Dominican Watchman: Digitisation of invoice issuance and electronic connection with the DGII

Leading
company

+47 years of
experience

+570
clients

The starting point

Dominican Watchman is the leading security company in the Dominican Republic. After more than 47 years in the market, the company serves more than 570 clients.

Administrative processes in the company are entirely paper-based. The process for issuing an invoice is lengthy and manual: in order to reach the end customer, the invoice has to be prepared, audited, reviewed and sent. In addition, due to the nature of its business, Dominican Watchman invoices can be up to 100 pages long, increasing the complexity of the process. Sometimes, invoice delivery is delayed by up to 15 days and invoices arrive at the recipient overdue. When there are discrepancies, credit notes must also be handled by telephone or email.

Because of this slow and tedious process, payments can be delayed for up to 90 days. In addition, the company must print and store three copies of each invoice, which is a large investment in paper and storage space.

After issuing and managing all these invoices, Dominican Watchman has to prepare the monthly report for the DGII. The administrative team works frantically to balance the accounts between the 15th and 20th of the month. And it is a task that is repeated on a monthly basis.

Faced with this situation, and taking advantage of the publication of regulation 01/2020 that regulates the use of electronic invoices in the Dominican Republic, Dominican Watchman decided to digitalise its administrative process, start working with electronic invoices and become an electronic taxpayer of the DGII.

Because of a slow and tedious process, payments can be delayed up to 90 days.

Both Voxel Caribe and the DGII have been strategic partners in this project.

CAURY DE LOS SANTOS
Director of Administration and Finance
at Dominican Watchman

The solution

Dominican Watchman decided to rely on Voxel Caribe and its Bavel platform to carry out this digitalisation project, i.e. the issuing of electronic invoices and the connection with the DGII. Bavel connects with Dominican Watchman’s ERP and also with the DGII.

To do this, Bavel connects with Dominican Watchman’s ERP and also with the DGII system. Bavel collects the invoices issued by Dominican Watchman, encrypts them and translates them to deliver them in the format established by the DGII. Once the DGII approves the invoices, Bavel delivers them to Dominican Watchman’s client. In this way, Dominican Watchman’s clients obtain the invoices, already approved by the DGII, in just a few minutes. By having real-time communication with the DGII, Dominican Watchman does not have to prepare the 607 report.

“Both Voxel Caribe and the DGII have been strategic partners in this project” explains Caury De Los Santos, Director of Administration and Finance at Dominican Watchman.

Currently, Dominican Watchman connects electronically with 100% of its clients and with the DGII through Bavel.

The results

The digitisation of Dominican Watchman’s invoicing process has helped to substantially improve its administrative processes, increase team efficiency and reduce errors.

Invoices now reach their recipient within minutes and any discrepancies can be resolved instantly. This immediacy of invoice delivery has had a positive impact on the company’s cash flow, as payments are now timely. Collection time has been reduced by more than 80%, from 90 days to 10 days.

Thanks to the digitisation of processes, Dominican Watchman has eliminated paper from all its processes and also the more than 700m2 used for storing invoices. The company now has a digital archive with all its invoices in Bavel.

Dominican Watchman has become one of the first electronic taxpayers of the DGII in the Dominican Republic. And it has done so hand in hand with Voxel Caribe, the DGII’s first certified supplier for issuing tax receipts.

“I recommend all companies to become electronic taxpayers now that it is voluntary and there is time to implement it and get the financial resources.
There are too many advantages for businesses and the DGII is being an agile partner in this project,” explains Caury De Los Santos.