San Antonio Zoo Boosts AP Efficiency

The Zoo's vision is to secure a future for wildlife. We inspire people to engage with and act for animals and the places that they live. I say a lot of times that we're like a small city. Everything that gets paid for comes across my desk at one point or another.

Before AvidXchange, a paper invoice would come in and a sticker would go on it, and it would go to the manager for the department and then the director and then the VP, and then it would go up to the finance office. It would be manually input into the accounting software, and then a manual check would be printed, signed and mailed out. So you've got a lot of time involved there, a lot of places that an invoice can go astray, and the process used to be incredibly slow. One of the things that's important to us is maintaining healthy vendor relationships.

It helps us get the best price for the items that we need to support this great facility. With AvidXchange, it allows us to move invoices through so much more quickly to get our vendors paid in a timely manner. I can look back on a vendor's history and see every invoice we've paid. The vendors now have the option of how they want to be paid.

So, not only is it a better system for us, we're getting things taken care of in a more timely manner, but it's better for our vendors. I have so much trust in AvidXchange. One of my goals is always to give time back to the staff, to focus on being out with the animals, the plants, whatever it is they need to be doing. One of the great things about AvidXchange is how user friendly it is.

It's great that everybody can get in to view their invoices to review what needs to be paid. AvidXchange makes that process so much more efficient, and that is all time I can give back to that staff to be focusing on things that further our mission of conservation every day.