T-Schakt in Örebro is an administrative center for 70 co-owned companies within the contractor industry.
With so many incoming channels, the office personnel were easily getting bogged down in paperwork, but thanks to the digitization of much of it, this risk has gradually shrunk over the years.
Around 80 percent of the outgoing invoices are sent electronically via InExchange.
“It’s smooth and problem-free. We wouldn’t want to switch to anything else,” says Jonas Andén.
T-Schakt is a wholly owned subsidiary of the financial association that Örebro County’s dozer and excavator association established some time ago. The company’s role is to be an overall administrative resource for its co-owners and it is responsible for agreements, pricing, quality, the environment and invoicing.
“Our clients include everything from entrepreneurs with one machine to our largest co-owners, who have 70 excavators and dumpers.
The bulk of it is associated with Örebro County. That is where 95 percent of our business is located. Then we also have a small number of remote jobs,” says Jonas Andén, who continues:
“We take care of all invoicing. That is why we have InExchange, because everything is so smooth.”
Really made things easier
In total there are seven employees in the office. Jonas takes care of quality, the environment and IT. There are therefore many work tasks.
Having tools at your disposal that make everyday procedures easier and save a lot of time is very much appreciated. These are just the effects that Jonas can bear witness to when it comes to InExchange’s invoicing service.
“This is a real help for us,” claims the resident of Närke, whose voice becomes ever so slightly weary when he remembers how time-consuming the invoicing was a few years earlier, before the manual stages were replaced.
“Back then the administrator would sit with the packing slip and manually type all the details into our system. It would then be compiled with the invoice, checked, printed out and coupled with the right attachments.
Then everything would be stuffed into an envelope, stamped and posted.
Yes, oh my. It was a lot of work.”
Jonas needs to take a breath after recounting the procedure, then gratefully adds:
“We can now send a file instead. It saves an enormous amount of time.”
It was a customer requirement
However, despite all the benefits, most of which were obvious beforehand, the transition to e-invoicing did not happen through an internal initiative at T-Schakt.
“It was a customer requirement, I would say. Of the municipalities and major construction projects. They stipulated it as a requirement. The final straw came from Örebro Municipality. They thought that we should try sending electronically. We then felt it was time to hop on board.”
On the other hand, replacing the invoicing method was bound to happen at some point.
“We also saw a benefit in it. As I mentioned, it was very smooth,” Jonas says. In retrospect, going down this path has proven to be sensible. After many years of use, the positive impression remains intact. T-Schakt sends approximately 1,000 electronic invoices every month via InExchange and, according to Jonas, everything is running as it should.
“It works brilliantly. No problems whatsoever,” he says contentedly.
“Sometimes a new customer may want to change the layout of the invoice, or some information may be in the wrong place, but we turn to InExchange support for assistance. It’s clear as a bell. Fast response and hardly any queuing. The fees are also extremely low. I am amazed at how little it costs to be a customer of InExchange compared with what is normal in this industry.”
But the praise doesn’t stop there.
“If you want to make a copy, all you have to do is bring it up online directly in the service and send it via InExchange. It’s incredibly smooth.
Attaching PDF documents is just as simple, which is something we do now and then. It’s no problem at all,” says Jonas, who emphasizes how strong the confidence is in the service by stating the following fact:
“Our ERP system has an integrated solution that apparently allows you to send electronic invoices, but we’ve never used it. We’re sticking with InExchange. We wouldn’t want to switch to anything else.”
The aim is to send more electronically
Further streamlining—and also simplification—have taken place through the co-owners now reporting to T-Schakt through an app. The original app was produced by Närkefrakt. The same system has now been adapted for T-Schakt. By reporting on customer assignments, time taken and so on in the folder, you don’t need to deal with packing slips. “It works brilliantly. We want to do away with packing slips. We want everything to take place electronically,” explains Jonas, who says he can see exciting potential for development:
“With the app you can basically register the order so that it gets turned into an invoice without your needing to look at it. It would therefore go all the way to the customer without any processing from our side in the office. We’re not there yet, but that is the goal.”
