The Business
As a company committed to enhancing the lives of its residents, there is no room for processes that waste time and money, but UMRH’s accounts payable function was doing just that. With a decentralized system in place, AP employees at the retirement facilities were responsible for manually keying in more than 2,000 paper invoices each month. This provided zero visibility into invoice and payment due statuses, making it challenging to identify duplicate invoices or those with pricing and term errors. In addition, the lack of visibility made the month-end closing difficult and potentially inaccurate.
UMRH needed a better option.
The Experience
Management’s goal was to consolidate and centralize the accounts payable process so that all invoices would flow through the corporate office, eliminating the chaos of multiple people managing one task. In their search to fulfill UMRH’s needs, management envisioned a solution that was user-friendly, would reduce costs, increase efficiencies, offer end-to-end visibility, and allow them to streamline and accelerate their month-end closing. They also wanted a provider that was in it for the long haul, providing support during deployment and beyond. Cue Corcentric.
Danielle Brown, an Accounts Payable Specialist at UMRH’s corporate office in Durham, NC, says, “I was brought in after the selection was made. We went through the implementation process one facility at a time, starting with the corporate office and then moving on through each of our retirement communities. We had great support, and continue to have great support from the Corcentric team. Considering the challenges we thought we would experience bringing in all of our communities, the process went a lot smoother than we had anticipated. Corcentric’s solution is convenient, easy-to-use, and efficient. I’m very happy with it. I don’t want to think about going back to the way it was before.”
The Future
Since implementing Corcentric’s AP solution in 2015, UMRH has seen significant improvement not only in its invoice approval process, but also in its accruals and month-end closings. These changes have brought about the opportunity to better manage cash flow and working capital.
As Brown notes, “Centralizing and automating accounts payable has been a huge time saver, just due to the fact that we are no longer opening mail in multiple facilities. But the benefits go far beyond that,” she continues. “We are now able to process the month-end closing in half the time that we used to. Plus, the real-time visibility into any outstanding payments means we know exactly what’s out there, where it is, how much it is, and if we have to accrue those amounts. We can see it all because it’s electronic and the Corcentric search functionality makes it so easy.”
The visibility provided by the solution has already demonstrated a dramatic savings for UMRH. The ability to identify billing errors revealed $20,000 in double billing by one of the organization’s vendors. It has also simplified the task of assessing costs. “Refurbishing a unit can involve dozens of vendors and hundreds of invoices,” says Brown, “In the past, you had to search for and pull each individual invoice. Now, using the solution’s GL reference, I just put the unit number into the GL search and every invoice is immediately visible to me. That’s a huge benefit.”
Providing a lifestyle of wellness and overall enrichment to its communities and residents is UMRH’s number one priority. By partnering with Corcentric and utilizing its technology and expertise, UMRH focuses less on back-office tasks and more on its mission every day.
Spotlight
Customer
Solutions Deployed
- Cor360 Payables Automation
About the company
The United Methodist Retirement Homes, Inc. is a non-profit, faith-based organization based out of North Carolina that provides quality care and services for an inclusive and diverse population of senior adults. UMRH is comprised of three life plan communities, one affordable housing community, a Foundation, and a corporate office, all working together to offer seniors a lifestyle that meets the needs of each individual.
Results
1/2
time saved in month-end processes
$20k
identified in double-billing
1k+
residents