Norges Sildesalgslag: streamlined invoices with Compello since 2006

The Norwegian Herring Sales Association handles about 2.5 percent of the entire world's wild fish sales and they use Compello to handle and save time on the incoming invoice flow.

The Norwegian Herring Sales Association is a nationwide sales organization for pelagic fish species, which is fish that mainly live in open bodies of water. Primarily herring, mackerel and blue whiting. The marketplace is owned and operated by Norwegian fishermen, and is today Europe's largest marketplace for first-hand sales of pelagic fish.

The sale takes place via electronic auction, and in 2018 1.6 million tons of fish were sold through the Herring Sales Association with a total value of 7.8 billion NOK.

Lasting customer relationship

In the middle of this is Mette Blindheimsvik, senior adviser in the finance department of the Herring Sales Association. She is also the system owner for Compello, which handles all incoming invoices.

- I myself have only worked here for a little over a year, but we have had Compello ever since 2006. The main reason for its introduction was a desire to move away from physical vouchers and voucher binders, to have an easier access to accounting documentation. Posting of invoices was also an important reason, says Blindheimsvik.

She further says that the solution now, in addition to the Sales Team's own invoices, also handles the invoices of a fully owned subsidiary and two companies they have ownership interests in.

- In total, more than 200 invoices go through the system every month, I think.

Spends less and less time on invoices

Blindheimsvik estimates that around half of the invoices are digital EHF, and she says that this proportion is increasing.

- The invoices that come as EHF, are read automatically with the correct information. Then I do not have to spend time checking that KID, account number, dates and amounts are read correctly. The invoices we receive by e-mail go through the invoice interpreter in Compello, and this in most cases also reads this information correctly - here I just have to double check that everything has been interpreted correctly, she says.

The Norwegian Herring Sales Association has reduced the number of paper invoices considerably since they started working with Compello, and they are now down to only 5-10 percent paper invoices.

- We have actually spent some time contacting suppliers who send paper invoices, to see if they can send it by EHF, or at least as a pdf by email - it saves us a lot of time, says Blindheimsvik.

- We have also used Compello's posting templates, which automatically posts invoices. That is another reason as to why I continue to spend less time on invoices, she says happily.

- Let me put it this way: I have previously worked in places where they have not had Compello or similar systems. This is better!