How we shortened invoice circulation by 3 days in a Gdańsk wholesaler

Email mess cost them 3,800 PLN per month

The owner of the fittings wholesaler, Mr. Andrzej, called us because he was fed up with calls from suppliers. The scenario was always the same: the goods arrived, the invoice was sent by email, but the payment didn't go out on time. During our first visit on March 12, we determined that the average time from receiving an email to approving the transfer was as much as 11 business days. That is 4 days too long to catch early payment discounts from pipe manufacturers, which in February alone cost the company exactly 3,820 PLN in lost discounts.

The problem was not people's laziness, but the lack of a clear path. Invoices went to a general office@ inbox, from where Mrs. Grażyna forwarded them to the warehouseman to confirm receipt of the goods. The warehouseman opened his mail once every two days because he preferred to be on the floor. Then the email returned to the office, went to the boss for signature, and finally to external accounting. In this chain, each person added 24 to 48 hours of delay. A bird's-eye view of the facts showed us that the document was forwarded as many as 6 times before anyone entered it into the bank.

It was a classic waste of time that no one had measured with a stopwatch before. There were 9 people working in the company at that time, and each had a different theory as to why payments were late. The warehouseman claimed the system was freezing, the office said the warehouse wasn't replying, and the boss simply didn't have time to click on every attachment. Without sugarcoating, we told them the system wasn't to blame – the dispersion of responsibility for one small piece of paper was.

An invoice circulated through the company for 11 days, even though the physical check of the goods took the warehouseman exactly 3 minutes and 15 seconds.

Tuesday morning, 8:12 am – an audit on a living organism

Instead of theorizing, on March 19, we did an investigative audit. We chose 12 random invoices from the previous week and checked their 'digital footprint'. It turned out that 3 of them were stuck in the 'Spam' folder, and one was marked as read by mistake. We fix the mechanism, not the people, so we didn't look for a culprit, only for a hole in the process. We found it at the moment the invoice left the office for the warehouse – there it disappeared into a black hole of unread messages.

For a 40-year-old entrepreneur, time is real money, and here time was leaking through fingers with every 'Forward' click. In the wholesaler, there was a conviction that everyone had to know about everything. As a result, everyone received copies of emails with invoices, which generated information noise. No one felt like the owner of a specific document. We determined that in one morning, office workers spent a total of 83 minutes just asking each other: 'Is that invoice from Stal-Gdańsk cleared yet?'.

We introduced a simple rule: an invoice has only one guardian at a time. If it is in the warehouse, the office forgets about it until the document returns with a 'green light'. This seems trivial, but in small companies with a 9-grade level of complexity, it is precisely such details that decide whether the boss leaves work at 4:00 pm or 8:00 pm. We focused on hard data and eliminating unnecessary links in this chain.

We removed 'CC: everyone' from invoice correspondence. Suddenly the office became quieter and no one asked for statuses anymore.

Three steps instead of seven – the new procedure

The solution did not require an IT specialist from Warsaw. We used what the wholesaler already had: a free shared drive. We created three folders: '1. To be checked', '2. For boss approval', '3. To be paid'. Mrs. Grażyna would drop the invoice there, and the warehouseman was obliged to look into the first folder at 2:00 pm every day. He had exactly 10 minutes for this. If the goods matched, he dragged the file to the second folder. No emails, no notifications, no unnecessary writing 'please check'.

For Mr. Andrzej, the owner, we prepared a summary list every Friday morning. Instead of logging into the bank 47 times a week, he did it once, making transfers in batches. It now took him 22 minutes instead of broken 4 hours across the whole week. It was a revolution in their time management. The boss recovered almost half a business day that he previously wasted logging into electronic banking in between meetings with clients.

Hard data, zero guesswork – one month after introducing these changes, i.e., in mid-April 2024, the average circulation time dropped from 11 days to 2.8 days. This means that every invoice was ready for payment in less than 72 hours from the moment it entered the company. Term payment discounts returned to the company's wallet, and the atmosphere in the office clearly improved because mutual accusations of 'losing papers' disappeared.

The numbers don't lie: savings after 47 days

We summarized the results on April 30. Within 47 days of implementing the new path, the wholesaler processed 312 invoices. Not a single one was paid late. Moreover, thanks to the recovered discounts from suppliers (average 2% of the invoice value), the company saved exactly 5,420 PLN. This is more than our audit and recovery plan implementation service cost. The investment therefore paid for itself with interest in less than two months, which for a small company is a very safe result.

Mrs. Grażyna's working time was also an important indicator. Previously, dealing with invoices took her about 12 hours a week. After the changes, this time dropped to 4.68 hours. The recovered 7.5 hours could be spent calling debtors and recovering receivables, which in turn improved the wholesaler's financial liquidity by another few percent. This is exactly what we call fixing the mechanism – one well-set gear moves the next, improving the entire business machine.

Maybe it sounds 'low-tech' because we didn't use artificial intelligence or expensive subscriptions. But at Management Eagle, we believe that simple methods are the most effective for companies employing fewer than 20 people. If the process is logical, people themselves want to follow it because they see it makes their lives easier. In the Gdańsk wholesaler, no one runs around with email printouts anymore – everyone knows their place in line and what they have to do at 2:00 pm.

We saved 5,420 PLN in 47 days by using free folders and changing one rule in the office.

How can you do it at your place?

If you feel that documents are 'floating' in your company, start by measuring time. Don't guess – take 10 invoices from the last month and check the date the email arrived and the date of the transfer. If the difference is greater than 5 days, it means you are losing money. Don't look for new software until you draw the path on a piece of paper. It often turns out that 2 out of 5 people touching the invoice are completely unnecessary in this process and only slow it down.

Remember the rule of one owner. At every point in the process, it must be clear on whose 'desk' (physical or digital) the responsibility lies. If the document lies with everyone, it lies with no one. Set fixed hours for document approval – for example, once a day at a fixed time. This eliminates constant work interruptions and allows you to focus on sales or customer service, which is what actually makes money for your company.

If the process seems too complicated for you, write to us. We will come, take a bird's-eye view of your facts, and tell you honestly where the time is escaping. No unnecessary words and no attempt to push expensive solutions you don't need. Our visit to Gdańsk showed that the biggest changes start with the simplest decisions. Andrzej, the wholesaler boss, still calls us once a quarter to brag that his process is still working flawlessly.