Automate your CapEx approval process with capital expenditure approval software
eCapEx replaces spreadsheets, inefficient manual processes, and unstable SharePoint solutions with capital expenditure approval software that provides greater visibility, automation and tracking of CapEx spending.
It offers near-limitless flexibility to meet varied customer-specific requirements for CapEx approval and reporting without lengthy development cycles.
How it works
CapEx
planning
Submit new ideas for capital investment for early consent before submitting a full request.
Create and collaborate on budgets for the next financial year; import and assign them to business units and asset categories.
Delegation of Authority (DOA)
Set up internal governance, such as procedures, approval limit setting, escalation procedures, and total spend authorisations to suit your corporate DOA.
Submission and approval
Automatically route the capital expenditure requests upon submission through an approval, rejection, and clarification workflow.
Send notification eMails as each step starts and as periodic reminders when necessary.
Dashboards, reporting & monitoring
Configurable web portals provide users with the tools they need to complete their tasks.
Dashboard widgets display data in chart/graph format for real-time analytics and KPIs.
On-demand/scheduled reporting available.
Post investment review
Conduct a post-investment review to evaluate the project and show return on investment (ROI).
Add the findings to the original CapEx investment request with information instantly available.
Financial planning
CapEx request forms
Show the current CapEx budget position by business unit and category, showing the amount approved/available for the current period.
Highlight to the initiator/approver if the requested amount exceeds the remaining CapEx budget.
Automate capital expenditure approvals
Utilise approval, rejection, and clarification workflows with conditions based on asset category, business unit, budgets, and authorisation limits.
Add data integration steps to ingest data from other systems or export CapEx request data to onward ERP or purchasing systems.
According to McKinsey, CapEx delays can range from six months to two years.
The CapEx system can help reduce delays as the approval rules engine provides early notification that a task is predicted to be late and takes direct action, escalating or re-routing activities to account for the predicted delay.
CapEx dashboards and reporting
Security and system administration
24/7 audit tracking
Track and record every meaningful transaction in a way that can be retraced later by managers, auditors, and regulators.
Authorised users can review information about any activity, past or present, including time-stamped approval decisions, documents and comments.
Single sign-on (SSO)
Support for SAML-based authentication for SSO with your existing corporate user directory. Integrate with directories such as on-premise Active Directory and cloud-based Azure Active Directory.Data encryption
The system uses standard web security protocols (such as HTTPS over TLS 1.3) to encrypt data in transit and can be configured to apply multiple layers of encryption to data at rest.Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Integration with industry-standard identity and authentication platforms, such as Azure Active Directory, allows for MFA to be incorporated within the user logon process.User accounts
Named user accounts for all users allow for granular security permissions and activity tracking to be applied.
Full auditing of account delegation for when a user is away from the office.
Additional platform features
Case management
Create separate workflows and forms but link them together under one case\project.
Consolidating related processes (e.g., CapEx approval, new supplier onboarding, purchase orders, post-investment review) into a single case makes it easy to implement manageable processes individually – and yet for all the relevant parts to be viewed as a whole by the users.
Stage-gate management
From feasibility studies to project activation, eCapEx tracks each stage of your CapEx project life cycle as standalone – but interlinked – automated workflows. This supports strong governance and delivers better outcomes by allowing project managers to check the business case is still viable at regular intervals.
Collaborative document management
Centralised control, security, and management of documents.
Collaborate (document authoring/markup) simultaneously on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Flexible hosting
Maintain control with an on-premise installation or host in the cloud (Public/Private cloud).
Our cloud-hosted option (with a 99.9% uptime guarantee) includes ongoing technical support and maintenance with system updates/enhancements automatically rolled out to users.
UK and worldwide data centres
Our data centres are UK-based and fully compliant with UK GDPR.
If you prefer, we can host your capital expenditure software within the Microsoft Azure global infrastructure, allowing you to keep your business-critical data in any region and comply with relevant legislation.
Powerful technology
The platform runs on the well-supported and reliable Windows, IIS, SQL and ASP.NET platforms from Microsoft. This means we can leverage the inherent security, scalability and reliability features in the capital expenditure approval and tracking software.
Roll-out to other departments
The technology behind eCapEx can be deployed quickly within other departments/processes within your organisation.
From employee onboarding to contract approval, the CapEx approval software can automate any business process, allowing you to multiply your return on investment many times over.
Application integration
The CapEx software supports direct integration, web services and REST\SOAP calls, giving you access to a huge variety of in-house and third-party services.
Its .NET-based Software Development Kit (SDK) enables near-limitless capabilities to create reusable custom tasks and integrations.
Additionally, data export to legacy systems through Robotic Process Automation (RPA) or file export (CSV, Excel etc.) is possible.
“As an IT support group, we offer our business colleagues choices. The decision to select Process Director/Cloud Edition was made by the Divisional CFO, as the prototype of the CapEx process worked to his satisfaction. From an IT perspective, we were also genuinely pleased with the pilot”
Chris Broe
Group CIO
Rentokil Initial
Benefits
Improved spend controls
Track year-on-year CapEx spending (budget vs actual) and committed/accrued financials for capital projects.
Scalable
Flexible business unit hierarchy allows for the easy addition of new business divisions.
Additional users can be added at any time, as can new forms and workflows for new processes.
Regulatory compliance
A standardised CapEx approval tool and formalised capital expenditure policy and procedure will lead to process compliance across business units, departments, and geographies.
Automation
Automation can reduce paper-based processes, minimise risk, eliminate errors, and accelerate CapEx approval cycles.
Increase visibility
Increase visibility of CapEx requests and approvals with real-time tracking of CapEx across the whole organisation.
Better decision-making
Access to real-time financial data in a configurable dashboard supports quicker and more informed investment decisions.
Significant cost savings
Cost savings from centralised visibility, tighter spend control, eradication of procurement overlap, improved utilisation of existing equipment/capital, and the ability to leverage bulk-buying power.
“We love the simplicity of the system. The actual form has not changed much. You now complete it online. It still captures all the same information. Crucially, the quality of submitted requests has improved as certain fields are auto-filled, calculated automatically or contain rules such as a mandatory field or display a warning if certain conditions are not met. We’ve made the process tighter and more consistent”
Nick Taylor
Finance Director
Millennium and Copthorne Hotels
Professional services
Our professional services team are here to make your implementation as smooth as possible.
While the platform is incredibly intuitive, we know that many clients do not always have the time or resources to build the solution themselves.
At ePC, we have a team of experts available to support you with requirements gathering, demonstration/proof-of-concept, statement of work (SOW), system development, externally accessible prototypes, testing/user acceptance testing (UAT), and training/support.
Whether you prefer to build the system internally or need our professional services team to deliver a customised solution, we can help you automate CapEx workflows – without lengthy development cycles.
As an IT support group, we offer our business colleagues choices. The decision to select Process Director/Cloud Edition was made by the Divisional CFO, as the prototype of the CapEx process worked to his satisfaction. From an IT perspective, we were also genuinely pleased with the pilot.
We love the simplicity of the system. The actual form has not changed much. You now complete it online. It still captures all the same information. Crucially, the quality of submitted requests has improved as certain fields are auto-filled, calculated automatically or contain rules such as a mandatory field or display a warning if certain conditions are not met. We’ve made the process tighter and more consistent.
I have been really impressed by the speed with which this capability has been developed and how flexible it has been to meet our requirements.
Great working with you and would definitely recommend ePC going forward, which is a credit to your technical knowledge, customer service and patience.
Latest news and insight
Contact us
Are you looking to automate CapEx approval processes?
To demonstrate the value of eCapEx to key decision-makers in your organisation, we invite you to book a free, no-obligation demonstration to see how the capital expenditure approval software can meet your requirements.
Alternatively, please call 03300 100 000 to discuss your requirements.
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