “This existing workflow required a substantial amount of time to process, putting the school at risk of misplacing or losing invoices, and this was more prone to human error due to the manual entry into PCSchool.”
The College needed a solution that would streamline the accounts payable workflow, otherwise it would have needed to hire an additional accounts payable person. This would have blown out its support staff to student ratio, affecting the ability to meet KPI’s. Paper-saving was also a major consideration with so much printing, processing, archiving and destroying of paper-based invoices.
Suncoast Christian College consulted with Think Office Technology, a Konica Minolta dealer, who recommended FileBound, and PSI:Capture to digitise and automate as much of the process as possible. These solutions are both made available to Think Office Technology through Konica Minolta’s existing partnerships.
Kerry Paulsen said, “We looked at the available solutions on the market. Think Office Technology came to the school and demonstrated the FileBound solution. We chose FileBound because it was the solution that best met our needs. It would streamline our accounts payable and was easy to use. Given we had to train 120 staff we had to make sure the solution was easy to use.”
“In addition, the team at Think Office Technology were genuine and upfront. They worked with us during the training process and helped us get up to speed with the technology.”
FileBound, is a cloud-based Enterprise Content Management (ECM) application that automates the flow of enterprise work. FileBound manages business processes from beginning to end, and reliably connects people and information wherever they are. FileBound helps drive out paper-based processes to decrease costs and increase productivity, and supports compliance with internal and external mandates.
PSI:Capture enhances the capabilities of any scanning device. Its simple configuration and easy to use interface allows for quick deployment and adaptation by end users, resulting in an accelerated return on investment.
The solution was implemented in two phases. The first involved getting the school live and trained in FileBound. This included the digitisation and automated capture of invoice data using PSI:Capture and the automated filing of invoices into the ECM with FileBound.
The second phase involved the integration of FileBound and PSI:Capture with PCSchool to reduce double handling and ensure that all invoices in FileBound were automatically uploaded to PCSchool for payment.
Think Office wrote a scope of work and implementation plan looking at the school’s current process and built a new workflow for its invoices. The team then spent a day in the IT department setting it up on the SQL server and gave the school training.
Kerry Paulsen said, “From the first day of phase one implementation, which happened in February, we saved 7.5 hours week. The savings in time and accuracy were remarkable.”
“The second phase of implementation, which integrated FileBound with PCSchool was done in July. This has saved us an additional 7.5 hours a week, equating to 780 hours a year in wages totalling $27,300 per annum.”
“The solution will pay for itself within three years, which is a great return on investment.”
“Further, the support offered by Think Office has been great. I think that every school should consider FileBound for accounts payable automation.”
Suncoast Christian College has also achieved other savings, such as reduced paper consumption and meter charge on printers, as well as time saved relating to the filing and retrieval of paper invoices, and time spent following up with department heads.
The College is now considering how FileBound can be used to streamline its student enrolment process.
