Results of ODE implementation
Migration path to e-documents
Modern tendencies never develop simply from scratch. E-document workflow simplifies your business life, reduces stress, and improves the overall atmosphere in the company. For instance, if you have deadlines, you are in the office, and your boss is away on a business trip or out at meetings, ODE is of great help. Especially when there is not just one signatory, but several, and they are in different cities or even countries.
That is why we believe that e-documents are no longer just something convenient and desirable, but rather a crucial requirement for business. And there is hardly any employee who would refuse to save a couple of hours a day working with e-documents.
The Red Bull Ukraine team began introducing e-documents in 2020. At that time, we only received documents in the Vchasno service as counterparties. In November 2021, my colleague and I attended the “Paperless Business” forum, which finally encouraged us to introduce ODE in our company. It was already in December that, after analyzing the market for e-document workflow services, our management decided to start signing contracts online in Vchasno.
Many might think that ODE is a costly affair. However, we began with the Start pricing plan, which was around 130 hryvnias per month back then. Over time, the number of e-documents and those involved in the company has increased and it became necessary to switch to the Professional pricing plan.
Today the Vchasno system is used by 14 people in the company. These are all heads of departments and all financial structure: financial controller, chief accountant, CFO and others. As well as responsible persons from each department, who build the links, distribute, control, and then store these documents and submit them for signature.
Types of digitized documents
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1These are external and internal. External documents are the ones that we sign with our counterparties: contracts, additional agreements, statements of performed works, statements of provided services, reconciliation statements, bills of lading, invoices, Rkeepers, cost estimates, calculations.
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2And internal documents — the ones we sign for the company's internal needs without sending them outside. These are accounting policies, orders, declarations.
Of course, we cannot say that all documents have already been converted. We still plan to convert some of the certificates of relocation or certificates of unserviceability, fixed assets acceptance certificates, employee exit reports and some internal documents. However, we can say for sure that this is the final stage of the ODE implementation.
We now all bring advance reports in paper form. This is where we still fall short of a target, because we are dealing with a standardized form. An advance report includes a large number of components: orders, directives, tasks, progress reports, entertainment expenses, and so on. We have it all in an Excel spreadsheet now, but in the future we plan to make it electronic as well.
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Engaging counterparties in the ODE
Today about 75% of our partners use e-documents. But, unfortunately, not everyone yet understands the benefits they could get from the ODE. We motivate all our partners by the speed of signing — the sooner we sign the contract, the faster we can get invoices, sign statements of performed works, and make legitimate payments based on these signed documents. We can say that we perform educational and training activities on ODE.
Some of our partners sometimes refuse, but there are some who at first refuse, then think it over, and after some time they finally send documents via Vchasno. Believe me, we are so glad for such people who have experienced how cool it is to use e-document workflow.
Each company has its own situation, mission, values, and tasks. But every company has its own accountancy, which is very important to keep correctly: this includes financial and statistical reports, work with counterparties, making reconciliation statements with creditors and debtors, payroll accounting, calculation and payment of taxes, and other accounting routines. With ODE, the likelihood of mistakes in documents is minimized.
Approval and signing of documents in 30 min.
The time for approval and signing depends on the number of approvers and signatories. It takes 30 minutes on average if all participants quickly agree on the document. Delays arise only because of multitasking and a large number of signatory meetings.
Our team has a consistent pattern of approval and signing. Because each subsequent approver must be sure that the appropriate block of information has been checked beforehand.
As for signatories, we have two of them in the company: the CFO and the CEO. They sign contracts and additional agreements. As for the statements, this is the responsibility of the heads of the departments. At the beginning of February this year, we already issued Vchasno.QES qualified electronic signatures to department heads.
Because of the outbreak of full-scale war, all training and meetings were canceled. Without any training, my colleagues figured out on their own how to upload documents into the system, how to coordinate and build a chain of approvers, how to sign — using QES or EDS. How to receive documents from a counterparty, how to check the status of signing or approving, and how to store documents so they can be used in business activities.
This demonstrates that the Vchasno system is user-friendly. Almost like an ordinary email only with additional functions, where you can designate the amount, status and responsible person.
It's time for a change
The war has affected all of our company’s business processes. It was necessary to quickly adjust to the new reality. The logistics process has changed, sales and marketing have changed. For instance, employees of the sports department organized a public organization on humanitarian aid, although we planned many business events all over Ukraine in 2022, various projects with thousands of participants and hundreds of thousands of spectators.
The ODE in war conditions helps to respond promptly to management initiatives and tasks. It helps to sign contracts, receive documents, and make payments. The ODE bails out now more than ever, because we are able to run legitimate business activities on the basis of e-documents.
Olga Moskalenko, deputy to the chief accountant of the Red Bull Ukraine, shared her experience with the Vchasno service.
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