Skip to content
The UK has chosen Peppol: mandatory e-invoicing from 1 April 2029.What it means for you →
Book a Value Scan
← All case studies

Case study · Construction & professional services

Supplier payments brought end-to-end into the ERP

A once-weekly payment cycle run through spreadsheets, email chains and bank-portal approvals was redesigned around in-ERP workflow, automated reporting and direct bank transmission.

100%of the division's payments approved and released in the ERP
Client
Global construction and consultancy group
Sector
Construction & professional services
Service
Finance Process Automation

The challenge

Supplier payments for the construction division ran on a once-weekly manual cycle. Batches were created by hand, the payment summary was rebuilt in Excel, requests and queries travelled through email chains, approvals happened in the bank portal rather than the ERP, and the payment file was moved manually from the ERP to the bank.

Even with no backlog, the cycle took a full week. The system held little record of who had approved what, and the process depended on individual knowledge.

Weekly payment rhythm, before and after
MonTueWedThuFri
BeforeManual batchEmail approvalsBank portalManual filePaid
AfterRun 1Approve in ERPRun 2Approve in ERP

One weekly cycle that took the whole week became two shorter cycles, approved and released inside the ERP.

Our approach

We project-managed the redesign across people, process, technology and control:

  • Process: a future state with two payment cycles a week, a published timetable and communication templates so each stakeholder group knew when to review, respond and approve.
  • Technology: automated batch creation, an automatically generated and distributed payment summary report, one service-desk ticket per cycle for traceability, and a design for host-to-host transmission to the bank.
  • Control: a three-stage approval chain inside the ERP covering AP management, Finance and Treasury, replacing email and bank-portal approvals.
  • People: iterated the design with AP, Finance, Treasury, Digital and the bank. Where workflow constraints and business needs required it, we adapted the design rather than forcing one that couldn’t be sustained.

We delivered in deliberate steps: in-ERP approval and release first, with bank integration following, rather than waiting for a single big-bang go-live.

The redesigned payment flow
  1. 01Automated batchCreated on schedule
  2. 02Summary reportGenerated and distributed automatically
  3. 03AP managementApproves in the ERP
  4. 04FinanceApproves in the ERP
  5. 05TreasuryReleases in the ERP
  6. 06Bank transmissionHost-to-host design
  • System / automated
  • Control point

Every approval is recorded in the system. One service-desk ticket per cycle tracks queries and exceptions.

The outcome

  • All of the division’s payments are now created, approved and released inside the ERP, with a full system record of authority
  • Email-based approvals and manual payment creation outside the system removed
  • Automated payment reports validated and built into new mid-week payment-run schedules
  • A design that can be extended to other entities through master-data changes, without further development

Facing something similar?

Let's quantify it before you commit.

A fixed-fee, 2–3 week Value Scan baselines the problem with your data and puts a number on the prize.

Book a Value Scan
  1. BaselineMeasure the manual steps, volumes and effort in each process cycle, and where the work really goes.
  2. DesignDesign the target process, controls and architecture, using the ERP's own capability first.
  3. AutomateDeliver integrations, workflows, RPA, analytics or AI components and automated reporting in short releases.
  4. EmbedStabilise, hand over to the operations team and track the reduction in manual processing against the baseline.

Keep reading

More results, measured.

~1 wk → hrsmonthly processing effort

A week of monthly invoice processing reduced to hours

A high-volume consolidated supplier invoice was automated from backing data to ERP upload, removing almost a week of recurring AP effort each month.

Global construction and consultancy group · Finance Process Automation$2.5M+savings over five years

$2.5M saved through a finance Automation Centre of Excellence

An intelligent automation programme across finance and commercial operations, built on a new Centre of Excellence, methodology and delivery model.

Global travel technology company · Finance Process Automation40%+straight-through processing reached on the selected platform

From AP discovery to an automation platform, without a preferred product

Structured discovery of the invoice-to-pay process led to a seven-part improvement agenda, an options analysis and a weighted RFP that selected a specialist AP automation platform.

Global construction and consultancy group · Technology & Partner Selection

Next: From AP discovery to an automation platform, w…All case studies

Let's talk

Tell us the outcome you need, whether that's a funded transformation plan, simpler processes, an ERP back on track or AI working in production.

We'll reply within one working day. Most engagements start with a short, fixed-fee Value Scan.

Your details are only used to reply to you. See our privacy notice.