Automation Cuts Invoice Processing From Hours to Minutes

Organization Profile

• Industry: Municipal
• Location: Jacksonville, Texas
• Number of Employees: 135
• Population: 15,000
• Tyler Client Since: 2020
• Tyler Products Used: ERP Pro, Municipal Justice, Content Manager, Notify

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Challenges

Home of the historic Tomato Bowl high school football stadium, Jacksonville, Texas, revolves around its small-town community culture. From a concert series in the park to frequent downtown events, it’s a friendly and bustling place to call home. It’s also a city with its sights fixed on the future. “We have some forward-thinking leadership, which makes working here very comfortable and exciting,” said Finance Director Roxanna Briley.

City leaders saw operational needs growing, and a scalable financial management system became crucial to keep up with demand. Specifically, paper-driven accounts payable workflows were unsustainable. “Invoice processing relied heavily on email, physical routing, and institutional knowledge,” said Briley. The manual processes created bottlenecks, limited visibility for departments, and increased the risk of delays, errors, and inconsistent controls. “We would run a report and have this giant stack of invoices. It took me hours to comb through,” she said.

Improving their processes also became important to maintaining positive relationships with the community. “The local vendors who work for us are expecting their paychecks on Fridays,” said Briley. “But sometimes our AP processes would take the whole day, and the check run would get delayed until Monday.” On top of that, it was difficult to track who had already been paid, leading to duplicate payments. “The city needed a solution that would reduce manual effort, improve accountability, and enhance data accuracy,” Briley said.

Solution

While attending Tyler Connect, Briley’s team learned about AP Automation — a solution that integrates with Jacksonville’s ERP Pro software to streamline invoice capture, approval, and disbursements. “It was a game changer, and implementation was so easy,” said Briley. Even during their annual audit, the city’s finance team of two set up the solution seamlessly. “I think that just speaks to how easy the implementation was,” she said.

AP Automation provides the scalability and flexibility the city was looking for. “Some departments have an administrative assistant who does their AP, but it’s routed to someone else to approve it. Other departments have one person with authority to do it all — each department can be customized,” Briley said. The departments can see every step of the approval process in real time. Meanwhile, accountability is improved and the risks of manual processes are eliminated.

Results

Instead of devoting her Fridays to reviewing invoices, Briley now spends about five minutes each day keeping accounts payable processes flowing. The faster process means vendors can count on their checks being cut on Friday mornings. When vendors call for a status update, the team is armed with information. “We can answer their questions because we know where the invoice is,” Briley said. “We don’t have to ping them around the city trying to figure out who has the invoice, if anybody has it at all.”

mplementing AP Automation has triggered a cultural shift for the finance team and beyond — other departments now feel a greater sense of ownership of their budgets. “It’s changed how Finance supports the organization. What was once a reactive, deadline-driven process is now proactive and continuous,” Briley said. The added efficiency has allowed finance leadership to spend more time on strategic initiatives such as budgeting, financial reporting, and transparency efforts that directly benefit the community. During budget meetings, the increased visibility helps department heads understand each line item. “They feel more involved in the process,” she said. “Believe it or not, they like knowing what’s going on and participating in each step of budgeting.”

Department heads have also reaped the benefits of their cloud-based ERP Pro system. “Being such a small city means our department heads aren’t just sitting in an office — they’re out in the field. Wherever they are, they can approve invoices or timesheets,” said Briley. With Smart Cards, users have a customized interface. “They design it for what’s interesting to them, what they need to look at, and what tasks they need to do,” she said. Whether working behind a desk or on the go, ERP Pro supports the city employees’ workflows.

For Briley, the biggest win has been collaboration. “I don’t feel these walls between the departments anymore,” she said. “Everyone knows what’s going on. The departments actually like the system. It made us feel like we’re more of a team.”