Date: April 24, 2023

To: John Doe (President) , Jim Green (Vice President/CFO) , Jane Blau (Vice President/ COO)
From: Hailey Seifert
Subject: Adapting Billing Process and Equipment

Hello Mr. Doe, Mr. Green, and Ms. Blau,

I am the new office manager at Great Slate for 3 months. In the short time I have been here there
seems to be a growing frustration in the accounting department. There seems to be multiple
issues that stem from one major problem and that is how we process our billing to clients. The
short term solution to the smaller problems is to purchase a new printer/copier/scanner/fax
machine for the office. Then the second phase to the solution would be to switch our clients
invoices from mailing to a PDF, unless they require a mailed invoice.

Problem Situation

In the time I have worked here I have noticed that the accounting department has several
problems. The first is the older model of the printer/copier/scanner/fax machine. This machine is
the only one that is used by the entire accounting department. It prints only 6 pages per minute
while newer models are printing 25 pages per minute. This problem greatly affects the singular
employee who is tasked with preparing all the invoices. Seeing as all their time is spent at the
printer.However, it has affected the other members of the department's relationship with this one
teammate. There are constant paper jams, about 12 per week, which have an estimated repair
time of 15 minutes per jam leaving little time for the rest of members of the department to
access the machine for their own work needs. In the end, blaming that person for the constant
problem with the machine.

The other problem within the accounting department would be the delivery of invoices.
Currently, a majority of our invoices are sent out via mail, with the current rate of envelopes
being $50 per month and postage being $550 per month. However, with the way billing in
today’s world is progressing most companies are looking to have PDF invoices. Our current tech
has reported that every month several existing clients of ours have asked to move to a PDF
invoice. Currently, the one employee who handles invoicing, is not able to efficiently transition
our current clients to a PDF invoice because of the scanner. The scanner is over 20 years old and
is not up to date with current technology. It only allows for one page to be scanned at a time
which can become a long and cumbersome process when some invoices have multiple pages.
Then the employee must follow a multi-step process to turn all of the single scanned pages into a
combined invoice; that can then be sent out to our clients. This multi step process starts with
scanning all the pages and putting them into a folder. Then retrieving the folder and turning it
into a multi-page PDF. Afterwards using Adobe Acrobat to then combine them all together.

These problems are persisting throughout the accounting department and cause a serious backlog
in work. With the current adjustments to the department there is some concern that the team will
not be able to handle the workload without the proper updates needed for their success in their
new roles.
Proposed Solution

The solutions to the problems that were discussed will happen in two stages. The first stage
would be to lease a new printer/copier/scanner/fax machine. This would be a short term fix to the
most urgent problems. Those problems being the scanning and printing jobs that are done for our
invoicing. As we know this machine is several years old and can not keep up with the current
workload. In hopes of the business growing larger in the following years we need to make
sustainable choices to help our employees in keeping up with higher job demands.

After some research my suggestion is to lease the Canon ImageRunner DX4825i MultiFunction
Copier.The current rate for the new machine is $150 monthly, 6-month lease, that does come
with a maintenance package. The scanning rate is around 45 pages per minute. Along with being
able to do double sided scanning and having a multi sheet feed detection. The multi sheet feed
detection would address the issues with the scanning for invoices being transferred over to the
PDF version. It would eliminate the multi step process of having to turn single scanned pages
into a multi- page file just to combine them together. The faster time for scanning will also allow
for the process to be done in a more timely manner. Cutting the process down by ¾ the current
rate which is 10 minutes to do one single invoice.

This new machine would allow for faster printing jobs as well. This would benefit the company
by being able to swiftly mail out invoices.Printing out invoices is the main usage of our current
machine, with the current rate of printing 6 pages per minute; the new machine will speed up the
process by being four times as fast. This machine keeps up with modern print speed of 25 pages
per minute in color and in black & white. This would significantly affect our employee who
handles the invoices by allowing them to have more time to do other tasks that they have taken
on from the recent job integration. Along with this being a newer machine there would be less
paper jams. In the occurrence of a paper jam the machine is able to give step-by-step instructions
via photos and videos. This will alleviate the time spent on the paper jam per week and the time
spent on repairs.

The second stage of the solution would then start to see if our clients would like to opt out of a
mailed invoice. However, I do understand that there are some clients who will require a mail
invoice so we will still allow for that option. Instead they would then receive a PDF invoice sent
to the email on the account file we have with them. This would happen in a 3 month stage of
moving our clients into that direction. The current rates of companies changing over to invoice
can be found in the table below.

Number of Months Percentage of customers accepting PDF

After Month 1 20%

After Month 2 40%

After Month 3 80%

As you can see there is a significant amount of companies that will switch over to just receiving
PDF invoices in a relatively short time frame of just three months. With using the above charts
monthly conversion of mail opt outs, we can then see the finically gains the company will obtain
with this solution. The following chart shows this.

Months Unchanged mailing cost Changed mailing cost +

Leasing fees

Month 1 $600 $750

Month 2 $600 $630

Month 3 $600 $510

Month 4 $600 $270

Month 5 $600 $270

Month 6 $600 $270

* Note- I am starting out the first month at $600 in times to show what would happen after the
first month of the changed mailing cost. I am calculating the cost from the previous chart to show
what will happen with the gradual increase of clients switching over to PDF invoices.

As we see in the table above the price of adding the new system is a bit higher than our current
system. However, by the 3rd month we can start to see a decrease in the cost in comparison to
the unchanged mailing cost that showcases our current system. By month four we see how
drastically the month rates have changed. Instead of paying an average of $600 dollars in
between stampage and envelope cost, we end up only paying $270 when 80% of our clients
switch over to a PDF invoice. Therefore in a year's time the company will have saved $3960
with leasing a new machine but also switching to PDF invoices.

Operational and other Benefits

The other benefits that we will see with this new system change is an increase in workplace
morale. This comes from less aggravation dealing with faulty equipment but also more time for
people to focus on their new roles in the department. The other benefit will also be timely
invoice delivery. Our clients will be able to have their invoice in their hands in a matter of
minutes. Therefore, they will hopefully be able to pay for our services just as fast. Or if there is
something wrong with the invoice it will be able to be taken care of quickly instead of waiting
for them to receive it in the mail. That is also the other benefit is that we will be able to get it to
our clients without any fear of the invoice being lost in the mail.
Employees Involved/ Timeline

The employees that will be involved are from our accounting department, Mr. Green, Ms. Blau
and myself. Within one month from now I would like for the approval from Mr. Green and Ms.
Blau for the leasing of a new copier/ scanner/ printer/ fax machine. Immediately after the install
of the new machine our employees who primarily deal with the machine, the employee who
prepares the invoice and who creates the invoice, will need to be trained on the machine.
Following them the rest of the accounting department will be trained on the machine. Along with
the install of the new machine we will be sending out an optional op-out of mailed invoices once
every month. The first time we will send to about 20% of our clients to see how many we will
get to switch over. From then on we will send out a gradual increase of opt out forms of an
additional 10% of our clients.

Conclusion

I strongly encourage you to consider the two phase adaption process to our billing process and
equipment. The benefits of the new machine will allow for more efficient work to be completed,
along with a moral boost in the workplace. Along with the financial gains the company will have
with switching over our clients to a PDF invoice system.

Sincerely,
Hailey Seifert