The Roularta Media Group has been working with 4CEE for a long time to streamline its invoice processing workflows using Basware. “Thanks to the 4CEE consultants’ extensive technical knowledge of Basware, supplemented by 4CEE’s own specialized tools, our purchase-to-pay process has been set up in the most efficient way possible,” says Bart Roobroeck, Application Manager for Financial Services at Roularta Media Group. “The next step is the implementation of e-invoicing. For that, too, 4CEE is the right partner for us.”
Founded in 1954, Roularta is the third-largest publishing group in Belgium and, since 2021, has also been active in the Dutch market with magazines such as EW Magazine, Flow, Fiets, and Beleggersbelangen. But the partnership between the Belgian publisher and the Dutch company 4CEE has already spanned a much longer period—fifteen years. Roobroeck has been involved from the very beginning. “In 2005, we chose Basware for our invoice processing system because we found their software to be cutting-edge and it integrated seamlessly with our Accounts Payable workflow,” he recalls. “At the time, we were working with another vendor for the implementation and rollout of the software within our organization, but we gradually realized that they lacked sufficient knowledge of the system’s capabilities. That’s when 4CEE came onto the scene around 2010.”
Since the two companies began working together, the publishing group’s entire invoice processing workflow—which also includes its own large printing facility—has been handled down to the last detail. “We receive between 65,000 and 70,000 purchase invoices annually,” says Roobroeck. “All of those invoices are in Basware, where we make optimal use of order matching. As a result, we’ve achieved enormous savings in both manual work and costs.” The collaboration is running smoothly, he continues. There is regular contact during which Roobroeck and his team brainstorm with the people at 4CEE about the internal challenges facing the publishing group. “Thanks to the technical consultants’ knowledge, we’re able to come up with new solutions together to tackle those challenges,” he says. “Their expertise regarding Basware’s nearly endless possibilities, combined with their own solutions, is rock-solid.”
“We’re better able to pay our purchase invoices on time so we can take advantage of any discounts. This is especially important at our printing facility, where large sums of money are involved.”
Through this partnership, Roularta has implemented more and more Basware features over the years. In addition to introducing Basware as a purchasing module—including order matching—the partners are now working on automatically generating purchase orders for the publishing group’s printing facility. “Our problem was that our ERP solution isn’t suitable for order matching, which also brings benefits within our printing facility. Now we’re going to automatically send the purchase orders to Basware, where order matching can be performed.” Thanks to this step, everything related to purchase invoices has been centralized in a single tool—Basware—where all information can be found. This opens up possibilities for the next application: using Basware Insights for data analysis. “With Basware Insights, for example, we can gain insight into invoice processing times,” explains Roobroeck. “This enables us to pay our purchase invoices on time so we can take advantage of any discounts. That’s especially important in our printing division, where large sums of money are involved. Think of orders for paper and printing ink.”
In addition to the ongoing expansion of Basware’s capabilities, Roularta also uses tools developed by 4CEE. For expense report processing, this is the “4CEE Expense Service.” “Through this tool, our employees can submit expenses such as mileage reimbursements, parking fees, and restaurant expenses,” explains Roobroeck. “The documents are then sent directly to Basware, where they go through an approval workflow. Once approved, the incurred expenses are reimbursed.” Automating the posting of approved invoices is another tool developed by 4CEE. “For the Dutch branch of our company, 90 percent of purchase invoices are processed this way,” he says. “In Belgium, that figure is significantly lower—at 25 to 30 percent—but that’s due to the complex Belgian tax and VAT legislation in this area.”” According to Roobroeck, the faster processing of invoices through automation offers many advantages. “This also allows us to pay invoices more quickly and take advantage of discounts. Furthermore, the risk of reminders is minimal, and employees can be assigned to other tasks, such as optimizing OCR recognition of invoices.”
That last point—OCR recognition of invoices—will soon no longer be necessary. As a result of the introduction of ViDA—“VAT in a Digital Age”—Roularta will switch to e-invoicing as of January 1, 2026. The publishing group is also carrying out this transition from paper and PDF invoices to e-invoicing—for both purchase and sales invoices—in collaboration with 4CEE. “For purchase invoices, this means that our suppliers upload their invoices via Peppol to the Mercuriusplatform—an initiative of the European Union (EU)—and 4CEE will then download them for us and automatically upload them into our Basware invoice processing system,” said Roobroeck.
For purchase invoices, the main benefit lies in the elimination of man-hours required for OCR recognition and validation, he continues. “This is because e-invoices generate more data and higher-quality data, which in turn provides opportunities for Basware Insights. This allows us to organize our processes even more efficiently.” For sales invoices, the main benefit of switching to e-invoicing lies in lower mailing costs, explains Roobroeck. “About 65 percent of our customers now receive our invoices by email and 35 percent by mail, mainly in Belgium. So once e-invoicing is implemented, we’ll be able to save significantly on those mailing costs. In addition, we’re making progress toward achieving our ESG goals.”
“We looked into whether we could implement e-invoicing ourselves, but quickly realized that this wasn’t feasible.”
The decision to choose 4CEE for the implementation of e-invoicing was in line with expectations, but the 2024 acquisition of e-invoicing specialist Tradeinterop—now an integral part of 4CEE—was ultimately the deciding factor. “First, we explored whether we could implement e-invoicing on our own, but we quickly realized that this wasn’t feasible. Complying with laws and regulations—and securing approval as an access point—was a bridge too far for us. The acquisition of Tradeinterop was decisive, because they have tremendous expertise in this area. After all, they’ve been working on this for quite some time, and we’re now reaping the benefits. So in this regard as well, the partnership with 4CEE provides us with significant added value,” Roobroeck concludes.