How Pure Gelato Went From 8 Days of AP Work to Just 4
Pure Gelato has been manufacturing and distributing award-winning gelato since 1994. Founded by Joe and his business partner Alfredo — two individuals with a passion for flavour — this Sydney-based business supplies cafes, restaurants, and hotels across the food service industry, producing over 150 award-winning flavours from their factory. Over the past three decades, the business has grown well beyond its wholesale roots. Today, Pure Gelato also sells directly to consumers through gelato cakes, a factory outlet, event hire, and an online delivery service.
Running a business of this scope means Joe's financial oversight stretches across a lot of moving parts. Joe oversees a lean finance function — a part-time Accounts Payable Officer, a part-time Accounts Receivable Officer, and an external bookkeeper. For years, that setup worked. But as Pure Gelato grew, the limits of a manual, paper-based AP process were becoming harder to ignore. With tedious data entry eating up his team's time, Joe decided it was time to fix the process.
Paper-Based, Error-Prone & 6 Hours of Manual AP
In the early days, when the business was smaller, Pure Gelato handled all bookkeeping and administrative tasks in-house. As the volume grew, the cracks in a fully manual process started to show.
“Before switching to an AP automation solution, we had a paper-based system with files, printing, and paperwork flying everywhere, and it was so easy to misplace something.”
As the business grew, they brought in dedicated staff to manage AP. When the AP Officer wasn't available, the whole process ground to a halt or landed back on Joe's desk.
“We relied on one person to handle payables part-time, but it still took hours of tedious data entry, something I often had to help with myself.” said Pure Gelato’s Founder & CEO, Joe Di Maria.
Beyond the time cost, the lack of detail flowing into MYOB AccountRight meant Joe couldn't get a clear visibility of what the business was actually spending.
“We wanted a more detailed, real-time view of our AP. Sometimes things would get purchased twice and then paid twice, and it's just awfully frustrating when you're a business owner spending money on things you didn't need to.”
When some of Pure Gelato’s customers, who were already using Lightyear, asked them to send invoices to a Lightyear email address, Joe became curious and decided to explore the platform himself.
“I looked into what Lightyear does, and I thought, This is brilliant. That’s what I want for my AP.”
We just needed more visibility on our AP, without the burden of manually entering data into MYOB.
Less Effort, More Gelato: 50% Faster AP With Lightyear
“One of the things that attracted me to Lightyear was seeing so many of our customers using it. They’re solid, reliable business operators, so if they were using it, I thought it must be a good product.”
Within a few weeks, the onboarding and integration were complete, and Pure Gelato was live on Lightyear.
“The onboarding team is fantastic. The process was really smooth and valuable. The tips, tricks, and guidance the team provided made everything much more straightforward and simple.”
The team no longer have to search for files or last year’s records because everything is readily available in one platform.
“The connectivity to MYOB is seamless. It captures the data, checks for duplicates, and stores a copy of the invoice electronically in the accounting software. Everything flows nicely and is displayed far better than we could do manually.”
The level of line item detail Joe gets from the system has significantly reduced the team’s effort.
“I think the real strength of Lightyear is data capturing. The Smart Extract feature is excellent - even handwritten invoices are recognised accurately. More importantly, the system flags duplicate invoices, preventing double payments.”
Joe estimates that the system has made AP processing 50% faster per week, allowing the staff member to focus on other tasks.
“Our AP Officer absolutely loves it and says it’s amazing. It’s so quick and easy to use and saves her atleast 1 day per week.”
I'd rather make Gelato than input data into accounting software, and Lightyear has helped with that immensely.
AP Time Reduced from 8 days Per Month to just 4
Data entry time dropped from 6 hours per week to roughly 1 hour, saving around 20 hours per month. For the part-time AP Officer working two days per week, this equates to roughly 4 working days saved per month. That time is now redirected to other strategic work.
“It has now become more of a processing task rather than detailed bookkeeping work. When the AP staff is not available, it's easy to take over. I can do it in about an hour, and it's not painful or tedious.”
Pure Gelato is saving approximately $2,000 per month in AP processing costs, and Joe notes that figure doesn't yet account for the cost of errors previously going undetected. Even after thirty years of doing things manually, the shift was straightforward. As Joe puts it:
“It's freed me from the painful task of entering data manually. I'd rather make Gelato than enter data into accounting software.”
When asked what advice Joe would give to a business owner looking at Lightyear, he said:
“Have a look at it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. You need to have your accounts in order, but once everything is established, Lightyear really reduces stress. It captures a lot of detail with minimal effort and makes managing finances much easier.”
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