• Size of Company: ~1,600 employees, >$400M in Revenue100%
• Product: Coupa, a Procure to Pay Solution
• Implementation Date: April 2020

Challenge

A large publicly traded company of 80+ locations with an outdated 100% paper-based AP department. Vendors regularly complained about receiving payments, invoices and receiving documents were constantly being misplaced, and approval of payments took longer due to the routing process of having management signing documents in person.

Process

Linnea was the project manager of this large implementation, which was a project that the executive team had in the making for 5 years.  The project consisted of organizing a detailed review of 5 different areas of solutions, consolidating the necessary information, and presenting the proposal to the CFO. The proposal impacted the entire organization, there were ~450 employees that required training at various levels such as access for purchasing, approvals, and receiving, for both purchase orders and invoicing. Although employees were restricted from traveling due to the pandemic, all training was able to be completed using live Teams/Zoom meetings with demonstrations and walkthroughs of the system and required tasks, prerecorded videos, and follow up to keep employees comfortable that necessary support was always available. In addition, preparing a large Accounts Payable team for this change was critical. Employees embraced and took the challenge of the system/software transition to a paperless AP department. Vendor onboarding was a task that was also part of the project, and one that continued after implementation. 2000+ vendors were included in the new electronic process changing their payment method to paying them via ACH through Coupa Pay. Developing the electronic workflow, also known as the approval matrix, proved to be one of the most challenging tasks of the project.

RESULT

Implementation of Coupa was originally planned to be completed 10 months after kickoff of the project, however the project was successfully implemented 6 months after kicked off. Continued trainings and communication with all employees and the executive team yield to a successful implementation and a much more efficient organization.  The project came in substantially underbudget and excess funds were used to immediately do a piggyback project for time and expense reimbursement automation.

• Size: $20M in Revenue
• System: QuickBooks Online
• Year End Financials: Review

Challenge

A $20M dollar organization that Linnea worked for decided to sell their business.  Upon starting with the organization, Linnea determined that several areas of the balance sheet were not GAAP compliant, not reconciled or in balance. In addition, external Accountants had noted several yearend comments that were not cleared.

Process

Linnea did a full audit of the balance sheet, completed reconciliations for all accounts, and wrote off balances that were not properly recorded or supported by the assets or liabilities that were owned or due from the organization. She improved the configuration of the payroll system, ADP, to effectively communicate with QuickBooks and automatically record payroll to appropriate GL accounts to reduce the time it took accounting to record these entries.  Linnea reviewed and revised cost allocation processes to effectively allocate overhead and direct costs to jobs and implemented the ability for hourly employees to log into jobs directly from ADP.

Additionally, the company had a fleet of 70+ trucks, automating the daily Truck Inspection was necessary to ensure the company was compliant with the daily requirements for the DOT.  Without adding any additional cost to the company, Linnea implemented a spreadsheet that was required to be filled out daily by drivers.  This form substantiated the DOT requirements and was utilized as support if drivers were pulled over.

Result

After making great enhancements to the organization accounting and bookkeeping, the Company was successfully acquired by a medium publicly traded organization. The acquiring company, formerly a big 4 accounting firm, was pleased by the state of the books, and all the procedures and policies that Linnea was able to put in place. After a successful acquisition, Linnea stayed on as a Controller for this segment and contributed to a successful Microsoft Dynamics implementation.