london ambulance service nhs trust towards a paperless office use of integra’s invoice approval...

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Towards a Paperless OfficeTowards a Paperless Office

Use of Integra’s Invoice Approval System

&

Attachment Manager

London Ambulance ServiceNHS TrustBackground to the Trust

• Trust provides response to all ‘999’ calls within Greater London (659 sq miles).

• Turnover of £217m• Transaction Volumes

– Invoices• 33,811 invoices associated with POs• 20,199 non-PO invoices

– 10,040 remittances– >220 journals per month– 716 active cost centres– 959 active expense heads– 151 budget holders– Operate from 70 sites

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Use of IntegraLONDON AMBULANCE SERVICE NHS TRUSTOutline of Financial Systems

H:\Work\Flow charter\Finance Systems.igx 22/05/200609:48:47

Financial Ledger

EROS Purchase

Order

Purchase Ledger

Sales Ledger

PTS System

JournalsManual& PC

generated

SRC Budget Planner

Fixed AssetManagement

Crystal Report Writer

Cash Management

Lloyds Link

Payroll & Personnel

System

Resus

Payments Receipts

Internal Interface

Electronic Interface

PC File Interface

Manual Interface

Order& GRNDetails

Confirmed Invoices

Invoices

ECRDetails

Actuals&

Budgets

CapitalCharges

Initial Budgets(Total or profiled)

Banktransactions

Offload forbudget setting

Reports on anypart of IntegraKey

Integra Module

External System

Pay expenditure & Manpow er data

NHS Logisticsorders

NHS Logisticsorders

Requisition & Supply

Order& GRNDetails

GRN Details

Invoice Approval System

Invoices w ithout

Purchase Order

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Why Implement IAS & Attachment Manager?“The Problem”

• PSPP poor (74%).• Stake Holder Review – Strategic Suppliers.• Increase in numbers of invoices.• Pressure to reduce back office costs.• Problematic internal mail system & lack of

invoice tracking.

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Demo

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Approach

• Discussions with iBS.

• Discussions with IM&T.

• External approval.

• Scanner testing

• Software testing.

• Went live on with scanning on 1 May 2005.

• Procedure & training notes

• Management Accountants trained non finance staff.

• Went live on with IAS on 6 November 2005.

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Authorising via Email

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Approve/Reject Invoice Screen

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Reminder E-Mail

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Invoice Approval System Status Report

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Lessons

• Cultural– “Finance not our problem”

• Poor wording of e-mails• Get the intervals between e-mails right.• Poor spread of training• Escalation not a deterrent• Along side other actions• Did make savings in time and cost.

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Demo

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Journals

• Why Journals?– Poor filing of documentation.

– Storage space.

• Approach– Testing

– Procedure & training notes

– Finance staff trained

• Lessons

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Next Steps

• Cost centre files• Purchase Orders• Sales Ledger

London Ambulance ServiceNHS Trust

Software Improvements

• Link to Crystal Reports• Full user editing of workflow wording• Budget Uploads