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Catharina Andersson, Chief Financial Officer
Easy to grow with agile solution as a foundation
A rapidly expanding company always faces challenges.
Not least administratively.
But thanks to the fact that Mark & Energibyggarna in Gothenburg has an easy-to-manage digital management of its incoming and outgoing invoices, it has been easy to integrate each newly acquired company into the same solution.
- We have a set-up and a flow that we know works for our business. That makes it easy. We know exactly what to do," says Catharina Andersson, the company's financial manager.
Mark & Energibyggarna is one of Gothenburg's largest construction companies and has district heating, district cooling, construction, concrete and land as its areas. The company is part of the Eleda Group (infrastructure services) and forms a business leg that runs on in a string of companies.
At the start of 2021, the West Swedish civil engineering contractor had four companies under its umbrella in its line of business. Now the number is up to nine.
Large expansions of this kind often put organizations to the test, but for Mark & Energibyggarna, the administrative coordination between themselves and the additional companies has worked very satisfactorily. The reason for this, according to Finance Manager Catharina Andersson, is that they have a convenient technical solution at their disposal. Figuratively speaking, the map is already laid out. So her description that it's "just a matter of switching on" doesn't seem to embellish a job that many people find uncertain.
- We have set a magical process. It just flows. It's so damn smooth," she assures us, explaining that every time a new company is acquired, the administrative machinery of the acquired company is replaced with the version Mark & Energibyggarna has relied on for several years and which has proved so reliable.
- "I usually say this: the business is fine if the systems are changed in six weeks. We have managed to do it in two weeks.
Catharina also notes proudly:
- 'The administration of our nine companies has been centralized to the office in Mölndal. Yet not a single employee has had to be made redundant. The companies we bought have used accounting firms in the past, except in one case, but that person was given new tasks to handle in the business. So there have never been any problems.
"No need to keep track ourselves"
The connection to InExchange, which has been Mark & Energibyggarna's invoice operator for a long time, takes place through two systems that the consulting company Exsitec offers in its range. The attestation and supplier system Medius AP Automation (formerly MediusFlow) is equal to the recipient service. The service includes the InExchange toolbox, which allows all suppliers to send electronic invoices regardless of the invoicing solution they use. Outgoing invoices are handled in the Visma.net business system, in which Autoinvoice is the tool that performs the distribution.
- "The advantages of having it this way are that it is extremely efficient. We don't have to sit with paper, envelopes and stamps and handle it ourselves. Instead, it is done automatically, Catharina emphasizes and continues
- "We mainly have government and municipal customers. They have their own format requirements, for example. Now they get it right straight away and we don't have to keep track ourselves. It saves us a huge amount of time.
Keys to simplicity
In addition to the time savings, Catharina returns several times to the simplicity. It feels safe, she says, to deal with digital services that are so uncomplicated.
- "Because the systems are so simple and easy to understand, regardless of which way the invoices go, the effect is to eliminate a lot of manual handling. We would be in a completely different situation if we had to send the invoices as we did before, or if we had to open letters and scan the documents just because we haven't taught the suppliers to send the invoices to us digitally.
She thinks for a moment and then develops her reasoning:
- 'By tinkering with small details, we are gradually making things easier for ourselves. That's also entirely why we've been able to take on so many companies and send around such a large volume of customer and supplier invoices. We have found the keys to simplicity.
Drop the paper - digitize!
Based on her own experience, and the positive effects that Catharina and the rest of the finance department have experienced, she recommends everyone to switch to electronic invoicing as far as possible. She knows that there is sometimes internal resistance to new working practices, but in this case it is worth breaking old habits.
- Many people want to hold a piece of paper. It's so typical of economists. You want to look at it and check it off," Catharina describes with recognition.
But the advice is to step out of the reproduced stereotype.
- If you dare to use technology and digitize, you can save a lot of time. Sure, many people get scared and think, "Oh, I'll lose my job", but no, you won't. On the other hand, you can do more fun things, says Catharina and assures that it is a change that only involves plus factors.
- If you have manual handling that you can digitize or streamline, by letting the systems take care of it, then you should do it. There must still be people behind the scenes who keep a watchful eye and ensure that everything is done correctly. Digitization doesn't put anyone out of work. There is always a certain amount of manual handling.
Mark & Energibyggarna is a leading civil engineering company in western Sweden. The operations of Mark & Energibyggarna are organized into six business areas: energy, infrastructure, land, construction, concrete and internal companies.