Self-billing goes digital

In the latest of our digital projects our housing department explain how self-billing has transformed a process that was previously very hands on...

Self-billing is something that replaces a heavily manual process and with an integrated and automated system that can deal with the vast majority of the 10,000+ orders the housing department issue each year.

The system is an end to end electronic automation that starts with placing an order with our contractor, various status and data updates throughout the life of the order through to payment into their bank account.

The process previously comprised of emailing the order details to our contractor who then retyped the details into their system. Any order variation requests would be emailed or phoned through to us for authorisation and practical completion dates would be forwarded for manual entry into our repairs system.

Invoicing would involve someone updating each order detail with any variation details and the invoice details. The paper invoices were than batched together with a summary document and passed the finance for payment.

The new process means the order details go directly into our contractors’ system. We receive and authorise (or decline) variation requests electronically within minutes of being available on the contractors system and the final invoice is now emailed through for approval.

This previously very time consuming and labour intensive process now happens more smoothly, saving staff time, meaning they can focus on serving the community and meeting residents' needs.