SAICA Increases Statement Reconciliation With Statement-Matching.com

Automated process improves real time accuracy of paper company’s supplier ledger.

Paper and packaging company SAICA is automating its statement reconciliation with Statement-Matching.com.  SAICA, which also provides waste collection and disposal and energy generation, adopted the technology after a move to centralised invoicing saw the number of invoices handled by its Finance Shared Service Centre increase by 43%, from 70,000 to 100,000.

Using Statement-Matching.com removes labour-intensive administration from SAICA’s statement reconciliation process.  Statements received are scanned into the system, which automatically cross-references them with the invoice processing system into which the constituent invoices and credit notes have been received.  Any documents missing from the statement are flagged, so that SAICA’s accounts payable team can proactively request them from suppliers, rather than waiting until an overdue payment indicates that they have not been received.

Statement-Matching.com therefore ensures invoices and credit notes are in the system faster, making it easier for SAICA to recover VAT quickly and accurately within the correct accounting period. It also makes it straightforward to recover ‘unallocated cash’, such as payments to suppliers that cannot be matched to an invoice.  The combined effect of these factors is improved cashflow for SAICA.

Inputting statements and invoices onto the system more quickly allows SAICA to make more payments promptly. Statement-Matching.com also produces audit-friendly reports automatically; avoiding additional time previously spent preparing these manually.  In addition, SAICA has a more accurate and real-time view of its supplier ledger because it is immediately clear which invoices on each statement are not yet processed.

“Automating our system with Statement-Matching.com has resolved the challenge we faced as a result of the increase in invoice volume. For example, a statement that could previously take up to two days to reconcile can now be completed in an hour and a half,” explains Steve Petty, Finance Service Centre Manager at SAICA.  “The cloud-based nature of the Statement-Matching.com technology is also critical to us as it makes the system low maintenance from an IT perspective and accessible to remote internal customers.”

Daniel Kimpton, Co-founder and Business Manager at Statement-Matching.com says:  “SAICA has a diverse and complex business model which means its supplier base is extensive.  As a result it has to process a huge volume of statements and invoices.  Our technology enables its users to focus on the exceptions and introduces the additional business benefits of improved audit compliance and financial controls.

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Notes to Editors

About Statement-Matching.com
Statement-Matching.com is a cloud-based application for automating supplier statement reconciliation and AP Auditing.  Launched in 2013, the company was founded by Daniel Kimpton and Ian McBeath in response to market demand identified through over ten years of working with Accounts Payable (AP) departments on process improvement and automation projects.

Reconciling supplier statements and identifying duplicates ensures supplier balances are accurate, profits are maximised and AP processes are audited for completeness. Automating the process with Statement-Matching.com allows customers to focus on the exceptions and reduces the volume of invoice status queries from suppliers.

About SAICA

1. SAICA Group is a leading company in Spain in the manufacturing of corrugating board with a capacity of almost 2.4 million tons of paper. With more than 7,875 employees at present in Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, United Kingdom and Ireland.

2. SAICA Group has three business areas: paper mills (Paper), collection of recyclable materials (Natur) and corrugated paper pack containers (Pack). The sales figures of the Aragonese company are 2.159 million euros (31.12.13).