
Founded by two mates, Andrew Watts and Darren Hamblin, out the back of a ute in 1996, Mastermyne is now one of Australia’s most trusted mining contractors.
Over the years, Mastermyne’s strategic growth and diversification have seen the business extend its services and products to a client base that spans coal mine operators to niche asset owners. Today, the company reports revenue of more than $238 million, employs over 950 staff, and spans the east coast of Australia.
Outgrowing manual processes
Cognisant of forecasted business growth in the coming years off the back of contract wins, Mastermyne started automating its accounting system in late 2018.
The project was not about using automation to reduce headcount at the company, but preparing for growth, says Candice Herron, Finance Manager for Compliance at Mastermyne.
“We didn’t want the team having to touch every invoice that was sent to the business and were trying to free up their time to perform other tasks. Our AP process was labour intensive, and the team was having challenges with the volume.”
Ruth Cuddihy, Accounts Payable Officer for Mastermyne, says she was processing invoices that didn’t require human interaction, but there was no other option. “(Pre-Redmap) we had a system of folders. The invoice would be copied from folder to folder based on its status and stage of the process, and that meant that we would spend an inordinate amount of time moving invoices from one folder to another.
“As the volume grew, the amount of time we would spend managing the invoices increased.”
The move to AP automation
As well as wanting to eliminate tedious and time-wasting manual processes, Candice says the ASX-listed company’s board and executive team’s strong focus on compliance put their AP processes under scrutiny. As automation was the best option to tick every box, Mastermyne went to market for the best possible solution – and chose Redmap.
Andrea Brannan, Finance Manager for Mastermyne, says that Redmap’s service and responsiveness was exceptional during the evaluation process.
Redmap not only offered a standard product that worked straight out of the box (meaning a significant impact on implementation cost and timelines) but with over 100 deployments for Pronto Software customers already under their belt, they were a safe decision.
AP Automation at its best
Redmap’s fully integrated AP Automation solution works seamlessly with Mastermyne’s Pronto Xi ERP, and has enabled the business to meet its compliance and efficiency goals.
The solution uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and extract valuable data from the invoice. If the invoice matches the purchase order and is within Mastermyne’s spend limit, it’s posted directly to Pronto Xi. If not, it’s sent to the right person for authorisation. Apart from any invoices which need to be personally reviewed, the rest of the AP process is hands-off.
No need to dig deep for great outcomes!
Redmap allowed the Mastermyne AP team to transition to new responsibilities that add value to the business. The team has been freed from the labour intensive and repetitive process of managing, moving, and chasing down other team members’ authorisation for invoices.
Ruth says her role has moved away from focussing on data entry to advisory and compliance. And similarly, the role of Mastermyne Accounts Trainee, Alison Prestipino, has evolved from managing individual invoices to dealing with a select few that require human problem-solving.
“Mastermyne has employed me to solve problems and not do data entry, and as such, the fact that all we touch are the exceptions is great for the business,” she says.
“Automating has increased our efficiency considerably. It has also meant an end of requests for invoice copies. The entire business can find their own invoices now.”
Reporting
Mastermyne workplace satisfaction has not only improved with Redmap’s AP Automation solution, but the business now has in place the necessary audit trail associated with invoices. In addition, the use of the AP solution enables the company to exceed the results that human reporting can deliver.
And with the Australian Government mandating the use of an e-invoicing system from July 2022, Mastermyne’s move to an automation AP solution has been timely.
“(It) allows us to prove what has happened with each invoice to internal and external stakeholders. Every action that is applied to that invoices is recorded and reportable. You could never do that with paper,” says Candice.
(It) allows us to prove what has happened with each invoice to internal and external stakeholders. Every action that is applied to that invoices is recorded and reportable. You could never do that with paper