Blackwoods Improves Data Quality with Embedded AP Automation

About Blackwoods

Blackwoods is one of Australia’s leading industrial and safety suppliers, providing products and services to customers across mining, manufacturing, construction and infrastructure sectors. For a business of this scale and complexity, accounts payable plays a critical role in maintaining supplier relationships, ensuring timely payments and supporting a strong financial control environment.

Supporting a large-scale industrial supplier through finance transformation

Accurate and timely financial data is essential to the way the organisation operates. The finance team relies heavily on ERP data to support well-informed management decisions, which means invoice data must be captured accurately and available in the ERP system as quickly as possible. At the same time, Blackwoods places strong emphasis on reducing error and fraud risk, maintaining audit readiness and running a lean, efficient accounts payable operation.

When Blackwoods began its transition to Microsoft Dynamics 365, it saw an opportunity to rethink how accounts payable should operate across the business.

Previously, invoice matching and processing relied on a customised environment involving multiple systems. Purchase order and receipt data from their supply chain system was transferred into ABBYY for three-way matching before payments were processed in PeopleSoft.

While the process worked, it depended on moving data between systems and refreshing information daily. Such dual-system integrations introduce inherent data and operational risk. Visibility into the latest status of invoices was limited leading to delays in processing invoices and significant effort chasing approvers.

As part of the move to Dynamics 365, Blackwoods chose to implement Truvio AP Automation, the accounts payable automation solution built directly within the Microsoft Dynamics environment. This decision to extend standard D365 functionality allowed them to embed invoice automation within their ERP rather than managing processes across multiple platforms - a significant improvement over the previous customised integration approach.

Blackwoods recognised that effective accounts payable processes goes well beyond simply capturing invoice data within the ERP.

Choosing a solution built for Dynamics

As Blackwoods evaluated how accounts payable would operate within Microsoft Dynamics 365, the team recognised that the out-of-the-box functionality would require either significant manual processing or extensive customisation. Both options introduce ongoing cost and operational risk.

Consequently, Blackwoods looked for a solution that could automate invoice matching, auto coding and provide better visibility of exceptions within the ERP environment. Maintaining effective approval controls was also fundamental.

Truvio AP Automation powered by Exflow stood out during demonstrations and workshops, particularly for its structured queues and exception handling, which allowed invoices and issues to be managed within a single system.

By embedding the solution directly within Dynamics, Blackwoods could move invoice matching and exception management into the ERP itself, giving teams a more structured workflow and clearer oversight of the accounts payable process while leveraging the D365 security model and avoiding potentially costly to set up and maintain integrations.

Moving from daily data refresh to real-time visibility

Blackwoods also wanted to reduce error rates, improve the speed of approvals and manage invoices by exception. One of the most significant improvements has been the shift from daily data refreshes to real-time visibility.

Under the previous system, invoice data had to be transferred between platforms and refreshed overnight. As a result, teams were often working with information that was already a day old. With Truvio AP Automation embedded directly within Microsoft Dynamics 365, invoice data is now available instantly within the ERP.

As Vincent Schuster explains:

For finance leaders, this change has had a direct operational impact. With real-time information available, the team can identify issues sooner and respond more quickly.

Alvin Lum highlights the difference this visibility makes:

Instead of anticipating problems based on outdated data, the team can now address issues as they arise, giving Blackwoods greater confidence and control over its accounts payable operations.

Greater visibility across the business

The benefits extend beyond automation within accounts payable.

Today, the finance team can quickly view invoice volumes, identify outstanding invoices and access detailed information directly within Dynamics.

For Vincent, this level of transparency has been transformative.

Other parts of the organisation also benefit. Teams outside finance can access invoice documents directly when needed, removing the need to search through mailboxes or request copies from the AP team.

Enabling EDI with a unified invoice process

In the legacy environment, Blackwoods had explored implementing EDI but were unable to move forward due to the complexity of their previous systems. As Vincent Schuster explains, the earlier setup simply wasn’t suited to supporting electronic data exchange.

One of the advantages of Truvio AP Automation is that all invoices follow the same workflow, regardless of how they enter the system. Whether invoices arrive through EDI, email or data capture, they are processed using a single, consistent invoice process inside Dynamics.

For EDI invoices specifically, Truvio AP Automation can generate a readable invoice image directly from the structured data. This means users can review invoices in a familiar document format while the system continues to process them automatically behind the scenes.

A key part of making this work effectively has been ensuring supplier data is cleansed before integration. Starting with clean data reduces exceptions and allows invoices to flow through the system with minimal manual intervention.

Blackwoods’ objective is to manage invoices by exception wherever possible. Truvio AP Automation supports this approach through automated matching, tolerance settings and intelligent processing that allow the majority of invoices to move through the system without manual intervention while ensuring appropriate controls remain in place.

A smooth implementation experience

The Dynamics programme itself was complex, involving partner changes and a go-live during the COVID period.

Despite these challenges, the Truvio AP Automation deployment went smoothly.

Reflecting on the project, Alvin says:

Vincent adds that the system required very few adjustments after go-live.

A recommendation grounded in experience

After several years of using Truvio AP Automation, the Blackwoods team remains confident in the decision to embed accounts payable automation within Microsoft Dynamics 365.

For Vincent Schuster, the biggest benefit is the ability to manage the entire invoice lifecycle within a single system, from capture through to approval and payment.

“Thinking of the end to end in the system, it’s easy to automate an invoice all the way through… and the visibility and accessibility of that invoice.”
Vincent Schuster, Business Analyst – Financial Services, Blackwoods

For Alvin Lum, the experience reinforced the value of a solution that integrates seamlessly with their ERP.

Today, Truvio AP Automation forms a key part of Blackwoods’ finance operations, helping the team work with real-time data, improved visibility and a more streamlined accounts payable process.

As part of the implementation, Blackwoods also refined internal processes to ensure the organisation could fully benefit from the capabilities of the new platform. The team continues to monitor and optimise their processes as technology evolves.

Blackwoods and Truvio continue to work closely together to ensure the organisation benefits from a modern, efficient and well-controlled accounts payable environment. Blackwoods are well positioned to continue evolving their AP automation capabilities as new intelligent automation features become available within the Truvio platform.