ENVE Composites makes carbon bike components in Utah. Two people run its accounts payable on SAP Business ByDesign, and Clerked's agent now does the reading, coding and matching for them.
Before Clerked, the two of them keyed every invoice into ByDesign by hand, because no AP vendor they tried could connect to it, and approvals got held up in departments across the company. Clerked had a working integration within days. Today the agent pushes each invoice into SAP for approval, and ENVE has an 85% faster invoice cycle time.
The problem
Every invoice, keyed by hand
Two people keyed every supplier invoice into SAP Business ByDesign by hand. ENVE is a global business, so invoices arrived at all hours, and each one sat until one of them could get to it.
Approvals were the second wait. Once an invoice was in, it still needed sign-off from people in other departments, and that is where it sat.
“Our old approval process was so cumbersome that things just wouldn't get approved. Invoices would get held up in various departments within the company. It wasn't adding value.”
Collin Swenson, CFO, ENVE CompositesAn ERP that AP vendors couldn't connect to
ENVE had looked for help. Over two years, several AP vendors told the team they could integrate with Business ByDesign, and each one eventually failed.
Without a working connection to ByDesign, no tool could take the keying off the team, so the two of them kept doing it.
The solution
Working in ByDesign within days
Clerked offered to build the ByDesign integration itself. The agent reads vendors, purchase orders and accounts from SAP and pushes each finished invoice back into SAP for approval, so ByDesign stays the system of record.
“Over the past two years we've had several vendors tell us they could integrate with Business ByDesign, only to eventually fail. When Clerked said they'd build it, we told them 'good luck.' They had it working within days.”
Collin Swenson, CFO, ENVE CompositesTo start, Clerked needs four things from a customer, and does the rest:
- 1.A forward from the AP inbox.
- 2.The list of people who approve invoices.
- 3.Access to the ERP.
- 4.A wish list of what you want AP to do.
Invoices read before the team sits down
ENVE is a global business, so invoices arrive at all hours. The agent reads each one, codes every line and matches it, so the work is done before anyone on the team opens their inbox.
When an invoice needs a decision, Clerked brings it to the person who owns the answer, with the reason attached. Nobody has to keep an eye on a queue.
“For a global business such as ours, invoices show up at all hours. By the time my team sits down in the morning, invoices are already read, coded, and waiting.”
Collin Swenson, CFO, ENVE CompositesA different job for the AP team
The reading, coding and matching that used to fill the team's day now happens before they see an invoice. What reaches them is the part that needs a person: an approval, a question about a line, a price that doesn't match the PO.
Every field the agent fills in shows where it came from, so checking an invoice takes a look rather than a rebuild. And a change can be made by asking Clark, Clerked's copilot, in plain words.
An agent that learned how ENVE codes
Before go-live, the agent goes through a customer's invoice history and builds memories: which account a vendor's lines go to, how a kind of purchase gets coded, when to hold an invoice and ask. ENVE has 327 active coding memories.
Each memory is written in plain English. ENVE's team can read any of them, change it, delete it or add a new one, and a rule they add applies to every invoice after it. The same mistake doesn't come back.
More of ENVE's AP, on Clerked
PO matching went live in September, and the agent now matches ENVE's invoices to their purchase orders in SAP. With that in place, ENVE has been moving more of its AP onto Clerked: nearly 3x more invoices through Clerked since PO matching went live in September.
Approvals stay in SAP
The agent pushes every invoice into SAP for approval. It arrives coded and matched, and the decision stays with ENVE's people, in ENVE's ERP.
ENVE started the way most Clerked customers do, with a person approving every invoice. You set the tolerances, and you decide when the agent has earned more room.
“There was some hesitancy on day 1, but we then watched it get things right for weeks. At some point the extra approval click became a formality.”
Collin Swenson, CFO, ENVE CompositesThe results
- 85%
- Faster invoice cycle time
- 327
- Active coding memories, each written in plain English that ENVE’s team can read and change
“We know SAP Business ByDesign can be tricky to work with. After every call, my team literally tells me the same thing: these guys [Clerked] are so responsive and great to work with.”
Collin Swenson, CFO, ENVE CompositesWhat other manufacturers can take from ENVE
- 1.Keep the ERP you run. Ask an AP vendor how long its integration took for a customer on the same ERP, and ask to talk to that customer.
- 2.Count the inbox as AP work. If a tool starts once someone has found the invoice, your team still sorts the email.
- 3.Teach the agent in plain English, and make sure you can read what it learned.
- 4.Start with a person approving everything, and give the agent more room as its work holds up.
Clerked builds AI clerks for companies that make and move physical goods, inside the ERP they already run.
See it on your ERP