Nuclear Restoration Services streamlines invoice processing and achieves 60% AP cost savings

Challenge 

Nuclear Restoration Services (formerly Magnox Limited) is a Nuclear Decommissioning Site Licence Company operating under the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, established under the Energy Act 2004. The organisation is responsible for the safe management of 12 nuclear sites in the UK. 

Prior to implementing Proactis, the company's accounts payable function was outsourced. Invoices arrived by post and email, were manually scanned and loaded into a SharePoint repository, and were then cleared remotely for payment. Accessing invoice images for queries required logging into a separate system, which was time-consuming and unreliable. On-time payment performance stood at approximately 75–80% - well below the government targets set for public sector organisations. 

The process was expensive, requiring a team of eight FTEs, and provided limited real-time visibility of invoice status. The organisation needed to bring the function in-house, reduce costs substantially, improve payment performance, and gain instant access to invoices at any point in the process. 

Solution 

Nuclear Restoration Services selected Proactis Invoice Capture, leveraging its established strategic integration with Unit4 Business World. The previously time-consuming manual process was replaced by a fully automated solution. All invoices - regardless of format, whether paper or electronic - are now handled directly by the Proactis Invoice Capture Managed Service, removing the need to scan and manually key in data. 

PDF invoices sent by email are automatically imported, with intelligent data capture extracting and cleansing key invoice values. When invoices are non-compliant - for example, missing PO numbers - a dedicated web-based query desk enables the team to engage suppliers directly and resolve issues efficiently. Scanned invoices are always attached to the relevant transaction in Unit4, giving instant access to the full invoice image at any point. 

The seamless integration between Proactis and Unit4 ensures that once an invoice is matched against a goods receipt, it is automatically routed for payment - completing a truly touchless process for the vast majority of invoices.