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Case study

AGnVET

How Australia’s largest independent rural supplier prepared to scale with Accounts Payable automation across 70 remote stores and counting.

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38 hrs/week

time saved in accounts

50 - 60%

invoices auto-matched

5,000

invoices processed per month

Driving Success

Scaling without adding a headcount

Introduction

For a business like AGnVET, growth is not simply a matter of opening new stores. Every new location adds volume to accounts payable, compounds manual processing demands, and stretches the capacity of the head-office team. With a comprehensive growth strategy being rolled out, the company faced a clear question: how do you double the size of a national store network without doubling the accounts team?

The answer was Ellby’s Optical Character Recognition enabled (OCR-enabled) Accounts Payable automation (AP automation) platform, integrated with AGnVET’s existing Pronto Enterprise Resource Planning (Pronto ERP) system. 

The project delivered immediate time savings equivalent to one full-time role and established the foundation for continued expansion - all supported by a structured, collaborative training program tailored to the realities of regional retail operations.

AGnVET is Australia’s largest independent rural supplier, with a head office in Sydney, AGnVET operates approximately 70 retail stores across regional and remote locations including New South Wales and Victoria. The company provides the full range of inputs farmers need - from fencing and fertiliser to veterinary supplies and crop chemicals - serving agricultural communities in small towns most people have never heard of.

With an ambitious growth strategy targeting 100+ stores and AU$1 billion in revenue, AGnVET needed its back-office processes to be streamlined to facilitate it’s future growth. 

Key results

Efficiency

38 hours saved weekly in manual processing.

Automation

60% of invoices processed with zero touch

Scalability

Built to support growth to 100+ stores.

Accuracy

OCR capture for 5,000 monthly invoices.

Integration

Seamless data flow into Pronto ERP.

Connectivity

Unified system across 70 remote sites.

Situation

Scaling Without Adding Headcount

The Challenge

AGnVET processes approximately 5,000 purchase-order-related invoices every month across its store network. Before implementing the Ellby solution, the company had investigated several systems to connect stores with head office, but none offered OCR capability. Invoices still required significant manual handling, and as the business grew, so did the pressure on the accounts payable team.


"The goal was to put a system in place that would allow us to grow without the necessity to increase our accounts team”.

Greg Tramontan,
AGnVET

The Cost of Inaction

The stakes were tangible and measurable. Under the old manual process, AGnVET was trapped in a cycle of proportional hiring:

The 5-Store Threshold:

Every five additional stores would have required another full-time accounts hire.

Expansion Risk:

With an ambition to add 30 or more stores, the company faced the prospect of doubling its back-office team just to keep up with paperwo


The Threefold Obstacle

To support an ambitious growth strategy targeting 100+ stores and AU$1 billion in revenue, AGnVET needed a solution that could address three distinct areas:

Automation:

AGnVET needed to automate invoice capture and matching to free up existing staff

Integration:

The solution had to integrate with the company’s Pronto ERP — a non-negotiable requirement for a business of this scale

Usability:

Critically, whatever was implemented had to work across 70 geographically dispersed stores staffed by people who juggle multiple roles, are time-poor, and have different levels of technical proficiency.

Task

Finding the Right Solution Partner

Choosing Ellby

Flexibility Over Rigidity

AGnVET decision came down to two providers with existing experience in agribusiness. What separated Ellby was a willingness to adapt.

Agribusiness introduces complexity that standard AP automation does not accommodate. Commodity prices shift rapidly - a purchase order raised at one price may arrive invoiced at another due to fuel surcharges, currency movements, or supply disruptions. Processes such as consignment stock and split orders add further variability. AGnVET needed a partner who understood these nuances and could configure the platform accordingly.

The decision was reinforced by Ellby’s presentation as a professional, well-resourced organisation. From AGnVET’s CFO’s perspective, the team’s depth of capability and structured approach made the choice straightforward.


Implementation

Structured Rollout Across 70 Sites

Deploying a new system to a single office is one thing. Rolling it out across 70 remote locations - each with different staffing levels, connectivity constraints, and operational pressures - is another challenge entirely.

Ellby provided a structured timetable, a defined task list, and a clear testing plan. Ellby allocated dedicated internal resources, Matt and Ian, to lead the conversion alongside AGnVET’s team. Issues were documented, tested jointly, and resolved progressively.

The implementation integrated Ellby’s platform with AGnVET’s Pronto ERP, enabling OCR-powered invoice capture, automated matching against purchase orders, and direct data flow into the accounting system. For a multi-site agribusiness handling thousands of invoices monthly, the integration needed to be robust from day one.


“The determining factor was that Ellby were prepared to make modifications to their standard process for us without it being too much of a big deal. The other company was pretty rigid.”

Greg Tramontan,
AGnVET

Action

Training Across a Remote Network

A Program Built for Reality

Training 70 stores spread across regional Australia required a pragmatic approach. Ellby’s training team, led by Damien, prepared draft training materials which AGnVET then customised to reflect their specific workflows and terminology. The accounts payable team leader, Henrietta, partnered with Damien to deliver face-to-face training at four regional hubs, with stores travelling in from surrounding areas.

However, the realities of remote retail shaped the program. Many stores could not spare staff for a two-hour drive to a training venue. For these locations, training was delivered via Microsoft Teams. A custom learning management system (LMS) was also provided with AGnVET-specific courses and walkthroughs for on-demand access, refreshers and new staff training.

“It’s not like they can just get in the car for ten minutes. They would have to drive two hours.”

Greg Tramontan,
AGnVET

Understanding the Audience

AGnVET’s store staff wear many hats. Supported by the head office Accounts Payable personnel, a single person at a remote store may handle sales, stock, customer service, and invoicing. This meant training needed to be practical, concise, and reinforced over time rather than absorbed in a single session.

Greg and the team anticipated that not every store would grasp the new system immediately. Follow-up phone calls and one-on-one support were handled internally, and a second stage of refresher training via Teams is now underway. With approximately one new staff member joining the network each week due to natural turnover, ongoing training has become a permanent part of AGnVET’s operations.


What worked

Collaborative material development

Ellby provided the framework; AGnVET tailored it to their language and processes..

Paired delivery

Ellby’s trainer worked alongside AGnVET’s internal lead for credibility and continuity.

Hub-based face-to-face sessions

Four regional centres provided in-person training.

Teams-based remote training

Practical alternative for stores too remote for face-to-face attendance.

Success

Transformation Across the Board

Time and Cost Savings

The OCR-enabled system delivered time savings equivalent to one full-time accounts payable role - 38 hours per week returned to the team. For a business processing 5,000 purchase-order-related invoices monthly (and growing), the impact is substantial. Between 50 and 60 per cent of those invoices now flow through without manual intervention: captured by OCR, matched against purchase orders, received by stores, and passed directly into Pronto.

Head Office Transformation 

The primary benefits have been concentrated at head office, where the accounts payable team now operates with significantly less manual processing. The digital workflow has replaced the previous system of emailing documents between stores and head office, providing clear visibility of where every invoice sits at any point in time.

Key results

38 hrs/week

saved in accounts payable

50 - 60%

PO invoices auto-matched

5,000

invoices processed monthly

Positive results across the board

A Platform for Growth

Critically, the system has delivered on its core objective: enabling AGnVET to grow without proportionally growing the accounts team. The company has already announced a new merger, and the AP platform is ready to absorb additional stores as they come online. The path from 70 to 100 stores - and from half a billion to a billion in revenue - no longer requires a corresponding increase in finance headcount.

“50 to 60 per cent of our purchase orders have gone through basically untouched. For agribusiness, where prices change rapidly, that’s quite good.”

Greg Tramontan,
AGnVET

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