PGG Wrightson plants seeds for further growth with AP automation

In 2020, PGG Wrightson, a listed goods and services provider for the agricultural sector, was on a mission to save time, reduce costs, and more efficiently process the quarter-million supplier invoices it receives every year.

Despite previous attempts to improve the AP process with scanning and software solutions, the majority of their PO-based invoices still required manual intervention.

“When Esker finds a discrepancy, it resolves it using logic – just like a person would.”

“We’ve used Optical Character Recognition software in our accounts payable process before, and even though it had some benefits, we found that it couldn’t cope with line-item discrepancies between purchase orders and supplier invoices,” says Angela Huntley, Business Programme Owner for PGG Wrightson.

In fact, about 65 percent of PGG Wrightson’s PO-based invoices needed manual intervention, where a staff member had to look at each one to decide how it should be handled.

“Even spending two minutes on each invoice would have been a huge amount of staff time. There had to be a better way,” she says.

After attending a Fujifilm Lunch & Learn seminar in 2020 and hearing how other customers addressed similar problems using the Esker AP Automation Platform, Angela and the PGG Wrightson team were confident it could work for them too.

Solution

“We’ve helped more than 50 New Zealand companies automate their Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable processes using the Esker platform,” says Jayson McCullough, Process Automation Consultant at FIUJIFILM Business Innovation New Zealand.

With native AI and machine learning technology, Esker can read, understand and match each invoice to a Purchase Order.

“When Esker finds a discrepancy, it resolves it using logic – just like a person would,” Jayson says.

If a task can’t be handled by Esker, it gets sent to a staff member to validate. Exceptions are routed for review and approval, and the software learns as it goes. That enables Esker to work fast while still maintaining a full audit trail.

“Fujifilm took time to listen and understand our challenges and came up with a solution that automated the workflow for most discrepancies while also giving staff visibility and transparency,” Angela says.

For PGG Wrightson, that meant they could process invoices on time and with fewer errors, all while meeting their audit and retention requirements.

Results

Working with Fujifilm, PGG Wrightson ran a comprehensive digital transformation programme to optimise their operations and provide better service to rural communities across New Zealand.

“The Fujifilm project team has been fantastic, helping us work through our requirements, implementation and change management across 90 stores,” says Donna Weir, Accounts Payable Manager at PGG Wrightson.

“Since implementing Esker, we’ve cut our processing times in half and virtually eliminated the need for manual handling of invoice discrepancies,” she says.

That means reduced operational costs and increased productivity for PGG Wrightson. For the finance team, it also means better visibility of the payment process while meeting compliance and fewer errors.

“Now our team can focus on our core business: helping farmers and growers throughout rural New Zealand,” Donna says. “I really appreciate the Fujifilm team helping us to work smarter. It’s been a great partnership.”

See more on YouTube here.

P: +64 27 528 3135