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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.

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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.

How it works

Step 1

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.

Step 2

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.

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Step 3

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.

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Step 4

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.

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Step 5

Post investment review

Conduct a post-investment review to evaluate the project and show return on investment (ROI).

Add the findings to the original request with information instantly available.

Financial planning

Create authorisation matrix
Set up approvals and governance procedures (approval limits, escalation procedures etc.) based on your Delegation of Authority policies.
Add period budgets
Create/import financial period budgets and assign them to business units and asset categories with mid-period revisions available.
Track actuals
Track actuals vs forecast (CapEx approved vs budgeted) and closely monitor the remaining budget in the period.
Monitor expenditure
Track all expenditures associated with a project and pay vendor invoices from the approved budget.
Cash flow forecasting
Cash flow forecast for approved CapEx projects on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.
Overspend alerts
Get notified if your capital expenditure request will result in overspending/overruns.
Budget carry forward
Carry forward and re-assign the remaining budget into the next financial period.
Payback calculator
Monitor cumulative savings on a monthly, quarterly, or (bi)annual basis.
Track depreciation and disposal costs
Collect depreciation amounts and disposal costs for items that are being replaced.
Manage all cost types
Handle various payment types such as CapEx/OpEx, write-downs, multi-year leases, acquisitions, and legal settlements.

Request forms

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Flexible CapEx request forms
Eliminate spreadsheets and manual routing by creating powerful CapEx/OpEx request templates.
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Smart forms
Show or hide form sections, lock fields, pre-fill data and set mandatory fields, all based on conditional rules.
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Integrated sanity checks/rules
Highlight invalid fields and automatically validate data on input/submission to ensure approvers have the correct information to make their decisions.
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Currency conversion
All figures are shown in your local currency and global currency.
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Multi-lingual
Automatic multi-lingual translation of CapEx request submissions and user interfaces.
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Add attachments
Add attachments of any format (XLS, JPG, DOC etc.) to support the capital expenditure approval request.
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Printable PDF
Generate printable PDFs of the submitted capital expenditure request form, including attachments.
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Save for later
Users can save partially completed forms and submit them later when further information is available.
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Form locking
Once a request form has been submitted, the form will be locked down with users no longer able to edit or modify the data.
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Supplier quotations
Add quotes from potential suppliers. Enter supplier name, amount, notes, and reason for choosing supplier. Add additional rows as necessary (e.g., mandatory for three quotes).
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Emergency CapEx
Allow users the option to submit an emergency CapEx request and receive an urgent response through a modified approval flow.
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Display real-time financial data

Show the current 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 budget.

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Predicted authorisation path
Show the estimated approval steps dependent on the business unit, asset category, amount or any other fields and rules.
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Comment log
Enable authorised users to add time-stamped notes to a CapEx approval form. These Q&As and comments are visible to executives later in the approval chain.

CapEx approval

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Non-linear workflow
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Linear workflow
Automated CapEx approval workflow

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.

View request history
Executives can read the audit trail and comments associated with a capital expenditure submission, either when approving a request or looking back through the archives.
Linear processes
Run CapEx approval steps sequentially when you need to receive one user’s approval before another.
Non-linear processes
Where possible, benefit from greater efficiency and faster approvals by running approval steps in parallel.
Email notifications
Automatically alert users to new tasks by sending them eMails with reminders/escalations based on inactivity and due dates.
Approve by eMail/mobile
For quicker CapEx approvals, notification eMails can include approve/reject links while replies to eMails can be automatically processed for keywords so executives can quickly complete tasks even when they are out of the office.
Predict project delays

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

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User interfaces
Configurable web portals are tailored to a user’s role and provide the tools they need to complete their tasks (initiate CapEx process, task management, view real-time data, search archived requests, system administration etc.).
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Configurable dashboards
Task lists, tabular data and chart/graph widgets can be configured and combined to display data for real-time analytics and KPI monitoring.
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On-demand reporting
View/download customisable reports e.g., capital spend by region, country, cluster, division, business unit, category etc.
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Scheduled reporting
Schedule reports for automatic distribution to colleagues, ensuring everyone is up to date.
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Export data
Export data to pre-defined Excel templates for onward manipulation and reporting by users or integrate with other line-of-business (LOB) applications.
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Real-time tracking
The dashboards provide management with real-time CapEx approval tracking and visibility into how in-flight processes are running. This means they can easily spot bottlenecks in your capital expenditure approval process and intervene if needed.

Security and system administration

24/7 audit tracking

Reduce risks and improve traceability with 24/7 audit tracking, user access permissions, and more. System access is authenticated with user actions fully logged and auditable.

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 or 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 project activation and initiation to CapEx approval and project closure, eCapEx can map all stages of your CapEx project life cycle as standalone – but interlinked – automated workflows.

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 underlying technology 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.

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  • salesforce
  • sharepoint
  • aws
  • box
  • dropbox
  • excel
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  • my-sql
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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.

Benefits

Improved spend controls

Track year-on-year 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.

Bespoke versus off-the-shelf capital expenditure approval software

Are you searching for bespoke or commercial off the shelf (COTS) software to automate your capital approval processes?

When evaluating vendors and software, executives and procurement teams will need to consider whether to purchase COTS, bespoke software, or a hybrid model to automate manual CapEx processes and better meet their current and future needs.

In this table, we look at each option and argue the hybrid model offers the best of both worlds.

Commercial off the shelf software (COTS) Hybrid model Bespoke software
Example Purpose-built software for CapEx Workflow automation software (tailored to CapEx) Software built from scratch by an internal development team or external company
End-to-end CapEx management (e.g., project ideation, budget approval and allocation, CapEx request approval, and post-spend review)
Bespoke to your unique requirements (not “One size fits all”)
Bloated with extra functionality/features (you may not need)
Onerous user training to cover functionality and best practices for unused features
Unlimited customisation
Unlimited flexibility
Add CapEx-related processes (e.g., contract approval, payment sign-off, mergers & acquisitions, due diligence tracking)
Add additional business processes (e.g., staff leave, new product creation, procurement savings/benefit tracking)
Solid, well supported platform
Peace of mind from existing user testimonials
Cost-effective, quick deployment
Large support community
Risk of failure
Low
Low
High

Case studies

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Rentokil Initial

Rentokil Initial automate CapEx approval processes across Europe, APAC, Latin America and the USA with eCapEx.

Read their story
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Millennium and Copthorne (M&C) Hotels Plc

Seeking to improve the controls around CapEx projects, Millennium and Copthorne (M&C) Hotels Plc implement eCapEx to manage their annual CapEx budget.

Read their story
  • Stars

    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 Chief Information Officer, Rentokil Initial
  • Stars

    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
  • Stars

    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.

    Hilton Hess, Finance Director, Rentokil Initial
  • Stars

    Great working with you and would definitely recommend ePC going forward, which is a credit to your technical knowledge, customer service and patience.

    Struan Robertson, Group Accountant, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc
gartner-peer-insights

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4.7 / 5

16 reviews

G2

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4.7 / 5

29 reviews

Capterra-logo

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4.6 / 5

40 reviews

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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 showcase how the capital expenditure approval software can meet your requirements.

Alternatively, please call 03300 100 000 to discuss your requirements.






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    Trusted by Rentokil Initial, Next plc, and the British Council, ePC support organisations to replace manual, paper-driven tasks with data capture, workflow, and document scanning solutions that reduce manual data entry and automate critical tasks. Visit our website.

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