Customer Story

In a Nutshell

Before Flowingly:

SIT’s accounts receivable processes were time-consuming and manual, with a mix of handwritten A5 paper notes and email submissions from over 100 employees across the organization. This would often lead to lost requests and unclear accountability, not to mention uncertainty around who the actual request was coming from. Auditors struggled to find relevant documentation, resulting in a very manual auditing process, searching through over 20,000 paper files.  

With Flowingly:

SIT witnessed significant improvements in how they ran their finance AR processes. The automation and digital capabilities of Flowingly reduced the time spent on manual admin significantly, freeing up resources for more valuable tasks. Auditors gained direct access to the system, providing them with all the documentation with a click, streamlining audits, and saving almost a week of admin time. SIT achieved substantial time savings, equivalent to 66 weeks of work per year, empowering employees to take on new responsibilities, dedicate more time to quality work and advance in their careers 

How the Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) went paperless across their finance accounts receivable (AR) processes and removed 1,200+ hours of wasted process admin time by automating simple 3-4 step manual processes.

In this customer story we explore how Flowingly was used to:

  • Streamline and digitize SIT’s finance AR processes  
  • Eliminate lost requests and improve accountability and compliance  
  • Remove approximately 66 weeks of admin time from their processes, equivalent to 1.2 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions
  • Reduce auditing time from a week to half a day  
  • Empower employees with new responsibilities and career advancement opportunities  

The Organization

The Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) is a leading tertiary provider in New Zealand.   

We spoke to Dulari Jayasinghe, Senior Payroll & HRIS Officer at SIT, who was happy to share her insights and experiences around how Flowingly has revolutionized the way they work, highlighting the significant time savings they’ve seen and the newfound opportunities for personal growth and career advancement she has had.   

The Challenge

Dulari, the Senior Payroll & HRIS Officer at SIT, was responsible for generating invoices based on requests received from over a hundred staff members across 26 departments scattered across the country. 

There needed to be a clear process, with requests coming from everywhere, including internal mail, hand-delivered documents, and emails with attachments or information written directly in the body.  

For newcomers to the organization, Dulari found it challenging to navigate this dual system of paper-based and email requests.   

The handwritten paper-based requests were particularly challenging to decipher and track, given the need for more clarity regarding who had sent them, with some often just having a signature.   

The lack of clear identification on paper-based requests, such as missing names or email addresses, added to the confusion and made it challenging to attribute approvals or signatures correctly.   

Additionally, the physical documents sometimes got buried under piles of paper on managers’ desks, resulting in delays of months before they were processed.  

Overall, the existing manual invoice request process at SIT created numerous difficulties for Dulari and the finance team, leading to inefficiencies, delays, and a sometimes manual, time-consuming work environment. A solution was necessary to streamline and automate the process, ensuring clear communication, accurate documentation, and efficient invoice generation.  

I never realized it would free up that much time in my role. That opened doors for me to take up new tasks, be more productive, and progress in my career. Yeah, I’m sitting here because of Flowingly.”

Dulari Jayasinghe, Senior Payroll & HRIS Officer at SIT

The Solution

Upon discussing the new workflow process system with IT, Dulari had a conversation about a new automation solution SIT was looking into – Flowingly.   

As they spoke more about the software, Dulari realized it was the answer she had been seeking.   

In the past, when she had approached managers for a better system, budget constraints had hindered progress. However, IT’s mention of Flowingly meant that the solution had already been explored, eliminating the need for Dulari to initiate a budget request.  

What particularly appealed to Dulari about Flowingly was its versatility. Unlike other solutions focused on specific operations, Flowingly could be applied to any process within the organization.  

This meant that the investment made in Flowingly could benefit all departments, not just one specific area. Excited by the possibilities, Dulari approached her manager and discussed the potential implementation of Flowingly for their accounts receivable (AR) processes.   

After receiving approval from the CFO, Dulari collaborated with IT to automate a workflow with Flowingly.  

Initially, Dulari experimented with the workflow they had created, but she found it was still too time-consuming. However, when she expressed her concerns, she was encouraged to give it a try herself, with IT assuring her that Flowingly was easy to use and super user-friendly.  

Dulari understood the specific requirements of the process better than anyone else, making her best equipped to design a workflow that met her needs.   

By transforming from the previous process to Flowingly, using the customized flow she created, Dulari could streamline the invoice request process and overcome the challenges she had faced before.  

The Results

Implementing Flowingly has brought about significant improvements in SIT’s AR finance processes, resulting in some pretty remarkable outcomes.  

By digitizing and automating their finance workflows, SIT witnessed an impressive reduction in time spent on manual admin. This freed up valuable time for employees to focus on more productive tasks and less on following up on tasks and chasing approvals.   

Dulari Jayasinghe shared her experience, saying, “I never realized it would free up that much time in my role. That opened doors for me to take up new tasks, be more productive, and progress in my career. Yeah, I’m sitting here because of Flowingly.”  

Streamlining their finance processes has saved SIT approximately 66 weeks of administrative time to date, equivalent to 1.2 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions.  

The previous manual process required the finance team to search thousands of paper documents for audit purposes.   

With Flowingly, auditors gained direct access to the relevant documentation, resulting in faster and more efficient audits. Dulari explained the improvement, stating, “Auditors would choose 40 to 50 samples out of 20,000 papers and request the relevant documentation and approvals… Now it takes half a day.”  

By embracing the capabilities of Flowingly, SIT transformed its invoice request processes, reducing manual effort, increasing productivity, and improving audit efficiency. This successful implementation empowered the institute to embrace digital transformation and optimize its operations for future growth.  

Transitioning to an automated system not only yielded significant time and cost savings but also created opportunities for employees to take on new responsibilities and advance in their careers. By leveraging Flowingly’s workflow automation solution, SIT positioned itself as a forward-thinking institution committed to driving efficiency and innovation.  

 

 

How a tertiary provider went paperless across finance with no budget and no IT involvement

(WITH DULARI JAYASINGHE, SENIOR PAYROLL & HRIS MANAGER AT SIT)

You’re in good company 

Proud to be driving digital transformation globally.

Energy

Todd Energy are using Flowingly and Power Automate to create a process center of excellence, empowering non-technical teams to help deliver automation at scale.

Enterprise

A Fortune 100 company uses Flowingly to automate 5,000+ process tasks a day for 70,000+ users globally.

 

Professional Services

Flowingly has enabled rhipe to adopt a line-of-business approach to workflow, allowing the teams to rapidly automate and iterate their business processes without developers.

 

Local Government

Glenelg's implementation of Flowingly has allowed them to deliver award-nominated employee experiences and a process center of excellence.

Education

NMIT transformed manual processes into automated workflows, delivering significant business benefits and risk reduction.

Food Production

Kyvalley Dairy are using Flowingly to transform their processes, starting with turning their manual, spreadsheet-heavy Capital Expenditure process into a streamlined, auditable digital experience.

Get your business Flowing