City of Cleburne AP Challenges and the Yooz Solution Fit
Like most municipalities, the City of Cleburne’s administrative processes, particularly the accounts payable process, was primarily manual.
In 2015 the city began looking for a solution to automate their AP workflow processes to become more efficient and save valuable time. It realized very early on that Yooz was the only solution for a municipality to:
- Increase visibility into the invoice approval process with the ability to view invoices digitally.
- Minimize the room for error.
- Take advantage of payment discount benefits.
- Reduce time and effort in reconciling checks, have ACH availability, and lessen reliance on paper.
- Acquire and retain the best contractors for civic projects because of on-time payment.
Even though city and state governments tend to be more bureaucratic and slower to embrace updated processes and technology, the City of Cleburne’s Finance Department was able prove a solid business case for adopting the Yooz AP Automation platform and include it in the annual budget.
“We had really great talking points about the Yooz solution when we presented to the City Council. They loved the idea of ACH capability, and realized very quickly how we would save the city money, increase efficiencies, and improve our supplier relationships. Even better, there was no risk to the city. It was an easy decision for them to make!”
Terry Leake
City of Cleburne’s Director of Finance
Main Pain Points
- Double data entry
- All payments made by paper checks
- Slower receipt of payments by contractors and suppliers
- Great deal of time spent on check reconciliation
- Could not accommodate credit cards
Implementation of Yooz for the City of Cleburne
The accounting and finance leaders procured and engaged champions from each department to help address concerns, gather support, gain buy-in, and assist with the implementation. Kristen Torres, lead purchasing agent was surprised to learn that most non-finance department personnel were excited about the idea. “Rather than being concerned about change, there was general consensus that the Yooz AP Automation solution would help them do their jobs better and more efficiently,” she said.
“One of the most valuable benefits for us has been speeding up payments to our contractors. This allows us to get a wider choice of contractors bidding for construction projects, and to keep the best ones coming back. When we pay them faster, they can pay their subs on time. It has created a lot of goodwill between the city and our suppliers.”
Terry Leake
City of Cleburne’s Director of Finance
It’s all about the results
The City of Cleburne realized a ROI in year two, and has experienced many benefits from implementing the Yooz solution.
It will serve as a model for how other government agencies and municipalities can increase efficiencies with innovative AP Automation.
