illumin is a journey advertising platform that enables marketers to reach consumers at every stage of their journey by using advanced machine learning algorithms and real-time data analytics.
The company’s mission is to illuminate the path for brands to connect with their customers through the power of data-driven advertising.
200+
Employees
Oracle NetSuite
Accounting/ERP system
Technology
Industry
Toronto, Canada
Location
8 reasons to bolster your financial controls for Oracle NetSuite users
As businesses expand, they can benefit from stronger financial controls and approvals to prevent, detect, and correct any financial issues before they arise.
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ApprovalMax has tremendously improved the efficiency in our invoice approval process, allowing both the finance admin team and department leaders to enjoy a centralized system to access, manage, and review all vendor bills. It has saved a lot of hours for everyone!
Ivy He
Financial Controller at illumin
Slow processes, fast growth
illumin still used a highly manual process for managing incoming bills and expenses.
“We would receive a bill via email then have to forward it on to different people to get their approval,” says Gajilomo. “There was a lot of back and forth. If that person didn't reply to you, you’d have to go find that email and follow up on it – imagine you have 30 invoices and have to make 30 follow-ups. It was just a nightmare.”
Without a real process or tool in place, department leaders had little visibility on which bills had been approved, paid, or rejected. There was no central way of storing and managing these financial documents, so people saved them to their own computers with no centralized filing system. This led to delays approving invoices, which typically took two weeks to be processed but in some cases months, and resulted in lost time internally - for finance and other departments. While illumin always ensured bills were approved and paid on time, without the right tools in place, the finance department had to rely on slow, inefficient processes which took significant effort.
“The big vendors we work with, like Google, will cut your services if you don’t pay on time. So we had to manually make sure those ones were approved and paid on time, but even then it was always last minute,” adds Gajilomo.
Illuminating the finance function
In 2023, illumin added ApprovalMax to its finance tech stack, alongside Oracle NetSuite and Concur, to manage approvals for bills and expenses.
Now, the finance team and department heads have a centralized way to upload financial documents and circulate them for approval, all connected via an integration with Oracle NetSuite, illumin’s ERP of choice.
As soon as you enter an invoice into Oracle NetSuite, it automatically speaks to ApprovalMax. The data is live almost within minute.
Vanessa Gajilomo,
Cost Accountant at illumin
Time savings
Previously, it took weeks – or even months – to approve incoming invoices. Now, it typically takes less than two days.
Straightforward approvals
illumin simplified the entire sign-off process. Instead of manually emailing decision-makers and following up, it’s all managed automatically in ApprovalMax, making it easier for everyone involved.
Better visibility
illumin’s finance team can clearly see which invoices are yet to be approved, by which team members, and plan payments for approved expenses to manage cash flow.
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