Courtesy of Stampli
Stampli, an accounts payable (AP) automation platform, is changing the game when it comes to how cannabis companies process their vendor invoices and issue payments.
The story begins with Kiva Confections, one of the most recognized cannabis companies in California. Kiva takes pride in producing consistent edibles, mints and gummies. The company also markets and sells its cannabis confections, which means Kiva works with a plethora of vendors—from manufacturers to chocolate suppliers.
Kiva’s vendors send 650+ invoices per month to Kiva’s accounting team by email. These invoices were being managed with email folders in Gmail according to the due date. Those of us with messy email inboxes can understand how easy it is for things to get lost in a system like that, not to mention how hard it is to keep track of it all.
For Kiva, managing invoice processes with email folders was limiting their visibility into invoice status. This process also increased their risks of paying invoices late and making duplicate invoice payments.
Luckily, Kiva’s CFO was quick to identify these risks and took action by starting the search for a centralized accounts payable system to manage invoices. One requirement was that this AP system would need to integrate well with their enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, Sage Intacct. Moreover, the ideal system had to allow Kiva’s small accounting team to handle a growing volume of invoices, pay them on time and gain full visibility into invoice status.
Kiva also wanted whatever system they chose to improve workforce productivity for its small accounting team and cut the time required of approvers to make decisions on invoices and payments. And so, Kiva sought out an AP system that would do just that so their team can spend more time on other value-added projects.
Kiva started the evaluation process by inquiring with Stampli, Bill.com and MineralTree. It didn’t take long for Kiva to identify a winner. At the end of the day, Kiva chose Stampli because it was the only solution that provided the flexibility and adaptability to fit into Kiva’s existing processes. One of those important processes was being the ability to pay vendors inside or outside of Stampli. Cannabis companies like Kiva have payment freedom with the optional Stampli Direct Pay service.
While the cannabis industry is stricken with regulatory issues when it comes to the marijuana banking landscape, Stampli Direct Pay is elevating the cannabis industry by providing a way to process invoices and legally pay vendors.
Stampli does this by giving cannabis companies the ability to pay vendors with painless paper checks, automating the printing and mailing of physical checks, all the while using the cannabis companies’ own signatures from their bank accounts. Cannabis companies can also use Stampli to automate invoice processing and then pay however they decide, which can be outside of the AP Automation software. This kind of payment freedom is one-of-a-kind to Stampli.
When it came time to Kiva’s implementation, Stampli was able to get them up and running in less than a day, which included the integration with their ERP, Sage Intaact.
Now that Kiva has automated its entire invoice lifecycle, from coding to approvals and sending invoices into their ERP, the cannabis company has reduced the invoice lifecycle and any risk of data entry errors. Kiva also mitigated the risk of both duplicate payments and late payments.
“Before Stampli, our invoice lifecycle took 10 to 15 days, and with that came the risk of late payments and potential fees. Now it’s been shortened to two days and I can do that myself faster than before,” said Ryan Mustafa, Kiva’s AP Accountant.
In addition to Kiva Confections, Stampli’s cannabis customers include Airfield Supply Company, Connected Cannabis Company, PAX, Plena Global, and PLUS Products among others.
When it comes to processing vendor invoices and ability to pay vendors as in the case with Kiva Confections, the cannabis industry has an accounts payable software solution on their side.
Stampli works with seed-to-sale accounting and ERP systems. Common ERPs Stampli cannabis customers use include Acumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains, Odoo, Oracle NetSuite, Quickbooks Desktop, Quickbooks Online, Sage Intacct and SYSPRO, among many others. Stampli can also work with any seed-to-sale system that has an accounting or financial module and can accept file uploads to create an invoice record.
Take the first step towards better accounts payable by scheduling a time with an AP expert. Get started by visiting stampli.com.
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