ND Paper

Catalyst Paper Corporation, acquired by ND Paper, LLC, manufactures diverse papers such as coated freesheet, coated one side (C1S), flexible and industrial packaging, food service, coated and uncoated groundwood, newsprint, directory, and market pulp. Headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, their customers include retailers, publishers and commercial printers in North America, Latin America, the Pacific Rim and Europe.

Challenges

Month-end was continually bogged down by Catalyst’s cumbersome manual FI upload into SAP. The company had created a custom line layout in Excel to copy and paste non-standard entries, one page at a time, into SAP.

“The bulk of the month-end process was manual – a long, tedious process,” a Senior SAP Functional Analyst reported. “It took two to three days just to enter all the journal entries, forcing us to use every person available.”

Attempts to create an in-house direct-upload solution were not successful. Customized options (such as an ABAP tool) did not provide validation of the data before loading meaning only a few individuals could utilize the template – power users, who generated very large month-end journal entries.

The situation soon came to a head when the need arose to migrate the pulp side of their business into SAP. Users on the legacy system adamantly refused to use the manual process. Faced with migrating 30,000 lines into SAP, the company knew it was time for an automated upload solution.

Solution

Catalyst evaluated Magnitude Process Runner GLSU and quickly deemed it the ideal solution. “Process Runner GLSU was a forerunner from the beginning,” their Senior SAP Functional Analyst described. “Process Runner GLSU was polished and had validation tools to avoid the various pitfalls of loading and posting journal vouchers to SAP.”

The SAP migration project manager agreed. “We chose Process Runner GLSU over competitive solutions for its simplicity and ease of use. If the tool was not effortless, it would never be adopted fully by the user population.”

Initially, Process Runner GLSU was used to post information from three legacy systems with uploads of over 999 lines. “Using Process Runner GLSU, two weeks of work took three days to enter into SAP.” Now freight vendors, with many invoices, simply email their customized Excel file to our AP clerk, who copies the template into Process Runner GLSU, then posts it directly – often the day it is received. The result: vendors are paid more quickly than ever before.

Several Process Runner GLSU templates are also being used for COPA entries. Month-end variances can be time-consuming, but the templates can be downloaded into Excel and then populate Process Runner GLSU. “That’s been really good – I don’t know how keen our accountants would be to do that work manually”. Altogether, over 20 Process Runner GLSU templates and all complex calculations are now done in Process Runner GLSU. In some cases, the only change needed is to the posting date before upload. Best of all, month-end pressure is alleviated. With Process Runner GLSU, entries are done throughout the month.

Results

Easily Accessible Information

Since entries are detailed and not just summaries, everyone can get the information they need. “Accountants no longer have to provide an explanation of the information found in the spreadsheet,” noted their Senior SAP Functional Analyst. “The spreadsheets are self-explanatory and provide drill-downs for further information.”

Improved Accuracy and Flexibil­ity

Before Process Runner GLSU, there were many data input errors. Now, accuracy is much improved with fewer errors. Other functions such as foreign currency posting are also easy with Process Runner GLSU.

Efficient User Training

“The first thing a new accountant learns is how to post using Process Runner GLSU. They learn the secrets of Process Runner GLSU and the theory behind it and boom, they are posting journal entries on the first day!”

Centralized Control Saves Time

Although some of the Excel models are very complex, everything is linked directly into Process Runner GLSU templates, so users only need to change posting dates, then post the entries. Process Runner GLSU is populated based on calculations they’ve entered.

Business Benefits