Before introducing Datacor’s Office Automation Suite into its workflow in February 2024, the Cynamic Chemical Company spent an inordinate amount of time manually filing invoices, processing documentation, and trying to keep track of payments, says Lisa Johnson, Operations Coordinator.

The recently released software – developed to make complex, time-intensive processes simpler – allows users to scan and upload files, pulls relevant data into the ERP system, provides an instant snapshot of all accounts payable activity, and processes orders and invoices.

“What would typically have taken me maybe 10-20 minutes doing each invoice, probably now only takes me less than a minute.”

Just a few months after its implementation, Cynamic has already noticed significant gains in terms of productivity, she says. “I really feel like it's already helped us tremendously,” says Johnson. “What would typically have taken me maybe 10-20 minutes doing each invoice, probably now only takes me less than a minute.”

“When the idea was first brought to us, it sounded great because all of the information is filled in for you,” she adds. “Basically, I now just pull an invoice into the program and all the data is automatically there. All I have to do is check everything quickly to make sure the pricing is still correct, that it shows what we received, and that it all matches up to the correct purchase order.”

Founded in 2014, the business is operated by the three brothers who own the company. Cynamic has grown significantly, supplying private- and own-label janitorial cleaning products and custom blends to the hospitality sector, including restaurants, hotels, and hospitals. Based in Batavia, Illinois, with a 30-person team, Cynamic serves customers nationwide.

Already a Datacor customer, Cynamic was recommended the new Office Automation (OA) Suite to help streamline laborious manual processes and help to eliminate repetitive tasks, save time, and boost accuracy. The Suite comprises Datacor’s AP Invoice Automation and Rapid Order Entry modules and offers customers increased visibility and control over their company’s accounts payable system, while seamlessly integrating with its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

By harnessing advanced optical character recognition (OCR) technology and artificial intelligence, data can be instantly extracted from documents and used to generate sales orders. Invoices are auto filled, reducing the likelihood of errors and delays – which improves customer service levels and avoids any potentially costly mistakes.

For Cynamic, it has automated time-consuming tasks and meant staff can instead turn their attention to other higher value-add activities, says Johnson. “Entering orders and invoices consumed most of my day and if I’m now not tied up with that, I can focus on other things like customer service issues,” she says.

“We had to do everything manually before, which wasted a lot of time. We also had difficulty keeping track of all our processes and staying on top of things. Now, information is easy to access, and everything is all in one place, so it’s far more convenient.”

“At one point we’d even been talking about hiring someone to do all the data entry and input orders, but because of this system we don’t need to do that anymore. It essentially does the work of the person I was going to hire.”

The implementation process itself was painless, adds Johnson, with Datacor’s team spending an afternoon with Cynamic explaining how to use the solution and highlighting its various features and benefits. “They spent a lot of time going through everything with us and once we saw how simple it was, it was all very easy to use,” she says. “If we ever do have an issue arise that we can't figure out, we just message Datacor and they get us the answer pretty quickly.”

Johnson says one thing that really helped was giving some thought into how best to set up the invoice templates for the system. Getting this right meant that when they were returned by their customers and vendors, the system would instantly be able to read them and import all the relevant information.

“Everything can be pulled over into the Datacor servers to be added to the order entry or rapid payable screens,” she says. “As long as everything lines up and matches the template, all the relevant fields are populated and it's a very smooth process.”

“One of our biggest customers regularly orders anywhere from 30-50 line items and those can be daunting orders to enter – but using the new system, these line up perfectly every single time. Now, I just have to push a button, verify that we have the same line item count, the pricing, and the location, and it’s done.”

Johnson has so far been hugely impressed by the positive impact of the new solution on the business and says the Office Automation Suite has become a valuable – and frequently used – tool.

Interested in simplifying your operations, increasing accuracy, and minimizing manual data entry? Find out more about Datacor’s powerful suite of Office Automation tools by viewing this introductory webinar.