Client
Yarra Ranges Council
Industry
Government
Focus
AP automation
Product
Tungsten AP Essentials
ERP
TechnologyOne
Yarra Ranges Council partnered with Xcellerate IT to modernise its accounts payable operations, moving from legacy, on-premise invoice processing to a cloud-based automation solution designed to support a distributed workforce.
Processing approximately 2,500 supplier invoices each month, the Council required a more flexible and resilient approach to invoice handling. Working with Xcellerate IT, Yarra Ranges Council implemented Tungsten AP Essentials, a cloud-based accounts payable automation solution integrated with TechnologyOne Ci, enabling more efficient invoice capture, validation and processing across the organisation.
“Xcellerate IT has been our trusted partner for almost a decade. The team is very experienced, and the support has always been great, so we were excited to extend this relationship by implementing their cloud-based accounts payable automation solution”
Stuart Cardwell
Enterprise Systems Solutions Officer (Finance) at Yarra Ranges Council
Yarra Ranges Council had been a long-term user of on-premise invoice capture technology, which functioned effectively in a centralised office environment. However, the shift to remote work exposed limitations in the existing approach.
The accounts payable team experienced challenges accessing systems, managing invoice workflows efficiently and maintaining consistent processing across a distributed workforce. At the same time, the Council was seeking to reduce operational costs, improve processing speed and simplify ongoing system maintenance.
To support these objectives, Yarra Ranges Council required a modern, cloud-based accounts payable solution that could be deployed quickly, scale reliably and integrate seamlessly with its existing ERP environment.
As a trusted automation partner, Xcellerate IT was engaged to lead the transition to cloud-based accounts payable automation using Tungsten AP Essentials.
The solution replaced the Council’s legacy on-premise capture systems with a secure, SaaS-based platform hosted in Australia on Microsoft Azure. Implementation was completed and live within two months.
Tungsten AP Essentials automatically classifies and extracts data from supplier invoices and provides a browser-based interface for verification, enabling accounts payable staff to work efficiently from any location. Invoices received via email are captured automatically, removing the need for manual printing, sorting or scanning.
Once verified, invoice data is transferred directly into TechnologyOne Ci, where additional validations and workflows are triggered based on system rules. This streamlined approach reduced manual handling while improving consistency and visibility across invoice processing.
The move to cloud-based accounts payable automation delivered immediate operational benefits for Yarra Ranges Council.
Invoice processing became faster and more resilient, supporting both remote and office-based staff without disruption. Manual handling was reduced, invoice cycle times improved and the operational burden on IT was lowered through automatic updates and minimal maintenance requirements.
A real-world system outage shortly after go-live further demonstrated the robustness of the solution. Invoices continued to be processed while integrations were unavailable, and once systems were restored, all invoice data and images synchronised seamlessly with TechnologyOne.
“The new solution has made life much easier. When our on-premise systems were temporarily unavailable, we continued processing invoices in the cloud. Once everything was back online, all invoices and images were uploaded without a hitch. I was very relieved and impressed with the accuracy of the data”, Mr Cardwell said.
Today, Yarra Ranges Council benefits from improved visibility, faster supplier payments and a scalable accounts payable automation platform that supports its evolving operational needs.
Located on metropolitan Melbourne’s eastern fringe, Yarra Ranges Council serves a diverse community of more than 145,000 residents across approximately 2,500 square kilometres. The municipality spans outer suburbs, rural townships, agricultural valleys and forested regions of the Great Dividing Range, making it one of Victoria’s largest and most varied local government areas.
If you’re exploring how automation could apply in a similar environment, we can help you understand options, constraints and practical considerations.