How Northstar Systembuilt transformed accounts payable with ZoneCapture

Northstar Systembuilt LLC manufactures modular homes, apartments, hotels and other commercial buildings, with a 153-person team based in Redwood Falls, Minnesota. Before ZoneCapture, the accounts payable team entered vendor bills manually and matched them against NetSuite transactions by hand. Northstar needed a solution built natively for NetSuite that could handle three-way matching against purchase orders and item receipts, without adding cost or complexity to its finance operations. With ZoneCapture, the team automated that entry and matching process, speeding up accounts payable and creating a foundation to scale as the business grows.

The challenge: Manual AP entry couldn’t keep pace with NetSuite matching

Northstar’s accounts payable team needed a faster way to enter vendor bills and match them against NetSuite transactions. There wasn’t a specific compliance or audit mandate driving the search, but three-way matching against purchase orders and item receipts had to happen accurately and consistently as transaction volume grew. The issues Northstar’s AP team encountered are common among similar teams:

• Manual bill entry: Vendor bills had to be entered by hand and matched against NetSuite transactions, slowing down the accounts payable team.
• Three-way matching requirements: Bills needed to be matched against existing purchase orders and item receipts inside NetSuite, without a system built to handle it natively.
• Room to grow: Northstar wanted a solution that could scale with the business, including the possibility of a future M&A transaction.

The solution: NetSuite-native three-way matching with ZoneCapture

Northstar chose ZoneCapture because it runs natively inside NetSuite and could deliver the three-way matching the accounts payable team needed. Zone & Co’s own professional services team carried out the implementation remotely, and by Northstar’s account, it went smoothly from the start. Here’s what Northstar’s AP team found in Zone: 

• NetSuite-native automation: ZoneCapture runs directly inside NetSuite, matching vendor bills against purchase orders and item receipts through built-in three-way matching.
• OCR-based bill entry: Vendor invoices are uploaded or forwarded, scanned through optical character recognition (OCR) and entered as NetSuite transactions automatically.
• Zone-led rollout: The implementation was handled by Zone & Co’s professional services team and has run smoothly since, including background updates.

The results: A faster, more scalable accounts payable process

ZoneCapture automated Northstar’s accounts payable process, and the OCR feature in particular stood out to the team as a win. With ZoneCapture, its AP team now has:

• Faster invoice processing: Vendor bills move from upload to matched NetSuite transactions without manual keying, speeding up the accounts payable cycle.
• Fewer matching errors: Built-in three-way matching against purchase orders and item receipts reduced the manual work behind reconciling vendor bills.
• Scalable AP automation: As the business grows, Zone’s AP suite can grow with it, allowing the company to handle more invoices without additional headcount.

NetSuite-native AP automation that holds up against the competition

Northstar’s experience shows what a NetSuite-native accounts payable process can do once vendor bill entry and three-way matching stop depending on manual work. ZoneCapture gave the accounts payable team a faster, more accurate way to process vendor bills, and the company has stayed with it even after evaluating other options, including a NetSuite alternative.

If you want to improve your financial operations in NetSuite, schedule a tailored demo to see how ZoneCapture can transform your accounts payable process.