Fatigue Science Achieved Full Visibility across AP Workflow

Fatigue Science is a pioneer in occupational fatigue risk management and athletic sleep science and performance. The wearable technology they have developed quantifies fatigue based on objective data and provides specific insights into how fatigue currently affects workplace safety, performance, and productivity. Their clients include professional sports organizations, companies in construction and transportation, and the military.

As a Vancouver-based company founded in 2006, Fatigue Science has expanded geographically over the last decade, with three offices and 50 employees, most working remotely across North America. Looking at his growing team, CEO of Fatigue Science Sean Kerklaan saw a storm approaching in terms of their paper-based accounting practices, which were already a costly burden.

Want to download this case study? Get it here.

Challenge

For two and a half years, Kerklaan’s team processed their invoices manually, incurring hundreds of dollars each month in printing and mailing costs. As CEO, Kerklaan also struggled with the lack of real-time visibility into his company’s payables. “Accounting software, from my perspective, is a very complicated piece of technology. I don’t need any of that. I need to know what our cash balance is, what we owe, and what we are owed,” said Kerklaan.

With a paper-based system, Fatigue Science also lacked clear tracking across the invoice approval process. In order to find out whether a particular invoice had been paid, Kerklaan would have to contact his accounting team at the Vancouver office, so that they could physically search through the filing cabinets to retrieve the invoice and check its status. Signing checks was another major hurdle, as the company’s second signing board member also worked remotely. Each unsigned check required couriering to get two signatures, and that back and forth could take a week or two, which was inefficient.

Decision Making

When it came time to find an AP automation solution, Kerklaan made it a project for his accounting team, who started researching their options. “We went through a pretty rigorous review. It was cost-conscious, and we didn’t want an overly complicated system,” said Kerklaan, who set out the parameters for the search. “They reviewed what was available on the market and decided Beanworks was the solution of choice.”

Implementation

Initially with Beanworks, there was a question about the cost of the solution, and whether automation would truly be a way for the company to save on its processing costs. These doubts were put to rest as soon as the solution was fully functional. In fact, the transformation was a game-changer for the business as a whole.

Not only have their invoice processing costs been cut substantially, there have also been added benefits to company data security and disaster recovery. As a cloud solution, Beanworks makes security simple. “With our accounting software, we’ve invested so much money into redundancies, offsite backups, firewalls and all kinds of encryption problems,” Kerklaan explains. “I don’t have security issues anymore. I don’t have to worry about someone breaking into my office, or my office burning down. All I have to do is buy another laptop.” Best of all, the implementation process was simple and straightforward thanks to Beanworks’ dedicated Customer Success team. As Kerklaan notes, he has not seen this kind of improvement across any of their other tools.

Achievements

“From a CEO perspective, it's magic. I don't need to understand accounting software, and I can instantly search what purchase orders we have approved, and how today's cheque run draws down on those POs,” says Kerklaan. “Beanworks is brilliantly simple. It includes an excellent hierarchy structure for a simple approval or rejection process, allows for digital approvals, and saves thousands of dollars on printed paper.” For Fatigue Science, Beanworks has solved major headaches by simplifying and standardising accounts payable across the business.

Full visibility into AP Workflow

By adding search functionality and approval hierarchies

Eliminated printing and mailing costs

By bringing everything into the cloud

Full visibility into AP Workflow

By adding search functionality and approval hierarchies

Eliminated printing and mailing costs

By bringing everything into the cloud

What Our Clients Say

Don’t take our word for it, find out what our clients say about automating with Beanworks.

Stan Chan

Trailer Wizards

“We have a complicated approval process, but Bean was able to handle it and we were up and running in no time. Our invoice approvers are all across the country and now they are able to approve invoices online no matter where they are. Knowing all invoices automatically go to the right approver brings huge peace of mind.”

Trevor Allin

Ticketmaster Canada

“It took only a one hour meeting to get our QuickBooks integrated with Bean. After a quick training session, we were ready to start using it. Bean has given us a lot of flexibility and transparency into our Accounts Payable.”

Anna Campos

Canadian Council for International Cooperation

“From a CEO perspective, it’s magic. I don’t need to understand accounting software, and I can instantly search what purchase orders we have approved, and how today’s cheque run draws down on those POs. Beanworks is brilliantly simple. It includes an excellent hierarchy structure for a simple approval or rejection process, allows for digital approvals, and saves thousands of dollars on printed paper.”

Sean Kerklaan

Fatigue Science

“Bean provided a way for us to always be on top of the thousands of invoices we receive each month. Now when we need information about an invoice, we are only a few mouse clicks away. We’ve been with Bean for more than two years and are still amazed by their responsiveness to our needs and outstanding customer support.”

Elizabeth Skinner

Air Liquide/Vital Aire

“Bean helped us streamline our approval process. Approvers simply login from an email link and approve invoices, with full visibility into what they’re approving… Life is easier when you don’t have to constantly nag for approval.”

Jillian Barrow

Ivernia Inc.

“We are a very active decentralized oil company. With Bean’s Internet-based process, my users can access and approve our invoices from anywhere. My point of pride is that I have yet to open an overnight delivery account, saving us admin costs in the thousands and our wait time is zero for deliveries.”

Kim Carr

Accelerated Oil Technologies, LLC

“Bean has streamlined our operations and allowed us to achieve a paperless accounts payable system with past invoices at the users’ fingertips. No more requests for boxes from storage for an old invoice has saved us time and money. I would recommend Bean to any business.”

Lynn M. Paige

Frenchman's Creek Beach & Country Club