This episode is an extra special AP Arms: we have our very first double act! Joining us from East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (or ELFS) are Deputy Heads of Accounts Payable Carrie Thompson and Petra Goettlich.
In the world of healthcare administration, managing high volumes of invoices across multiple entities while avoiding costly errors is a complex balancing act. Petra and Carrie talk through how they’ve automated fraud detection and manage risk at scale, while keeping their AP team engaged and happy.
Watch the episode ▶️
Meet Carrie and Petra:
Petra and Carrie have worked in ELFS’s AP department for years. Petra, who’s been with the organisation for over 13 years, manages supplier/vendor maintenance and oversees the supplier portal. She’s responsible for liaising with around 54,000 suppliers, ensuring their data is accurate and up to date.
Carrie, on the other hand, handles invoice processing across her clients, managing approximately 1.8 million invoices annually. Her team faces the constant challenge of identifying duplicates and preventing payments errors at scale, making risk detection a paramount priority.
No stranger to the pub, they’ve been known on occasion to close down their local with the rest of their AP team.
The power of automation to manage risk at scale
Before automation, Petra and Carrie’s team relied on manual checks – which mean they spent hours on tedious tasks and couldn’t even catch all the errors.
Now, given the immense volume of transactions to check, Petra and Carrie rely heavily on automation to manage risk effectively and spot potential duplicates.
Carrie explains, “We review any flagged duplicates each morning on Xelix, and if confirmed, we remove or correct them. It’s helpful because they’re automatically flagged, and we don’t need to spend time manually looking through invoices.”
Seeing the reasons for the errors is especially helpful for preventing these mistakes from happening again, saving money and the team’s time.
Petra adds, “As a Shared Service Center, we have 18 clients, so sometimes one trust will get an invoice that's meant for a different trust. The ability to spot these errors helps us educate our suppliers and prevent the errors from happening again.”
The danger of a costly error: The council tax lesson
Carrie shares a high-risk transaction that nearly went awry. “Once, we processed a council tax bill for the whole year. The clerk inputted the annual amount instead of a monthly payment — initially about £434,000 instead of £43,000. Xelix flagged it as an error because it was an unusually high amount. The clerk was behind on checking Xelix, so, through no fault of the platform, the payment was made before we could correct it.”
Fortunately, because it was a council, they quickly contacted the organisation, who refunded the overpaid amount after verification. Carrie emphasises how critical this safety net is: “It could have been a real issue if it hadn't been a council. They might not have refunded the money so easily. That’s why having extra controls is so critical for us. And because Xelix had flagged the error and the reason, we could see the errors in our processes and correct them so it couldn’t happen again.”
Seamless integration helps you scale efficiency
Beyond risk detection, ELFS uses a number of different systems to eliminate manual, day-to-day tasks, such an AP Helpdesk, self-service supplier portals and automated invoice uploads.
The key for success is that all these systems integrate with and complement each other.
Petra explains, “We couldn’t automate processes without integrations. The automatic data feed into our workflows allows us to process invoices efficiently and accurately, reducing delays and errors.”
Keeping the team motivated in their day-to-day
Even with automated tasks, contending with the repetitive work that comes with high invoice volumes can strain team morale. Petra and Carrie address this challenge by fostering involvement and recognition. “We involve staff in onboarding new software solutions. They get to work on new tools and share ideas,” Carrie explains. “That keeps them motivated and gives them a sense of ownership.”
Celebrating achievements is also part of their culture. “We have lunches, awards and events like coffee mornings to show appreciation,” Carrie continues. When team members feel recognised and involved, engagement increases, and the entire department benefits.
Final thoughts: A well-scaled machine
Automation is key for managing risk at scale. But if your systems don’t work together, and your team isn’t invested, you can’t get the most out of new tools or processes.
A huge thank you to Carrie and Petra for sharing their insights on scaling risk and fraud detection.
If you’d like to feature alongside some of the industry’s finest at The AP Arms, please get in touch – we’d love to share a tipple with you down the pub!
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