Salmon Company: Gaining time to focus on growth

The restaurant chains Pink Fish and Fly Chicken implemented the AI solution SEMINE in record time to work more efficiently and free up time to continue their strong growth.

The startup Salmon Company has been expanding rapidly, opening eight new restaurants since the pandemic began. The company owns the Pink Fish restaurant chain, with locations in Norway and Singapore. Additionally, they own 50% of Fly Chicken, which is quickly establishing itself across Norway.

Pink Fish is a Norwegian-developed seafood concept in the “fast casual food” category, offering healthy and tasty meals delivered quickly. For those who prefer real fried chicken, Fly Chicken is the place to go. "It’s clucking good," as they say.

Automating Accounts Payable to free up time

In October, Salmon Company adopted the AI platform SEMINE to automate the accounts payable process. This automation has allowed the company to free up time to focus on strategic work, including further international expansion and new business ventures.

– The fast food market is characterized by thin margins, and we cannot afford large overhead costs. We are highly focused on finding systems that allow us to work as efficiently as possible. This led us to choose SEMINE, explains Stein Eriksen, CFO of Salmon Company.

READ MORE: Here’s why AI can make finance departments even more efficient

Seamless integration with ERP systems

The most critical part of the implementation is linking SEMINE with the ERP system. Salmon Company uses 24SevenOffice. When searching for an automated invoice-processing solution, Eriksen wanted to ensure that the solution worked well with the ERP system and offered maximum automation potential. 

– After evaluating the existing market solutions, I was confident that SEMINE would be the most efficient solution for us.

READ MORE: Easy integration with the leading financial systems

Quick and Efficient Implementation

The implementation took no more than two weeks from project start to full operation.

– The implementation went smoothly and was surprisingly simple. To be honest, I thought the task would be bigger than it was, says Eriksen

 

Boosted efficiency and reduced staffing requirements

The annual invoice volume is 10-12,000 invoices, but it’s growing rapidly.

– SEMINE is a great fit for our industry. We have many recurring invoices from suppliers to the various restaurants in the chain, with the same items.

As the restaurants make similar purchases, the effect of the AI in the platform is very high. After a short time, SEMINE recognized most of the line items, and after just two months, we had achieved significant automation gains.

- The automation rate had reached 80 percent, he explains.

This means that 8 out of 10 invoices were correctly coded for both accounts and VAT on all line items. For the largest suppliers, the automation rate was close to 100%. After two months of operation, 9 out of 10 invoices were automatically sent for approval, meaning the SEMINE platform identified the recipient and forwarded it for approval. The goal is an automation rate close to 100%.

– The success with SEMINE allows us to postpone hiring additional resources for accounting, Eriksen says with satisfaction. They also save a lot of time on invoice approvals.

– Much of the efficiency gain lies in invoice workflow. With SEMINE, the process of approving invoices has been greatly simplified for the restaurants!

Better Insights and Reporting

With SEMINE, Salmon Company can compare data at the line item level for each restaurant, enabling deeper analysis and better insights.

– Over time, we will use SEMINE to develop an improved reporting platform. As a CFO, it is far more inspiring to spend time on control tasks and other value-adding activities instead of routine work related to accounting entries, concludes Eriksen.