First Balfour shifts to e-invoicingFirst Balfour has launched its electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) system to facilitate billing administration and help ease transactions for its vendors.

An initiative undertaken by the Procurement and Materials Management, Finance, and ICT departments, the program rollout was conducted online on July 16 with 287 vendors in attendance.

Procurement head Randolf Rellera said: “This marks an important milestone in our continuous improvement journey. We did this to simplify our processes because we want to be spending more time on the delivery of materials and services instead of paperwork. We also want this system to improve transparency and lessen account reconciliations and hope this will be a big step forward in our documentation and invoicing system.”

Through e-invoicing, all suppliers, subcontractors and service providers can track the real-time progress of transactions and gain prompt responses on the resolution of issues. This move to automate First Balfour’s billing and payment processes is seen to contribute to quicker transactions, fewer errors and delays, and more accurate vendor transaction management.

The team that worked on the new system is composed of Tessa Villanueva, Michelle Darlucio and Justine Mondelo of Finance, and Cyrene Buenaventura and Denise Tirthdas of Procurement and Materials Management.

During the rollout, Mondelo explained in detail how a vendor can open an account, file an e-invoice for purchase order-based transactions and monitor the status of submitted e-invoices via e-invoicing. firstbalfour.com.

The walkthrough, which included a step-by-step guide on navigating the website, was followed by a 40-minute Q&A portion where vendors threw in questions related to changing the information on alreadysubmitted e-invoices, terms of payments, and troubleshooting log-in issues.

One of those in attendance was Pilipinas Shell sales account manager Nina Quino, who shared: “We appreciated the live demonstration of navigating the platform and the amount of time given for the Q&A. The rationale behind the transition to e-invoicing has been made clear. I believe digital is the way to go for most of us now." (Story/Photos by: Dolly Pasia-Ramos)