Meet the Client
Boca Raton sits on Florida’s Atlantic coast, home to over 100,000 residents who expect responsive city services. Known for its pristine beaches, flourishing business community, and commitment to innovation, this Palm Beach County city has long been a leader in government efficiency. The finance department processes thousands of vendor invoices annually, supporting everything from parks maintenance to public safety operations.
Daily Detour: When paper piles become productivity killers
Before automation, Boca Raton’s accounts payable process ate up valuable staff time. Paper invoices arrived by mail and required manual data entry into the city’s financial system, SunGard NaviLine. Staff members walked physical files from desk to desk for approvals. Three different signatures were needed before any payment could be processed. Purchase orders had to be manually matched with invoices, creating frequent errors and delays. Vendors waited weeks for payments while accounts payable staff drowned in paperwork. The team knew there had to be a better way to handle invoice processing without adding more people to the payroll.
About our Client
CLIENT NAME:
POPULATION:
est. 102,000 residents
The Solution: Building a lean, digital workflow that works
Boca Raton created a dedicated Lean Team to tackle their biggest process bottlenecks. This cross-departmental group included representatives from financial services, police, utilities engineering, IT, and compliance. They chose to start with accounts payable because it touched so many city operations. The visibility would help build support for future automation projects.
The Lean Team began with a “Kaizen” event. They mapped the entire existing process on a wall using sticky notes, capturing every single step. Then they asked a critical question about each task: does this add value? Steps like walking files between offices or collecting redundant approvals got eliminated. What remained was a process focused purely on value-added activities.
Working with MCCi as their Laserfiche solution provider, the team designed a digital workflow that eliminated waste. Vendors now submit an Additional Vendor Information form directly on the city’s website. Laserfiche captures the form automatically and sends confirmation emails to both the vendor and accounts payable manager. Once vendor information is verified, staff generates a vendor record in SunGard NaviLine and updates the form status in Laserfiche.
When vendors send invoices by email, accounts payable staff simply drags and drops them into a designated Laserfiche folder. The system performs an automatic lookup in SunGard NaviLine to verify the purchase order is active. If everything checks out, Laserfiche Workflow creates organized folders based on vendor names and routes documents to the right people.
“Processing errors have been greatly reduced since purchase orders are now automatically looked up in SunGard NaviLine and matched with appropriate invoices.”
The workflow verifies that departments have entered receiver information in SunGard before payments can be issued. If a receiver hasn’t been entered, Laserfiche sends an automatic email reminder to the department. When payments go out, whether by check or electronic transfer, Laserfiche Quick Fields and Import Agent capture the payment records. The system matches payments with invoices and moves everything to an organized archive sorted by fiscal year.
City staff can now search for any invoice through the Laserfiche WebLink portal. No more digging through file cabinets or calling around to find documents.
The implementation included thorough Laserfiche training for all users. MCCi helped the Lean Team create detailed guides with screenshots that remain available on the city’s intranet. During testing, the team discovered issues like missing vendor email addresses and refined the workflow accordingly. This iterative approach ensured the final process actually worked in real-world conditions.
The Result: Faster payments, fewer errors, happier vendors
Boca Raton eliminated manual data entry errors that previously delayed vendor payments. Purchase orders now match automatically with invoices, catching discrepancies before they become problems. Staff no longer waste time walking documents around City Hall or tracking down signatures. Vendors receive faster payment processing and clear status updates throughout the approval cycle.
The accounts payable team can handle the same workload with less manual effort. They spend their time reviewing exceptions and building vendor relationships instead of shuffling paper. Department managers get automated reminders when they need to enter receiver information, keeping the payment process moving.
Most importantly, the city built internal expertise in process improvement. The Lean Team’s success with accounts payable gave them a proven methodology for tackling other automation projects. They learned how to identify waste, redesign processes, and implement technology that actually serves their goals.
By choosing MCCi as their Laserfiche partner, Boca Raton gained access to expert Laserfiche support and training that made the difference between a struggling implementation and a successful one. The city now has a repeatable framework for continuous improvement across all departments.