Introduction

Delta Agribusiness (Delta Ag) is one of Australia’s largest independent agribusinesses, supplying farm inputs and expert agronomy advice to growers across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and Queensland.

Founded in 2006, Delta Ag has grown from a handful of branches to a network of 68, processing tens of thousands of invoices a year to keep pace with its expansion. For years, Delta Ag’s Accounts Payable (AP) team managed a paper-based invoicing trail, scanning and manually keying invoices into ABM, their financial management system. 

As Delta Ag continued to grow the manual workload grew with it. The accounts team nearly doubled in size over a decade, and Delta Ag’s busiest months meant staff regularly working weekends just to keep on top of processing. To resolve this ongoing manual effort, Delta Ag partnered with Ellby to build a complete, end-to-end automation solution connecting the existing invoice data extraction system with ABM and Eftsure.

The Solution

Real-Time Desktop Processing

The difference is tangible for the AP team. Invoice data now flows automatically from capture through to ABM, arriving pre-populated and ready to go - all the team needs to do is check the details and click a button to send it through.

Supplier bank details are verified before an invoice can proceed, upholding the rigorous fraud prevention and approval processes already in place across the business.

Invoices are automatically matched against goods receipts in ABM, removing much of the manual back-and-forth between branches and the accounts team. A tailored set of routing rules ensures each invoice type reaches the right person at the right branch, rather than landing in a shared inbox for several people to check.

Implementation

Built Around Delta Ag’s Way of Working

Delta Ag's 68 branches operate with a high degree of autonomy, so any new system needed to work with that structure rather than against it. Ellby's team stayed with Delta Ag from discovery through a six-week optimisation period after go-live, meaning the AP team could raise and resolve issues with the same people who already understood their setup—so nothing needed to be explained twice, and adjustments were rolled out quickly.

Training was delivered to the AP team, while branch-level workflows were designed to remain largely unchanged, minimising disruption for the wider business. A staff survey of the AP team conducted after go-live found universal support for the change, even among longserving team members.

As Delta Ag continues to grow, including recently onboarding a new business unit onto the same integrations, the business is well placed to scale without adding headcount to the AP team. For Andrew Chanphakeo, the appeal is straightforward: