Wex Europe Services Ltd

Tony was asked to review the limited, manual Purchase Order process, as well as our Expenses and Accounts Payable processes.

After meeting with various stakeholders to identify how the current system works and what the stakeholders wanted from a new system Tony identified 3 options which were presented to Malcolm Joyce the Managing Director and Julian Maslen the Finance Director.

The first was to revamp the and extend the manual system, the second was to use the company’s current software, PeopleSoft and rollout the POP module within that, however Tony was told this would not be available until December 2015 and the third was to install a short term software solution from Sage 200 allowing POP management within Sage with integration to PeopleSoft for Invoicing. Given the timescales for PeopleSoft and the wish to move away from the manual system Tony suggested Sage 200 to take us through to the PeopleSoft implementation. Whatever choice was made creating new reports for month end management reporting would be essential.

Following discussions with the IT company running PeopleSoft for WEX Europe Services, Malcolm made the commercial decision to extend the manual system, with the PeopleSoft POP system now apparently being available from September 2015.

Tony set about creating a set of spreadsheets for POP, Expenses and Corporate Card analysis that matched as best as could be expected to provide the company with as high a level of control as could be expected of such a system. Spreadsheets were given ‘lookups’ and ‘what if’ scenarios to populate suppliers, general ledger codes, names and signatories dependent upon various options including company authorisation levels. In the Expense sheets when the individual inputs the European division the cost was incurred for the titles are populated in on of 5 languages, mileage forms have ‘lookups’ to provide the correct rates for distance travelled and any additional payments that are due depending upon circumstances, e.g. if claiming for the first journey of a month in Germany a flat payment of €210 is given, this is not paid for subsequent journeys. Corporate Card analysis allows for inputting data by accounts with analysis given by individuals including general ledger coding and totalling of these codes. All spreadsheets were cell protected to ensure individuals could only complete what accounts wanted them to.

And to complete the process, reports were created by Tony that allow budget holders, managers and Directors to have data regarding overhead spend v budget on a monthly and YTD basis for each department and P&L reporting for each Division, run by F P & A.

Added to this, Tony re-wrote the Policy and Process for Purchasing to provide clear and succinct guidelines for all users to ensure the Policy was in line with what the Board needed to achieve for control purposes. The process also laid out the details of what was required from individuals to ensure the Policy was followed and individuals knew what was required of them at each stage. And to finish off Tony wrote some notes as a simple training guide to take you through the Process and ensure you understood what you were doing with a hands on check.

Tony was contracted for three months up to the 8th May 2015, with the anticipation of new software, however, with decision to revamp the manual system, Tony quickly gave a revised date of 10th April as the completion date for the chosen option and efficiently delivered it on time.

Throughout the project Tony was a pleasure to work with and integrated well with the other members of the team. He has excellent communication skills and a well-structured manner of working. I would have no hesitation in recommending others to utilise his skills.

Julian Maslen

Finance Director