Rare Steakhouse Saved 30% on AP Costs Through Automation
Rare Steakhouse is a proud fixture of Melbourne’s dining scene, renowned for its dedication to quality, consistency, and the art of steak. With three venues across the city, Rare Steakhouse champions premium Australian beef, warm hospitality, and an elevated yet approachable dining experience.
Committed to excellence in both produce and service, Rare Steakhouse operates in a fast-paced, multifaceted environment that requires efficient internal systems. However, the business faced challenges with manual invoice processing and stock control, which consumed valuable time and resources. To support continued growth and streamline operations, Rare Steakhouse sought an AP automation solution to simplify and speed up invoice management.
Stuck in the Slow-Cooked Lane
Rozanne Miller explained that before implementing Lightyear, the team's main pain points were manual invoice handling and stock control.
“We needed a solution that could take the manual work out of processing invoices and give us better control over our stock." says Rozanne.
She further highlighted how manual invoice data entry was time-consuming and added to their AP challenges.
“We were spending nearly 30 hours every month manually entering data into Sage, which left little room for any other work.”
The team adopted Lightyear as their AP automation solution to eliminate these manual challenges and manage their inventory.
Manual AP Removed From The Menu
Implementing Lightyear saved the team significant time, allowing them to focus on valuable tasks.
“Lightyear integrated seamlessly with Sage. Its automatic data extraction feature captured every detail from our invoices in less than 15 seconds, saving us over 25 hours each month.”
Rozanne also explained how Lightyear processed their stock data without needing complex integrations or manual data entry. This helped them keep inventory records accurate and up to date while maintaining their existing systems and workflows.
"Lightyear made the inventory side of our business seamless by extracting all essential product-level data such as codes, quantities, and prices directly from supplier invoices. It also gives us the flexibility to export this data in a CSV format, making it easy to integrate with our existing systems and re-export effortlessly whenever adjustments are needed."
Now, the approval process takes just 3 to 5 days.
Well-Done Savings: 30% Off AP Costs
Since implementing Lightyear, the company has saved 30% on costs related to accounts payable functions.
"The 30% cost savings we’ve achieved include the time previously spent chasing approvals, waiting over 15 days to get a single bill approved. Now, that process takes just 3 to 5 days."
Faster approvals have positively impacted the wider business by enabling greater flexibility and efficiency across teams.
"Lightyear has made customising approvals incredibly easy, allowing us to set up workflows that perfectly fit our business needs."
When asked what advice Rozanne would give someone looking at Lightyear for AP automation, she said:
"You have to try Lightyear because it does everything for you. The transition is painless, their customer service is fantastic, and they know the industry. You won’t be disappointed."
| Before Lightyear | After Lightyear | |
| Data entry | 30 hours per month | Less than 2 hours per month |
| Approval time | 15+ days | 3 - 5 days |
| Finding an invoice | 10 minutes | 1 minute |
| Reporting | 4+ hours | Less than 1 hour |
| Rating | ***** |
Its automatic data extraction feature captures every detail from our invoices in less than 15 seconds
See what our other customers say about Lightyear
Sonnel have 14 hotels across Australia and have been using Lightyear since mid 2020 to more efficiently and effectively manage their AP processes.
We spoke with Sanjay de Silva who is the Compliance Officer & Stocktake Manager for Sonnel.
COVID has put a huge pressure on many businesses to reassess how they operate as some business procedures are simply no longer viable.
Healthcare Ireland implemented Lightyear to go paperless with their Accounts Payable as no one could access paper after switching to remote working.
Pizza Pilgrims are a multi-site pizzeria franchise that have been using Lightyear for 5+ years. Their previous process was very manual, with a lot of data entry and checks.
We spoke with both the Financial Director Sophie and the Financial Controller Laura of Pizza Pilgrims, to get their perspective on why they chose Lightyear and more importantly, why they stay with us.
"Lightyear is a cutting edge technology"
Launch was "launched" in 2015 and I took over the ownership in 2018. I needed a solution that would reduce data entry and allow clients to approve their bills.
We spoke with Bookkeeper Lynley Pryde to catch up on all the changes to Launch since she has implemented Lightyear.
"Easy to use & approve bills & export to Xero" - Lynley Pryde
St Basil's have been using Lightyear since July 2020 and have enjoyed 30+% reduction in AP costs, up to 50% increase in efficiency of financial reporting and much more.
The Royce Aged Care have seen marked improvements in their business processes and functions since implementing Lightyear in 2020.
95% of time reclaimed with Archive Search, 80% decrease in bill approval time & 50+% reduction in Financial Reporting time.
Get started with Lightyear today and see how AP automation can help you save time and costs.
An industry recognised app
