From 2.5 days to 3 hours: how Blood Cancer UK stopped dreading its payment run
Paying suppliers at Blood Cancer UK used to mean two and a half days of piecing together emailed invoices. Today it takes a few hours, the shared drive has been relieved of its duties as an accounts payable system, and the finance team finally gets its month-end back.
"The payment run used to take me two and a half days, and as much as I love my job, it was always something I dreaded. Now it's very easy - if I have no issues, it only takes me a couple of hours. The workload is so much more manageable."
Finance Manager, Blood Cancer UK
2.5 days →
3 hours
2 days
⅓ of the time
The challenge: a finance function with no system for invoices
Blood Cancer UK funds research, supports patients and campaigns for better care, while good financial management ensures every donation is used transparently and effectively to sustain that life-saving work. Their finance function has two pillars: planning and analysis & operational finance, which covers invoices, purchase orders and expenses, and previously had no system in place at all.
Budget holders emailed their invoice approvals and saved the invoices to a central drive. The finance team then pieced everything together, keyed it into Infor SunSystems® and processed it to the bank. Each payment run took two and a half days, so it only happened once a month, as part of month-end. Expenses and credit card returns were handled manually too. The cost went beyond staff time: month-end dragged on, budget holders and trustees waited longer for their numbers.
The solution: a system configured around the team
Blood Cancer UK weighed their options between two companies. Sysynkt asked what the team needed and showed them how to configure it, whereas the other offer was a fixed product.
- Their structure, not ours. The team set up budget holders, permissions and approval groups to match how the charity actually works.
- Less back-and-forth on the integration. Sysynkt's SunSystems® expertise meant the integration needed little contact with Sun support.
- Rolled out around their day job. The team implemented Sysynkt alongside their normal work and paused during audit season, which stretched the timeline.
Today, Sysynkt handles their invoices and purchase orders, expenses, credit cards, bank reconciliations and journal postings. Their team didn't expect the banking module to cover that much, and it has become their favorite, bringing bank statements straight into the system.
The results
The payment run now happens in the background throughout the month and goes out in a single click. It no longer has to wait for month-end, and that change alone took about two days off the month-end cycle. Automated banking replaced manual journals and saved roughly another day and a half to two days.
"People can make decisions on real-time information rather than information that's perhaps 15 days old."
Matthew Webb - Financial Controller, Blood Cancer UK
- Payment run: from 2.5 days to 2-3 hours
- Month-end close: now 4-5 days. Payment run change alone took about two days off the cycle, which is a target the team hadn't reached since at least 2019
- Adoption around 150 staff trained on expenses, with very few support questions
- Audit and VAT: auditors self-serve from Sysynkt, and VAT advisors work from a single report
- Time back for staff: colleagues report invoice approvals, expenses and credit card returns taking half the time or less
Time back across the charity
The savings reach well beyond the finance team. When colleagues across the charity were asked how much time the new processes actually save them, the answers generally pointed the same way: what used to be a monthly chore now takes half the time or even less.
- Invoice approvals: About 1 hour → down to 10 minutes. One invoice takes roughly a minute, done as they arrive.
- Credit card returns: From 1-1.5 hours → down to 10-30 minutes. Most colleagues said it now only takes a third of the time.
- Staff expenses: now taking less than half the time.
What they would tell another charity
Don't force your old habits onto the new system. The team spent a while making the credit card module copy their old process. When they switched to the Sysynkt workflow, the module simply bedded in.
Pick a system that adapts to you. Being able to configure budget holders, permissions and approval groups to their own structure was one of the deciding factors.
Expect to use more than you planned. The banking module covered way more than the team were expecting, and it's now became one of their favorites.
"One of my favourite things about Sysynkt is that it isn’t overwhelming. It is intuitive and user-friendly, with each module thoughtfully designed to display only the information you need. Everything is clear, well-organised and easy to navigate, making it a really positive experience for colleagues/employees across the organisation.
Finance Manager, Blood Cancer UK
Still keying in invoices and reconciling in spreadsheets? See what three-hour payment runs could look like for your team.
