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We Are Blood is a nonprofit organization and primary blood donation center serving Central Texas since 1951. The organization is dedicated to meeting the community’s ongoing need for blood and related services.
Jesse Hernandez, who has been with We Are Blood for seven years, manages accounts payable (AP) for the organization and its related entities. As the primary AP specialist, he oversees invoice processing and payments, working closely with the controller and accounting manager to keep operations running smoothly.
Before AvidXchange, We Are Blood’s AP process was almost entirely manual. The team printed, coded, and physically stored over 13,000 invoices every year. Managing those records and sending them to offsite storage took up one-third of Hernandez’s time and added weeks of labor to year-end archiving alone.
Document retrieval for audits was equally time consuming. Overfilled file rooms made locating specific records a multi-day process, slowing down internal operations and external reporting.
Despite the strain, modernizing the process wasn’t an easy decision. Budget limitations and a nonprofit culture wary of change created resistance to automation. Operational growth and the urgent pressures of COVID-19 made the manual process unsustainable, and the organization was ready to take the next step.
We Are Blood turned to AvidXchange to modernize its AP process and eliminate the need for printing, coding, and physically storing thousands of invoices each year. By shifting to digital workflows, the organization enabled remote work, accelerated invoice processing, and simplified audit preparation, making document retrieval a matter of minutes, not days. Making this change to an automated system not only impacted Hernandez’s formal role, but also enabled him to continue working as a primary caregiver in responding to his own family’s health needs. In fact, Hernandez cites this shift as the reason he is still able to maintain both roles.
Because suppliers can check invoice and payment status anytime through a 24/7 portal with real-time visibility, We Are Blood spends less time fielding payment-status questions and more time moving work forward. Streamlined approvals give the team full visibility and control across the AP cycle. Tasks that once took hours were reduced to minutes. By automating manual work, We Are Blood freed up valuable staff time, allowing the team to focus on higher-impact projects.
With AvidXchange, We Are Blood cut invoice processing time by more than half; the time to process 1,500 invoices each month dropped from about 7 hours to just 3 hours per day.
Audit preparations that once took days now takes less than 15 minutes per company, freeing up time for higher-value work. Hernandez now spends more time taking on impactful projects and building new skills. Automation has strengthened audit readiness while freeing up time that allows him to be more present with his family.
Remote access enables flexible work, and suppliers benefit from faster payments and self-service tools, including the Supplier Hub, and that in turn helps strengthen relationships.
By digitizing invoice approvals and storage, the team also increased transparency and trust while reclaiming physical storage space for better use.
“AvidXchange gives me more time to be with family. It’s an amazing tool that provides an improved work-life balance.”
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