The Challange

Vicky Hopf, Manager of Corporate Finance and Treasury, has been with Quick Chek since 1988. She began her career as an Accounts Payable Associate, processing invoices in the Accounts Payable department. She has been in her present position for three years. Her responsibilities include budgeting and forecasting, treasury work, managing cash and banking relationships and financial analyses.

Company: Quick Chek Food Stores
Industry : Retail
Location : Whitehouse Station, New Jersey
Company Size : 4,600

“It was a very informal process, and we had problems getting vendors paid on time. When invoices came in, we had to ‘walk the paper around the building’ to get the proper sign-offs before we could pay the bills. This process was very time consuming, and often the paper got lost along the way. Sometimes it was several months before the bills got paid. There was also no way to track how much was being spent against the budget. We needed a better system, one that would monitor and control the whole process. That’s how I became involved. I was tasked with finding a software package that would meet the functionality requirements we needed.”

How Purchasing Worked at QuickCheck

Vicky explained that items for store resale are the responsibility of each store, but big ticket items like refrigeration cases, slicers, coffee grinders and other equipment are the responsibility of the support center, and this is where Bellwether Purchasing Software is utilized. Quick Chek uses the Purchasing, Receiving, Requisitions, Quotations, Inventory, A/P Interface modules. Within the Quick Chek Store Engineering Department, two people have responsibility for all materials purchasing.

Until two years ago, none of the purchasing cycle was AUTOMATED. Then, stores would call in their requests, and the Store Engineering Department would place the orders with the appropriate vendors who met their specs. Quick Chek has roughly 50 different materials vendors and produces approximately 100 purchases per month – more if they are rolling out a new piece of equipment to all stores or constructing new stores.

Quick Chek chooses Bellwether Purchasing Software

Vicky went on to say, “Since we were already a Lawson Financial Software client, we looked at the Lawson Purchase Order System first. We didn’t look at it for very long, however, because their purchasing software package was very price prohibitive. After looking at the Lawson package, we reviewed three more systems, and Bellwether’s Purchasing Software met not only the functionality and price requirements we needed, but also it also interfaced with our Lawson financial system. The IMPLEMENTATION of Bellwether Purchasing Software went smoothly. Within a month, we had a test environment in place and, shortly thereafter, had the system up and running.”

Implemented within

14 days

Benefits of Bellwether Purchasing Software

Vicky stated, “It’s hard to quantify in dollars and percentages how much money, time and efficiency we gained with the implementation of Bellwether Purchasing Software, but it was significant in all areas. Especially beneficial for us was the ability to make timely payments of invoices. The interface with Lawson eliminates double entry and creates an audit trail. As invoices are entered into Bellwether, a three-way match of PO, Receipt and Invoice is automated online. Then, approved invoices are sent to Lawson’s Accounts Payable System for payment. Another benefit we have realized is that now the dollar amount ordered against the budget dictates the authority level of approvers. Through Bellwether Purchasing Software, within the dollar and budget guidelines we have set, determines the automatic approval routing. This has eliminated the bottlenecks we once experienced. Quick Chek is pleased with Bellwether Purchasing Software, and we recommend it as an affordable alternative to Lawson’s Purchase Order System.”

Greater Visibility

Users groups have visibility into inventory supplies and upcoming purchase requests for all locations.

Greater Scalability

The company now has more confidence to continue to scale their business efficiently.

Greater Accuracy

Managers can see all procurement process data including order history, overall spending and remaining budget.

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