Automating Spend Visibility for a Biopharma Startup
Industry: Medical (Life Sciences)
Service: Procure‑to‑Pay Automation
Client Background
A venture‑backed, clinical‑stage biopharmaceutical company at the forefront of intracerebroventricular (ICV) therapies for refractory neurological diseases. Built by leaders in neuroscience, neurosurgery, and drug delivery, the firm is advancing proprietary therapeutics and companion biomarkers while operating across a network of third‑party research and manufacturing partners.
Challenges
- Manual, Error‑Prone Workflows – Purchase orders were created in Word and Excel, and then stored on shared drives, making version control and reconciliation difficult.
- Complex Vendor Spend – The majority of costs flowed to numerous CROs, CMOs, and niche service providers, yet spent data lived in silos.
- No Real‑Time Insight – The Finance department lacked the analytics needed to forecast burn rate, project cash requirements, or negotiate vendor terms.
- Strained Accounting Team – Manual re‑entry into Xero consumed valuable hours and risked duplicate or late payments as invoice volume grew.
How Did APS Help?
- Full Procurement Automation – The APS team replaced Word/Excel with an end‑to‑end system that auto‑generates POs, routes approvals, and tracks receipts.
- Vendor‑Level Spend Dashboards – Built‑in analytics deliver cost trends by supplier, project, and GL code, supporting data‑driven decisions.
- Seamless Xero Integration – Approved invoices sync to Xero automatically, eliminating re‑keying and reducing errors.
- Hands‑On Implementation – APS consultants configured workflows, migrated historical data, and trained users for rapid adoption.
Results Achieved
- 100 % digital capture of POs and invoices—no more manual files or shared-drive dependency, creating a single source of truth.
- 80 % faster processing time, reducing the PO-to-invoice cycle from days to just hours, enabling quicker spend control.
- Eliminated the need for 1 FTE in administrative support, saving an estimated $40,000+ annually in staffing costs.
- 0 duplicate or late payments post-implementation, thanks to automated three-way matching and better reconciliation.
- Real-time vendor spend analytics across projects, improving budget forecasting accuracy by 30% and empowering smarter financial planning for the client.
APS helped the client move beyond manual accounting constraints to gain complete visibility, streamline approvals, and drive smarter, data-backed decisions, all while supporting their mission to bring life-changing neurological therapies to market.
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