Invoice processing for UK electrical wholesalers

It’s the last working day of the month and an invoice from a lighting supplier is waiting to be cleared. The purchase order covers the full order, but the branch has only received part of it, and one line is priced above the agreed trade rate. Before anyone can approve it, someone has to check the goods received note and find out what happened to the price.

Most of that checking can be automated from the purchase orders and goods receipts already in your ERP. Electrical wholesalers also have a head start: many of their suppliers already send invoices electronically into Stratas, so that invoice data reaches the matching step without anyone typing it in or pulling it out of a PDF.

Why electrical wholesale invoices take time to process

You may buy from the same suppliers every month, and the invoices still need careful checking. A familiar supplier name tells you nothing about whether this delivery was complete or the prices match your terms.

Part deliveries make it harder. Goods arrive at a branch in stages and the invoices reach head office separately, so accounts has to work out what was ordered, what has arrived and what has already been invoiced.

Then there’s trade pricing. A difference could be a supplier error, an agreed change or an out-of-date purchase order. Credit notes have to be tied back to the right return or dispute, and rebates may need checking against the commercial agreement.

When all of that runs on emails and phone calls, most of the time goes on finding information. Automation helps by putting the order, the receipt and the invoice side by side and pointing at the differences.

Suppliers already sending electronic invoices

Connecting suppliers is one of the harder parts of an electronic invoicing project. Stratas already receives electronic invoices from a network of electrical wholesale suppliers, so some of your regular suppliers may be set up already.

Invoices from those suppliers arrive as structured data and go into the workflow with no manual input. Nothing has to be read from an image or a PDF first. They still go through the same checks against your purchasing records.

Suppliers outside the network can keep sending PDFs. Those invoices are captured, the extracted details are validated, and they join the same workflow for matching and approval.

That also lets you judge e-invoicing against the suppliers you actually use. The question worth answering is how much of your invoice volume already comes from connected suppliers, and what it would take to bring the rest on board.

Matching invoices against purchase orders and goods receipts

Three-way matching compares the supplier invoice with the purchase order and the goods received note (GRN). The order records what you agreed to buy, the GRN records what arrived, and the invoice has to agree with both.

Take an illustrative order for 100 light fittings at £20 each, excluding VAT. The branch records 60 as received. The supplier invoices those 60 at £21 each, £1,260, where the order price for the same quantity is £1,200.

The quantity agrees with the receipt, but there’s a £60 price difference to look into, and 40 fittings are still outstanding on the order. Seeing all of that at once gives accounts one specific question to take to purchasing or the supplier.

Your matching rules decide which differences need review and what tolerances apply. A missing goods receipt needs attention too. Automation can only work with the records it has, so if a delivery was never booked in, someone has to check what actually reached the branch.

So receipt discipline is part of the project. Accounts and the branches need to agree who books deliveries in and how missing receipts get chased, or invoices will keep waiting for information.

Working with OrderWise, Agathos and Mace

The integration has to fit the way you buy and receive stock. Pushing invoice totals into the ERP on their own leaves most of the checking undone.

Stratas works with electrical wholesalers on OrderWise, Agathos and Mace. For OrderWise, data flows both ways: purchase orders, goods receipts and invoices move through your existing workflow, so invoice processing uses the purchasing information OrderWise already holds.

Agathos customers use Stratas at different scopes. Some use it for capture only, others for wider supplier invoice automation, so be clear about which steps a proposal covers. Mace users are supported too.

A good demo follows one of your invoices through your actual process: where the order and receipt come from, how a mismatch shows up, who resolves it and how the invoice gets back into accounts. Bring a credit note and a part delivery, and watch how those are handled.

An electrical wholesaler already using Stratas

AT&T GB, an independent electrical wholesaler on Agathos, reviewed its accounts payable process as the business grew and found the time spent approving and paying invoices was growing with it.

It chose Stratas after a demonstration built around its own requirements. Supplier invoices are now processed electronically, with no paper and no manual handling, and can be looked up at any time, including from home. The team reports faster approvals and fewer errors.

Stratas also has references across the main electrical wholesale buying groups. Ask for one from a wholesaler on the same ERP with a similar branch set-up; it’s the quickest way to hear how the system works day to day.

Start with your busiest suppliers and recurring disputes

Begin with the suppliers behind the biggest share of your invoices. Check which of them are already connected for electronic invoicing, then look at the documents that keep needing someone to step in.

For each recurring problem, pin down what is actually holding the invoice up. A price dispute, a missing goods receipt and an outstanding credit note each need a different fix. If rebates are part of your buying terms, bring those into the conversation too, along with how you check them today.

Then bring real examples to a demo: a few representative invoices, their orders and receipts, and some differences you haven’t resolved. You’ll see which steps can be automated and which decisions still need someone who knows the transaction.