Lulu Guinness, the quintessentially British and iconic handbag brand, has partnered with Yooz, the cloud-based provider of real-time purchase-to-pay (P2P) automation software, to transform its financial department and provide a 100% remote workforce.
For a business that achieves £10+ million of sales per year through its single flagship store in the heart of London’s Covent Garden, as well as a successful online store selling handbags and accessories all over the world, accurate financial processes are a must.
But to continue its growth and support its entry into new markets across Asia, Lulu Guinness quickly realized it needed to transform its finance capability with modern technology.
Simon Rose, Finance Consultant at Lulu Guinness, identified that processing 150+ invoices per month using an email-based process with no full-time accounts payable (AP) manager was laborious and ineffective if the business wanted to continue to grow.
A Yooz report showed EU businesses spend 36 hours a month on average managing vendor invoices, with the average time taken to approve invoices around 19 hours.
It was clear that the existing Accounts Payable (AP) process was no longer fit-for-purpose, and the need for a reliable cloud-based AP automation solution was a critical business requirement.
Able to connect directly to Netsuite, the integration of Yooz allowed for tailored user access according to job function and financial responsibility, making user adoption much easier across the business.
Rose explains, “What I liked about the Yooz software is the simplicity. It does what it needs to do and it’s really user friendly. I think it was a one-hour job for me to follow the instructions and get Yooz set-up and intertwined with Netsuite - that was priceless.”
With Yooz software, Lulu Guinness can remain confident that all invoices are accurately captured and stored correctly as part of an automated invoice processing system.
With only two people in the finance team, efficiency for Lulu Guinness is key. With the automated workflow process in Yooz, the Lulu Guinness finance team avoids misplacing any invoices, has eradicated any potential for human error and, crucially, is able to export financial data directly into Netsuite - saving time and money.
“The accuracy that Yooz provides has been massively important” continues Rose, “You can search directly for what you need thanks to the search function. By just typing the name of the supplier you can access all the invoices, and with just one click you can bring up any invoice on screen.”
Accounts Payable activity for the fashion brand now only takes 10-15% of the finance team’s time!
