Kicking Paper To Touch: ​Automated AP For Ulster Rugby

With approximately 100 staff, Ulster Rugby is pivotal in fostering rugby development from a grassroots level to their professional squad. The finance team, comprising of Audrey, Claire, and Janice, manage all financial processes that span team operations, on-site retail outlets, referee payments, employee expenses, and more.

Their responsibilities encompass a diverse array of tasks, and "no two days" are the same according to Claire, who highlighted the need for streamlined and transparent processes to pick up and share tasks easily.

Before AP Automation

Traditionally, Ulster Rugby relied heavily on manual, paper-based processes for accounts payable management. The advent of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing challenges, particularly in obtaining physical signatures for paper purchase orders (POs).

"We needed POs to be signed by a budget holder, who may or may not be on site. Due to restrictions during COVID, a budget holder physically signing a paper PO wasn't going to happen. We managed, but when we returned to the office, we immediately looked into ways to make things smoother." 

- Claire, Finance Manager.

Moreover, their previous AP software solution lacked seamless integration with Sage 200 and presented numerous barriers to efficiency. "We had a previous AP solution, and it worked for a while, but it didn't match our set-up that has quite a few quirks. That's what led us to Lightyear which is so customisable. Now, anyone can be a requisitioner for a PO and, we can have as many users as we need at no extra cost", explained Claire.

Ulster Rugby staff have little need to be in the office; they spend their day travelling, so it made no sense for them to drive from remote locations to the stadium in order to complete admin tasks on paper. With the sheer size and scale of Ulster Rugby's operations that were fast-moving and remote, Janice said that the team "were chasing paperwork and emails all the time" which was inefficient and caused frustrating bottlenecks.

Finally Going Paperless

Claire shared that since implementing Lightyear, "It's meant that we have been able to go paperless and digital, which is great from efficiency but also from an audit perspective. Paper gets filed away and with the best will in the world, it can always get put in the wrong place."

It's benefited not only the finance function but also other departments, which can easily complete essential admin parts of their jobs. "The pro team is currently in South Africa, and there's no reason for POs or approvals to stop" commented Janice, who handles most of Ulster's Accounts Payable processes.

Having all AP documents stored digitally in a secure cloud location, with customisable approval workflows, means that Janice can now speedily process a massive amount of documents. 

Easier Approvals & Increased Visibility With Lightyear

Before Lightyear, an approvals folder would be sent away for processing, which could take over a week to return. However, with digital approvals in Lightyear, POs and invoices are automatically routed to the correct approver. Due to Ulster Rugby's requirements, about 80% of all transactions need approval, so the previous way of working was causing significant hold-ups. 

"It also makes it easier to give people task reminders if needed. However, Lightyear makes it so that this is rare since it's so easy to complete AP tasks" - Claire.

There were also challenges with spending oversight. Before AP automation, Audrey, Head of Finance and Operations wouldn't have known what other budget holders approved. The team needed more visibility of what was being accrued or who by. Now, Audrey can instantly see all approvals on her Lightyear Dashboard.

"It's so much easier to enforce our Purchase Order rules now. Lightyear knows how many levels of approval we have and who the right approver is. The invoice goes automatically to them and it means we never forget those extra layers of approval” stated Janice. 

The invoice approvals and data extraction are helpful for Claire who looks after month-end reporting, explaining that “when we are doing our supplier payment run, Janice prepares the data, and I just approve. I can easily find the invoice and see the entire audit trail.”

Gaining A Bespoke Purchasing Solution

After implementing a previous AP automation solution that wasn’t sustainable, Claire and Janice were left in the dark for up to a week due to connection breakdowns when updates occurred. This created a backlog of AP work.

The new Lightyear integration not only operates reliably during updates but has enhanced the experience in Sage. "We moved from Sage 200 to Sage Intacct whilst implementing Lightyear, the integration is great. You can see the invoice attachment sent from Lightyear in Sage.”

Pricing was also an issue with their previous AP provider, since the business was charged per PO raiser and were limited to 30 users. As a result, they were spending a lot and experienced process inconsistencies.

A Team Approach To Implementation

Implementation was a positive process and the tool was easy to roll out to staff. “Janice even has a great intro email for new employees with user tips and the videos that our Onboarding Specialist made.” says Claire. As a result, Ulster Rugby staff can get themselves up to speed easily. Having Lightyear has therefore helped embed best practices by making the PO and invoice approval process fool-proof.

"Lightyear is ready to go. It's intuitive and it doesn't require us, as the finance team, to hold anyone's hand." - Claire & Janice.

Regarding support, it was noted how patient and responsive the Lightyear Onboarding Specialist was; “he took loads of time and it never felt rushed”. In addition, the specialist helped Ulster Rugby with Sage Intacct and “set up things on that end too, which was outside of his role for sure”, acknowledged Claire.

The onboarding experience went beyond expectations, the Lightyear specialist took care of admin tasks to take some of the weight off the team. Janice noticed that "he would get into the system before us and sort things out so we could get ahead. It was encouraging because he would email and say well done or highlight things we had missed.”

The Final Score

Claire and Janice commended Lightyear for its intuitive interface, robust feature set, and exemplary customer onboarding. They emphasised the platform's integration with existing infrastructure and its adaptability to bespoke requirements, saving them significant time and costs.

"In terms of success metrics, we have gone by feel, and things have felt so much better. We have saved time, as before I would have taken a whole Friday a few times a month for filing stuff away. You scan something, and it's there in seconds. Having unlimited PO raisers has changed the game regarding cost savings." - Janice.

By leveraging Lightyear, Ulster Rugby has optimised efficiency across the board. As a result, the finance team were confident in rating it 5/5 stars and shared their excitement for upcoming feature launches, such as Lightyear Expenses.