Meet the Client
Central Basin Municipal Water District supplies imported water to 40 retail providers across southeast Los Angeles County. Their service area spans 24 cities and serves 1.6 million residents.
Daily Detour: Wvery invoice required printing, stamping, signing, copying, and scanning
Project managers received invoices by mail or email. They printed each one, applied an approval stamp, and signed it. Next, they printed a Purchase Order from Tyler and attached it to the invoice. The documents were then sent to the General Manager for a second signature. Finance couldn’t process the payment without both signatures.
After approval, the Finance team cut checks, copied them, and attached copies to invoices. Only then could staff scan everything into Laserfiche. They manually entered metadata: department, invoice number, check date, check number, vendor name, amount, and retention period. Each invoice took roughly four minutes to process.
Multiple handoffs created delays. Paper documents moved between desks. Approvals stalled when managers were off-site. The district needed a way to keep invoices moving without sacrificing oversight.
About our Client
CLIENT NAME:
CHAMPION:
Lucinda Williams, City Clerk
SOLUTIONS:
The Solution: Automated routing that follows the money
The district needed an electronic document management system that would work with their existing technology. They selected MCCi to implement Laserfiche with 25 initial users. The system now supports Human Resources, Water Resources, Engineering, Contracts, and Administration departments. MCCi also deployed RestoreVault WORM Cloud Storage to meet California Trusted Systems requirements.
Here’s how it works:
Invoices arrive in the Incoming Invoices folder. Staff select the assigned Project Manager from a dropdown menu and enter the invoice number. The system routes the document to the manager’s review folder and sends an email alert. The Project Manager clicks the email link to access the invoice directly in Laserfiche.
After review, managers mark invoices as approved or denied. They add Purchase Order numbers and supporting documents as needed. Approved invoices receive the Project Manager’s digital signature and route to the General Manager. Denied invoices return to the initiator for follow-up.
When the General Manager approves an invoice, their signature is added automatically. The document moves to the Complete folder for Finance to process. After Finance records payment in Tyler, they save the check or wire confirmation as a PDF. Laserfiche Quick Fields combines the payment proof with the invoice. Workflow automatically links documents using invoice and check numbers. Both documents land in the Accounts Payable folder with all metadata populated.
The Result: Zero manual data entry, faster approvals, happy candidates
Processing time dropped from four minutes to under two per invoice. Managers can approve invoices from anywhere with internet access. Digital signatures replaced wet signatures and physical routing. The Finance team eliminated redundant scanning and manual data entry. All documents maintain proper retention schedules and meet state compliance requirements.
“The automation capabilities available with Laserfiche allowed us to move forward with building an automated Invoice Approval routing process to better facilitate the management of pending invoices,” said district staff.
Why Act Now: Your invoice backlog isn’t getting smaller. Paper-based approvals create bottlenecks that cost staff time and delay vendor payments. Automated workflows let your team focus on analysis instead of paper shuffling. California public agencies face increasing compliance requirements. Digital systems with proper retention controls help you stay audit-ready.