Business profile:
Retail
Company position:
Accountant
Company size:
More than 1000 employees

Digitizing 100 thousand documents and easy passing of inspections: case study of Fora supermarket chain

Fora is a retail chain of food and industrial supermarkets.

We embarked on the implementation of ODE in 2019. Currently, the entire document workflow is electronic, except for the documents of those partners who have not yet switched to this service.

Yuliia Tantsura, Chief Accountant of the retail chain, shares the obvious advantages of digitized business processes and how easy it is to pass tax inspections.

Yuliia Tantsura
Chief Accountant of the retail chain

Outcomes of ODE implementation

we have converted almost 100,000 documents (~73% of all) into ODE over the year
we have more than 1500 active QESs
it takes 1 day to approve and sign a contract
no more bags of documents

There were no alternatives to ODE before

We had been working with paper documents from our partners for years because there were no alternatives. Every three months, we took the documents to the archive and the hallways were cluttered with bags of papers.

Since our stores are located in district centers and villages, the logistics of documents is a big challenge. So in 2019, we made the decision to implement ODE.

What challenges were faced while implementing the ODE?

We started implementing ODE in two departments: administrative and marketing. And when the pandemic started, everyone agreed to work at Vchasno. We were lucky since we were already prepared for remote work and had our archives set up.

Initially, some employees and partners were not very enthusiastic about the innovation and did not want to refuse the paper. However, both COVID-19 and the full-scale invasion have demonstrated that it is possible to receive money and services faster, and to collaborate with partners more easily and from any location.

Currently, only the documents with those counterparties who still find it difficult to implement ODE, such as utility companies and housing offices, remain in paper form. For example, in small towns and villages.

Benefits of using ODE

  • 1
    Easier tax inspections
    We are a large company, so we are required to undergo an annual audit. Now we don’t have to go to the archives to get the documents for the audit. We provide all documents in electronic form, which is much faster and easier.
  • 2
    Quickness
    Sometimes signing a contract can slow down the start of a partnership. Now, it takes 1 day to approve and sign a paper agreement instead of a week.
  • 3
    Information security
    In times of war, with systematic attacks and shelling, paper is an unreliable source of document storage. With ODE, you have nothing to worry about.
  • 4
    Mistakes minimization
    An error in numbers or incorrect wording in a contract can cause a lot of losses for a business. In an e-document, such mistakes are less likely to be made because the human factor is minimized: there is auto-correction, and the ability to make corrections or quickly re-upload the document.

Future plans for business process automation

Of course, we will continue to automate and digitize our processes. By the end of 2024, we plan to have more than 2,000 active QESs for our employees. We have already converted most of our cash documents into electronic format, and then we will introduce electronic invoices and TTNs.

Although 73% of documents have been digitized, we will not stop and will continue to move in this direction. Digitalization allows businesses to move forward and work more efficiently, and thus earn more money.

Get more information about Vchasno

Contact us! Learn how to quickly implement e-document workflow in your company and reduce costs and team time for documents processing.

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