“Electronic Banking leads to a significant increase in efficiency.”

How long has Abacus software been in use at Helvetica Property Investors AG?

Joel Cox: We have been working with Abacus since our founding in 2006. We have expanded the software landscape step by step. For example, we have only been using Abacus Assets Ledger for the past three to four years.

How many employees work with Abacus?

JC: Four people in our finance department work with Abacus on a daily basis. Other employees come into contact with Abacus occasionally, for example when approving expenses or accounts payable, and in time recording.

What do you particularly appreciate about the software?

JC: Abacus is used in many companies, which means that some employees are already familiar with the software from previous positions. In addition, it is easy to use and well researched.

What goals are you pursuing with Abacus?

JC: Our main goal is to push automation as far as it is safe to do so. The degree of automation is continuously increasing. For example, we are increasingly working with booking proposals, have set up efficient approval structures, and have configured EBICS contracts directly in the Abacus software.

Why did you choose EBICS as the banking interface?

JC: A major advantage of EBICS is that I only need one contract for multiple clients. In Electronic Banking, we define when we want to receive the camt files and then receive them bundled for all clients.

How does the accounts payable process work at Helvetica Property Investors AG?

JC: Invoices are forwarded by email to our invoice mailbox and analysed by AbaScan Pro. The documents are further processed in the Abacus ERP: supplier, amount, due date, cost centre, payment terms, and other information are usually already filled in correctly. Accounting then performs a review. If everything is correct, the approval process is initiated and finally the payment run is executed. Once the payments have been made, the account transactions are automatically retrieved and linked to the accounts payable documents.

Which functions do you particularly value in this process?

JC: The document recognition by AbaScan Pro is really very reliable if you work with the suggestions and continuously maintain them. This saves me so much time. Sometimes I feel like this can’t possibly be true (laughs). I only need to review the document capture and save it.

What role does the automatic posting of account transactions play in daily operations?

JC: The automatic posting of account transactions supports our objective of automating the process as sensibly as possible. As soon as a payment is executed, we receive the account statements. Based on standard posting rules, these are automatically linked in Abacus to the accounts payable document. Recently, we have also introduced the automated receipt of e-documents. This means they are always up to date and directly available in Abacus.

You use Abacus Electronic Banking to execute payments. Why is this an added value for your accounting department?

JC: With Electronic Banking, you can observe the increase in efficiency in real time. I can practically configure and automate everything. Every time I speak with our sales partner Customize, I learn something new and experience another efficiency gain. I could spend hours working with Electronic Banking.

Why do you recommend Electronic Banking to other companies?

JC: I don’t understand why you wouldn’t use Electronic Banking. Especially in combination with Accounts Payable, Electronic Banking leads to a significant increase in efficiency. The document is captured once, approved, and the payment is already executed. There are also many advantages from an internal control system perspective: I don’t need a second person to review the payments in Electronic Banking. The control takes place through document approval and does not have to be done again. This saves us an enormous amount of time.

Which Abacus projects are currently underway?

JC: We are introducing accounts payable approval in the mobile app AbaClik. This allows us to ensure that due dates are met even when employees are not in the office. For me, as the person responsible for accounts payable, it is important to see where the documents are, and I can see this transparently in the circulation log.