Before SmartPay: The challenges 

Before SmartPay, Speedy Freight’s payment process was manual and time-consuming. Laura Matthews, the Accounts Payable Manager, handled payments for over 4,000 suppliers. Each month, 300 to 500 of those suppliers required manual verification. 

Laura explains the process:

“Firstly, we would extract the data out of Finance Manager. After that we needed to create lookups to our transport system. Finally, we would extract data from the finance system to create and validate bank details, via a “lookup” process.” 

Frequent changes to supplier bank details requires constant attention and control processes in place. Suppliers didn’t always notify Speedy Freight of these changes, which led to delays and risk of error.

“We’d have to take 4,000 suppliers and do a series of lookups in Excel just to figure out what’s changed and what’s new," Laura says.

Given the volumes and accuracy required, this manual verification took an entire day. In some cases, this could mean that some invoices were settled in advance at the risk of bank details changing and becoming outdated. As Laura recalls, “It was just hard work.” 

Making the transition to SmartPay 

When SmartPay was first pitched to Laura, she wasn’t convinced. Her initial reaction? “I can’t use it. It’s not going to work for me.” 

Laura wasn’t against change, but the process was already complex. “It’s one of our biggest, most complex processes,” she says. “I wasn’t jumping for joy at the idea of changing something that I knew worked just fine as it was.” 

Despite her hesitation, the potential benefits of automation and fewer manual tasks won her over.

Once SmartPay was implemented, the results were immediate. The first payment run with SmartPay took just 40 minutes to process payments for 845 suppliers—a huge improvement from time it had previously taken.   

Reflecting on the change, Laura shared, “After seeing how much time it saved us, I realised it was one of the best decisions we could have made.” 

Conclusion: The impact of SmartPay 

SmartPay has done more than save Speedy Freight time. It’s reduced errors, strengthened compliance, and allowed the team to work more efficiently. 

As Amy Rose, Finance Manager explains, “It’s allowed us to speed up processing times and introduce more controls. We are very comfortable with what we’re processing.” 

But SmartPay is more than just an efficiency tool. It’s also helping Speedy Freight drive business growth. “We are a business that is rapidly growing and have significant growth plans for the future,” says Amy. The time saved using SmartPay has meant, “we’ve been able to utilise the time savings against the increased workload generated through growth —that’s a huge help.” 

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SmartPay doesn’t just save time - it transforms how businesses operate, helping them to work smarter, not harder.