As you may know, two of Australia’s leading not-for-profit care providers, BaptistCare NSW & ACT and Baptistcare WA, merged in 2023 to create one of the largest not-for-profit care providers in Australia.

We are aligning all of our finance processes and policies, and adopting best practices to unify supplier onboarding, procurement, finance and accounts payable.

What's changing for suppliers and why?

As the organisation is aligning all of our finance processes and policies, some changes will impact BaptistCare suppliers.

In WA, we are migrating to a new Finance system called TechnologyOne and implementing a new supplier onboarding system, called ‘Rapid Global’ (in alignment with NSW/ACT). The Rapid Global system will house compliance documentation (such as Insurance Certificates, Police checks, Permits) to ensure you are legally eligible to perform the work we are requesting you to do and preserve the safety of our clients.

Across the organisation, we are adopting a leading-edge system called Tungsten Automation (previously Kofax) that leverages machine learning and optical character recognition technology to automate the payment of invoices. This advanced system is designed to automatically extract and match critical information from your invoices, such as ABN, invoice date, amount, and Purchase Order (PO) and/or Word Order (WO) number, with the corresponding Goods Receipt (GR). This automation will significantly streamline our accounts payable process, making it faster, more accurate, and highly efficient.

This change will benefit BaptistCare suppliers in the following ways:

Quicker payments: The automation of invoice matching, and payment processes means you will be paid faster and on time, according to the agreed terms.
Increased accuracy: With automatic data capture and matching, the likelihood of errors is greatly reduced, ensuring that payments are made accurately based on the invoice details provided.
Streamlined processes: The need for manual intervention is minimised, leading to a smoother, more predictable payment cycle.

Supplier onboarding

Currently, NSW and ACT suppliers use a third-party solution called Rapid Global for new supplier onboarding and compliance. As part of the merger activities, WA will be implementing Rapid Global to capture compliance documentation (e.g. insurances, licenses, police checks), ensuring you are eligible to provide goods and/or services, while maintaining the safety of our clients.

For BaptistCare this will provide the ability to streamline our work health and safety, risk, and workforce management processes in one unified system.

For WA suppliers, your invoices will be paid from BaptistCare NSW & ACT (ABN: 90 000 049 525), the parent entity of BaptistCare WA.

What do suppliers need to do?

Please read the key steps below to take to ensure you are paid on time.

Please ensure you only attach actual invoices to your email, as our system cannot accept links or other files. You can include multiple attachments in your email, but please ensure each attachment contains only one invoice. Supported file formats are: PDF, DOCx, DOC, XLS, JPG, BMP, TIFF, TIF. It is also important that the attachments are created using the 300 DPI scan setting or similar to maximise the quality of the image(s).

Procurement policy update

In our continuous effort to enhance operational efficiency and fortify our partnerships, we are introducing a significant update to our procurement process. We are moving to Purchase Orders being raised at the time of ordering wherever possible. This initiative is designed to streamline our financial transactions, ensuring a transparent, efficient procurement and payment cycle. The exception to this requirement is for Utility suppliers, Home Care suppliers and Care/Nursing staff agencies.

The shift towards this policy is driven by the need for clear, formal agreements for every transaction, reducing the risk of misunderstandings and disputes. Issuing a purchase order (PO) or work order (WO) at the time of order, provides a legally binding document that outlines the services or goods to be provided, agreed prices, and other essential terms, setting correct expectations and building trust.

Aligning our procurement process with a PO or WO at the time of order, will also enhance the accuracy and speed of our payment processes. By matching every invoice to a pre-approved PO or WO, we can automate invoice processing and payments, leading to faster payments, minimising errors and delays. This adjustment is part of our wider initiative to adopt advanced technologies to automate and improve our finance and procurement operations.

Thank you for your continued support. Should you have any questions or concerns about this new process, please do not hesitate to reach out to us .