‘No More Wasted Trees and Ink’ – How Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency Saved Time and Money with Beanworks

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Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency helps people get access to affordable homes by providing  support such as rent assistance and loans.

Since 1975, the non-profit has grown from just 12 field agents to an organization that helps more than 25,000 families per year.

That is thanks in part to a move away from manual processes towards automation – and accounts payable (AP) has benefited from that shift too.

“Approvals were being lost in the shuffling and transportation of documents between the various reviewers and approvals.” – Ron Wolf, Controller, Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency

“Invoices and other documents required numerous pages, which all had to be printed and filed,” said Controller, Ron Wolf. “They often ended up getting duplicated, which meant more wasted trees and ink.”

“Approvals were being lost in the shuffling and transportation of documents between the various reviewers and approvals.”

As their cabinets filled up with paper, it was time to address these old processes and look for a better way of doing things.

Before Beanworks, an AP accountant and bookkeeper would manually code each invoice. But this could cause problems down the line in Sage 100 if there was an error and it was not spotted in time. The process needed to become more efficient and accurate.

Things changed when they moved to Beanworks.

“Whenever the processes in Beanworks are followed correctly, the cost of processing AP is reduced,” Wolf said.

That is not the only advantage. Since switching to Beanworks for their invoices, the team receives automatic alerts every time there is a duplicate in the system.

And using Beanworks, where approvals can be made online on any device, has helped them during the COVID-19 pandemic. With more people working remotely, processing and approving paper invoices manually would not have been possible.

“Whenever the processes in Beanworks are followed correctly, the cost of processing AP is reduced.”

“Working remotely has been greatly enhanced,” said Wolf. Now, his team can input and process everything electronically, and those who need to review and approve invoices can do so from wherever they are. Wolf added that finding a system that was easy to use for reviewers and approvers was paramount for Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency’s AP team.

One of the best things for Wolf and his team about using Beanworks was the support the AP team received.

“Everyone in the Beanworks support team has been very timely in responding to questions and opportunities. They also provide us with additional learning opportunities via Beanworks University,” he summed up.