In the time before Xelix, Becci Smith, AP and AR Controller at CH&CO, faced a challenge all too common for Accounts Payable teams: a tedious and highly manual reconciliation process.

“We would copy and paste information from PDFs or convert Excel spreadsheets into specific formats to perform manual reconciliations.” 

The process meant Becci's team only reconciled around 100 supplier statements a month out of the 3,500 they received. Low supplier statement coverage leads to limited visibility and missing credits, painful external audits, unhappy suppliers and more.  

Additionally, because their own team could get through so few, CH&CO paid for an outsource company to reconcile 80% of their spend.  

As the business grew and the demand on the Accounts team increased, Becci realised it was time to look for a solution to help increase statement reconciliation coverage and create better visibility across the payables function. 

After striking out with one software provider who couldn’t handle her team’s invoice volumes or offer a flexible solution, Becci came across Xelix’s Statements module. 

With Xelix’s end-to-end automated statement workflow, her team process 900 supplier statements a month, as opposed to the 100 they were completing before, which is 9x more statements. What used to take hours now takes minutes with Xelix, which means the team can spend time focusing on other high-impact tasks. They can also bring all their statement reconciliation back in-house, saving them the cost of outside resource.  
 
Becci explains, “We chose Xelix because it isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. They strive to improve and be the best in the industry. The system is flexible—if you have an idea, their team are open to discussions and adapting to meet your needs. Most importantly, they could handle our high volumes. 

“We also brought our outsourced team back inside, which has been a 90% cost savings.” 

They can also track which suppliers haven’t sent statements so they can follow up proactively, giving Becci the visibility she didn’t have before.  

Following a negative experience with the previous provider, the team was hesitant when Becci brought on Xelix. However, Xelix eased their fears by fully involving the team in the integration and set up and implementing any feedback or suggestions on the fly. 

The continued speed and helpfulness of Xelix has also impressed Becci:  

“Even when issues arise, the ticketing system provides almost instant responses. Overall, the team is much happier with how things are progressing,” she explains.

“Xelix is very collaborative and receptive to feedback. I’m always keen to provide feedback, and it’s encouraging to see it being acted upon. The ongoing development of the system is impressive, and I look forward to seeing what’s next.” 

The Accounts Payable function has evolved so much over the last few years, and Becci has her eyes fixed on the next area she thinks could elevate the function. 

“Looking ahead, the future for CH&CO with Xelix is exciting. I’m particularly looking forward to exploring the AI possibilities for inbox management. Simplifying processes and reducing touchpoints in AP—especially in a transactional finance role—will make a big difference. 

“The fact that Xelix is already developing these features is great for us.”