How Kitsap CU Uses Intranet System To Get All Employees On The Same Page

November 05, 2007, 1:00 a.m. EST 3 Min Read

BREMERTON, Wash. - Kitsap Credit Union put a modern twist on the hoary cliché "Necessity is the Mother of Invention," when it adapted its company intranet to create an automated, electronic accounts payable system.

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Deborah Tyree, the credit union's accounts payable representative, said Kitsap has used the intranet as a portal for quite some time. Earlier this year, management realized "Passageways" [both the name of the company and the name of the intranet product it oversees] had the capability to do much more than just e-mail. She praised Passageways, the company, as being "wonderful" to work with.

"We wanted to save time and reduce costs," Tyree recalled. "It was taking a week to route invoices to our 17 branches to be approved, and every step had to be done by courier, which costs a lot. Every invoice had to be entered into our accounts payable system by hand, which was time-consuming. Then, the paper invoices had to be saved for seven years, and paper storage costs money."

With the new system, Tyree continued, a vendor can submit an invoice by e-mail and approval can be done while a CU representative is looking at the image for the first time.

If an invoice needs to be declined or disputed, the system routes it back to the proper person.

Anyone who approved or declined an invoice can go back into the archives for months or even years to see the disposition, she said.

Josh DeBoer, Kitsap's projects manager, said the $688-million credit union renamed the Passageways intranet "CU Work." He said it is similar to Microsoft's "SharePoint," and allows companies to set up an internal website.

"Departments can set up folders, which allows other departments to see procedures and share information," DeBoer explained. "On the credit union level, the system lets us put applications in place that allow everyone to have access to the purchase order and accounts payable systems. It is used for information sharing, as well as internal and external departmental communication."

Kitsap implemented the automated AP system in March. Since then, Tyree said, the entire process "has been great."

"It is user-friendly, so everyone who touches it is happy. It leaves an audit trail, and it is less likely an invoice will be lost. Instead of a week, invoices usually are turned around in two days from the time they are received. If a manager is sitting at his or her desk when the invoice comes in, and approves it immediately, the process can take as few as 10 minutes."

According to Tyree, the time savings has been "huge" for an accounting staff that processes more than 500 invoices per month and cuts checks once a week. In addition, she said management appreciates the increase in accountability, and all of the CU's vendors are happy.

ROI Still Being Calculated

"We have not calculated ROI yet, because it has only been a few months," she said. "We will need to quantify cost savings of courier fees, paper storage and person hours, but it is significant."

Asked if she had any advice for other CUs, Tyree said if a credit union already has the Passageways product or something similar, "automating AP is the wave of the future."

"Get away from routing invoices and getting a hard signature," she counseled. "If members are doing electronic bill-pay, why not credit unions? If the technology is out there, why not use it?"

For the CU's next trick, Tyree said she would like to do ACH automation.

"The Federal Reserve is pushing it, and that's a step I'd like to see the credit union take."

FOR MORE INFORMATION

www.kitsapcredit union.org