How Libeo users save an average of 4 days a month on invoice payments

Libeo has saved startups and SMEs an average of four days a month on invoice payments. And we’re talking businesses of all kinds – restaurants, artisan groups, shoe retailers, engineers, app developers, accounting and audit firms, content platforms, hoteliers, and more.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, your invoice management system is more complicated than it needs to be. But how exactly does Libeo solve the problem? You’ll be glad to know the solution is not just powered by peace and love – though we put plenty of that into Libeo too.

Here we’ll give a rundown of how it all works. But first, we’ll need to remind you of the system that doesn’t work.

The time-consuming way to tackle supplier invoice payments

Many businesses (before they try Libeo) have a similar invoice story. They might have accountants looking after the finer details but they still waste a lot of time tracking and sending the information to them. 

It’s a tiresome routine:

• Scanning invoices
• Logging into the bank
• Typing in amount, date of transfer, bank account details etc.
• Emailing the accountants
• Checking the invoices for errors

And at the end of it all, you’re left with very little visibility of your supplier commitments, your payment history and your cash flow.

How Libeo saved time for two restaurateurs

Libeo turns the work of an afternoon into the work of a moment.

For the restaurant Liberty’s Burger, it means their owner and manager can send one-click payments to all their suppliers. It simplifies his relationship with his artisan ingredient suppliers and makes it easy to share information with his accountant. He only needs to process 20 invoices but his business is growing fast, and the time he saves means he can focus on developing his new dark kitchens. 

For the Cali Sisters, twin restaurants that employ 60 people and deal with 50-60 supplier invoices a month, Libeo has been life changing. That’s not hyperbole. Those are exactly the words their co-founder Capucine used. 

Her life is full of managing supplies, kitchens, and customers. Libeo can’t cook the truffle pasta or the meatballs or the seasonal shakshuka for her, but it can handle her invoice payments. 

“I just pick the date on the calendar tool, and then it’s out of my mind,” says Capucine. “So I can focus on other things knowing that the payment will be issued on time.

“Compared to how things worked before Libeo, now we’ve reduced the amount of time we spend on collecting, paying and analysing supplier invoices by two thirds! It means I can focus on business – setting up future restaurants, team management and cash flow.”

Diving into the details of invoice payments

Automated invoice processing

With Libeo you can add new suppliers easily. All you need is their bank account details, VAT number and company registration number. Crucially, you only need to have those details to hand.

At this point, Libeo will automatically verify the supplier, so you don’t need to worry about that.

You will have your unique Libeo email address that your suppliers can then send their invoices to. From that moment on, you can expect your invoices to come in and be scanned automatically, ready for you to validate.

Every time a new email arrives with a PDF attached, Libeo will automatically import the invoice data into the platform through your Libeo email address, ready for you to check on your laptop or smartphone. 

Simple and secure B2B invoice payments

When you’re happy, you can pay all your suppliers with one click. Libeo will then autoschedule the payments to go out a few days before each due date.

You won’t need to worry about duplicates (we detect them), fraud (we have active fraud controls) or simply too many invoices (we do bulk and batch payments). All payments go securely through the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), and we can do both direct debit and open banking. 

A curated invoice payment experience

Libeo doesn’t just save time with invoice processing and validation, it also makes it easier and faster to find the information you need. Use our tagging system to further dive into your invoices to segment them for later:

Libeo will track your payments in real time and give you a history of payments you’ve made and received, so you can quickly get an overview of your cash flow:

Your supplier records will be ready to hand, and all invoices will be classified and accessible based on rights. Your accountant can have access to Libeo for free and easily retrieve your data, and it’ll be simple to monitor payments, credit notes or disputes. 

Libeo integrates into all the financial or accounting tools your business is already using, like Xero and Quickbooks. And, you’ll be glad to know, it connects to all UK and European banks. So you don’t need to make any big changes at all.

The only thing you’ll need to figure out is what to do with all the time you’re going to win back. Whether you choose to pour it back into the areas of business you’re passionate about, or take some extra time off with friends and family once in a while, that’s up to you. 

If you’d like to know more, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Or for more advice from Libeo, check out How to create a financial approvals process – even if you know nothing about finance.