UK Highways steered towards fast accounting

Business situation

UK Highways Management Services provides management support to two DBFO (design, build, finance and operate) companies that are responsible for operating the strategic highway between London and Warwick (M40 J1 - 15), and the trunk road across the Isle of Anglesey to the Port of Holyhead in North Wales (A55).

The company inherited what David Jones, Project Accountant, describes as an “early Sun Accounting System”. Essentially, it was a double-entry bookkeeping system relying on a labyrinth of spreadsheets which consumed significant amounts of staff time, was notoriously cumbersome and was potentially unreliable when it came to producing reports for management. The ‘system’ required manual entry of data in multiple locations, which created numerous information anomalies, not to mention the lack of a basic workflow process. Quite simply, it had to go.

Essential requirements

David envisaged a fully integrated, flexible and reliable system which could be quickly deployed and required minimal training. Most importantly, it needed to produce reports containing information that management could rely on.

Why Greentree?

Eight potential new systems were evaluated, including the option to upgrade to the latest Sun system. David says that comparatively speaking, the Sun system couldn’t match Greentree’s functionality at that price level. The fact that the expertise required to implement Greentree could be provided by the local UK-based Greentree Business Partner, made it the compelling choice.

Smart phased implementation

David explains that implementation needed to happen fairly quickly to coincide with a new financial year, and before the annual licence fee on the old system became due. The Greentree Business Partner’s consultant quickly grasped the requirements, which the Project Manager translated into a reasonably brisk, phased implementation plan. With little, if any disruption to business continuity, the end-to-end implementation process went according to plan. “Essentially, the migration from Sun to Greentree was remarkably straightforward, with Greentree going fully live within three months,” David says.

Six companies – one system

UK Highways is a group of six companies which was difficult to keep track of, let alone manage, in the old Sun system. Greentree provides the flexibility to manage and consolidate multiple companies within one fully integrated system. David says that even if you consider this factor alone, Greentree has saved UK Highways a lot of money by avoiding the need to purchase third- party systems. Other systems could provide this functionality, but at additional cost.

Quality reporting that informs the decision-making process

Previously, an inordinate amount of time was spent entering and re-entering data in multiple locations – data management was an immediate issue. The old adage, ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it’ held true, since the reports produced could not be relied upon to guide management decision-making.

Without doubt, a stand-out value for David has been the amount of progressive time now spent on analysis and interpretation of data instead of data entry. Management now has the peace of mind of knowing that the information appearing in reports can be relied upon. Greentree delivers a standard and quality of reporting that UK Highways has never had before.

Scan invoice saves time

Another time-saving factor is the ability to scan an invoice into Greentree and send it as an attachment to the person responsible for authorising it. David says this is invaluable, since the authorising person is usually a Project Manager who is often off-site. This has a flow-on effect by improving the speed of the invoicing and payment process, which ultimately will improve cash management.

Work just flows

Implementing Greentree has enabled UK Highways to effectively benchmark its business processes against best practice. David is relieved that better efficiency has been introduced to office workflows and that management, finally, has the right tools for the job.