sauder woodworking co.
SAP FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING IMPLEMENTATION
SAP solutions case study
CHALLENGES
SAUDER WOODWORKING CO.
consistency in handling collections
and business transactions
Project:
• Required increased visibility and
SAP Financial
Accounting Implementation
• Sought increased control over vendor
Industry:
• Sought new efficiencies with Automated
master database
Archbold, Ohio
Company Headquarters Location:
• Needed accounts payable items to be
Manufacturing
Project Location:
Archbold, Ohio
purchase order related
SAP® Solutions & Services:
•
•
•
•
Accounts Payable(FI-AP)
Accounts Receivable (FI-AR)
Financial Supply Chain Management (FSCM)
Collections Management–Business Partners
Company Website:
www.sauder.com
Case Study Summary:
When Sauder Woodworking Co. needed
to streamline its financial process flow,
implement best practices, reduce costs and
labor inefficiencies and document desk
procedures, it turned to Dickinson + Associates
to lead the rollout of SAP Financial Accounting
(SAP FI) and FI sub-modules. Over a five-month
period, Dickinson + Associates worked
alongside the Sauder team to deploy FI-AR,
FSCM and FI-AP, enabling Sauder to
dramatically transform and automate its
financial accounting processes.
Clearing House (ACH) payment processing,
automatic goods receipt/invoice receipt
(GR/IR) clearing, consistent pricing and
monthly accrual process
WHY SAP?
• Implementation segmented into five
phases: project preparation, business
blueprint, realization, final preparation
and go-live and support
• Quality checks at the end of each phase
ensured deliverables and critical success
factors were met
RESULTS
• Instituted a single master data owner
and process
• Eliminated financial reworking and
communication handoffs that previously
impeded financial accounting
• SAP software brought proven results and a
• Automated the accounts payable payment
high degree of flexibility to companies in the
manufacturing sector, resulting in optimized
operations and reduced financial risk
process, including ACH payment processing,
purchase order-based invoices, GR/IR
clearing and 1099 reporting.
• A unified SAP solution enabled further
• Increased efficiencies in accounts receivable
integration of business processes across
the enterprise
• Sauder sought enhanced communication,
simplification and speed that SAP would
directly remediate
• SAP managed multiple tasks for Sauder,
providing a complete snapshot of financial
performance without looking at
numerous systems
METHODOLOGY
• Utilized the Dickinson + Associates
deployment methodology that
aligned with Accelerated SAP (ASAP)
implementation methodology
by implementing FSCM Collections,
including automatic write-offs, prioritized
daily task list, collection notes and
enhanced lockbox processing.
WHY DICKINSON + ASSOCIATES?
• D+A put forward a variety of
creative approaches and solutions
to achieve success
• Consultant team brought extensive
manufacturing experience as well as SAP
expertise, merging its skills with those of
the Sauder team
• D+A had completed previous SAP
deployments at Sauder. For this project,
D+A carried out two simultaneous
implementations: FI and Procure to Pay
SAP solutions case study
SAP FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING IMPLEMENTATION
sauder woodworking co.
growth necessitates financial
process improvements
After years of rapid growth, Sauder Woodworking
Co. had earned its place as North America’s
leading producer of ready-to-assemble furniture
with more than 2,100 employees, 4 million
square feet of manufacturing and warehouse
space and shipping nearly 48,000 cartons daily.
Decades of growth at Sauder resulted in outdated
accounts payable and accounts receivable
processes. Legacy systems dated back 25 years,
and many functions happened in a paper-based
environment. Invoice matching and routing were
done by hand. Technology didn’t facilitate the
comparison of goods received to the invoice
received. Numerous financial processes required
streamlining and automation.
Sauder deployed SAP in phases over several years
to optimize processes across the enterprise.
Sauder engaged Dickinson + Associates to work
with its team to deploy FI-AR, FSCM and FI-AP,
concurrently with SAP’s Procure to Pay module
over a five month period.
improvements across
the enterprise
The implementation of FI-AR, FI-AP and FSCM
reaped countless benefits for Sauder, including:
• Eliminated duplicate and conflicting data,
centralized ownership and established best
practices to master database while storing
all purchasing and financial data for suppliers
• Streamlined AP communication by enabling
access to vendor pricing and purchase history
and eliminating hand-offs and rework across
the organization
• Increased quality of data by migrating it to
FI-GL (General Ledger), giving Sauder the ability
to generate flexible financial reports
reinforcing best practices
in payables
Dickinson + Associates enabled automated
vendor payments through the ACH network.
Payments were previously made via hard copy
check, costing as much as $4 each to generate,
process and mail. Now, the majority of Sauder
vendors have been converted to ACH payments,
costing about 10 cents per transaction. With
several hundred payments each week now
transmitted electronically, SAP enabled Sauder
to achieve cost savings and reductions in errors
and turnaround time.
Sauder used SAP to convert its largest vendor
to Evaluated Receipt Settlement (ERS), which
generated roughly 100 invoices to Sauder daily.
The ERS procedure was initiated with Sauder’s
largest vendor and is replicable for any vendor.
dickinson + associates:
“the consulting firm of choice”
for sauder
As it prepared for training and go-live, Sauder,
with assistance from Dickinson +Associates,
compiled a comprehensive set of business
processes that encouraged adoption, consistency
and correct use of the system. This set of 30+
documented desk procedures created a hands-on
tool that will serve Sauder for years.
“The Dickinson + Associates consultants were
outstanding,” said Kevin Lamb, Sauder
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial
Officer. “They got along with our people very
well, communicated very well and had that rare
talent that consultants don’t often have: coming
across as non-threatening, encouraging and
knowing how to communicate. They fit in
seamlessly with our team. They also were able
to take highly technical issues and help people
understand them.”
Dickinson + Associates completed
this project on time and on budget,
which, in this industry, is rare.
In fact, Dickinson + Associates has
become the consulting firm
of choice for us in finance as well
as manufacturing.
~ Kevin Lamb
Executive Vice President
and Chief Financial Officer
Sauder Woodworking Co.
about dickinson + associates
Since 1998, Dickinson + Associates has been
a leading systems integrator and SAP Value Added Reseller that delivers transformational SAP business solutions to corporate and
public sector clients. The firm is a trusted SAP Gold Partner with global delivery experience extending into Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Dickinson + Associates offers deep expertise in SAP Business Suite (ECC), Business Intelligence, HANA and Enterprise Mobility
as well as seasoned industry experts in
Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consumer
Packaged Goods, Retail and Public Sector.
Our team designs and implements strategic
and operational programs that leverage and integrate SAP with various platforms. Our business-driven approach puts the emphasis on measurable business results versus just the technology.
One North LaSalle Street
Suite 800
Chicago, Illinois 60602
312.419.9600
www.dickinson-assoc.com
• Enabled full overview of the sales cycle with
real-time integration of FI-AR with FI-GL and MM
• Automated the goods receipt/invoice receipt
clearing process, which previously prevented
Sauder from understating expenses and liabilities
on its financial statement
• Streamlined billing and collections processes,
gaining further insight into Sauder’s cash flow
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