Strahan Distribution supply a wide range of Plywood, Pine-board, MDF, Red & White deal and treated timbers, moldings, both native and imported hardwoods along with hardware, building supplies, plumbing, decking and fencing. Strahan Distribution service over five hundred schools throughout the twenty-six counties in Ireland. A medium sized company, they are one of the biggest suppliers to the woodwork department of Secondary schools, ETBs and Institutes of Technology in Ireland. They also supply to both the trade and the retail sector. Strahan Distribution embraced the opportunity to send eInvoices to the ETBs to speed up both the processing and payment of invoices. Strahan Distribution opted for the 3rd party Web Portal option as their preferred method of sending eInvoices to the ETBs.
Key Accounts personnel in Strahan Distribution are responsible for the creation and sending eInvoices using the Four-corner model and selected a semi automated solution from Pagero, a certified PEPPOL Access Point Provider. Strahan create their invoices in the usual way in their Finance System which are printed to the Pagero Virtual Printer which captures and encrypts and invoice data and sends it to Pagero Online where it is automatically transformed into the PEPPOL format and delivered to the Document Centric Solutions Ltd’s PEPPOL Access Point for delivery to the correct ETB. Strahan Distribution were guided by the Education Shared Business Services (ESBS) and Pagero with the testing and implementation.
The Four-corner method of sending eInvoices to the ETBs encountered a few issues with incorrect or missing data. The process of sending test data to check any eInvoice data that was incorrect was critical to the process and ensured that subsequent live eInvoices were uploaded and received correctly by the ETBs.
The Four-Corner model has proved convenient and efficient for the Accounts staff in Strahan Distributions as they can send eInvoices at their preferred times. The eInvoices are delivered directly and instantly into the Finance systems for each of the 16 ETBs. Strahan no longer send any paper invoices to the ETBs.
Based in Monilea, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Slevin's Coaches was established in 1979 by Patrick and Sheila Slevin and since then the business has become renowned for providing the very best in luxury Coach Travel and school transport. Slevin's Coaches are one of the approved bus companies to provide School transport for the Educational Training Board (ETB) schools in the Longford and Westmeath region. They participate in the 'Bus r Us' scheme set up by Longford Westmeath ETB (LWETB) to manage transport providers and to streamline the administration of eInvoicing and payment processes.
Document Centric Solutions, one of the project partners, developed the BUS r US application to manage the entire onboarding and management of bus companies used by ETB. The application has an adapter that creates and sends PEPPOL compliant eInvoices to the DCS Access Point once the trips have been completed and approved for invoicing. Slevin’s coaches found the new Bus App system an efficient way to track and send eInvoices to the ETBs. eInvoices are processed quickly in the ETBs and once approved, payment is prompt.
Slevin's Coaches are one of the 12 transport companies sending compliant eInvoices to the PEPPOL Access Point and who benefit from the advantages of participating in the Bus r Us scheme as they can send monthly eInvoices. The information provided using the app speeds up the approval process and the accuracy of eInvoicing and payment. "Slevins have been sending einvoices to the Longford Westmeath ETB and, in our opinion, it has improved the accuracy and speed at which Invoices are processed. We find that payment is also received more promptly".
Johnston Mooney & O'Brien (JMOB) is Ireland's oldest bakery founded in 1835. The head office and main bread plant is based in Finglas, Dublin. It is a medium sized company selling bread nationwide through 120 self-employed distributors. JMOB sell bread products to several ETB locations in Dublin and hope to expand to other ETB locations in the future. According to JMOB; "sending eInvoices to the ETBs has improved the accuracy and speed at which einvoices are received by the ETB personnel. Furthermore, with eInvoicing JMOB can potentially send eInvoices to over 800 ETB locations in the future." JMOB opted for the spreadsheet upload as their preferred method of sending their eInvoices directly using the ETB supplier portal which is accessed as a link on the etb onboarding website www.etbeinvoicing.ie.
Key Accounts personnel in JMOB are responsible for the creation of the weekly csv spreadsheets with all relevant information for upload to the ETB Supplier Portal which acts as an adapter that sends PEPPOL compliant eInvoices via the DCS Access Point to the ETB. JMOB were guided by the Education Shared Business Services (ESBS) and Document Centric Solutions Ltd on the formatting of the csv spreadsheet.
Overall the spreadsheet upload method of transferring eInvoices to the ETB proved to be a smooth transition. There were a number of test data uploads which ironed out any anomalies in the data. Once the spreadsheet data was formatted correctly, the upload was successful.
Uploading a spreadsheet using the ETB Supplier Portal is convenient for the Accounts staff in JMOB as they can upload at their preferred times and the eInvoices are delivered directly into the EIP system in the ETBs ready for export by ETB personnel to their ERP systems. JMOB continue to send weekly einvoices using the Supplier Portal and report no issues. They no longer send any paper invoices to the ETBs
