400 invoices a month, one very calm Financial Controller: How caterers Kalm Kitchen handles supplier payments

Kalm Kitchen is a rapidly growing catering business servicing around 600 events each year. Managing accounts payable for hundreds of events means processing a high volume of invoices, and brings complexity to job costing.

Sara Bennett, Kalm Kitchen’s Financial Controller, shares how Telleroo has transformed their payment process from chaos into a well-oiled machine. A transition that also saved the business from a sophisticated phishing scam.

The chaos of a high-volume purchase ledger

As a successful catering business, the Kalm Kitchen team had hundreds of invoices to pay each month. A challenge which is widespread in the industry:

"Catering is chaotic. With around 600 events annually, our key suppliers can send over 400 invoices in a month. Before I was hired, the company had to outsource its accounts payable."

The company's outsourced AP provider introduced them to Telleroo. This allowed the provider to manage payments externally without requiring direct bank access.

After Sara joined and brought the process in-house, she kept using Telleroo, knowing that it could handle the massive volume of weekly supplier payments without creating a manual data-entry nightmare.

"When Kalm Kitchen got me on board, I was given access to the bank. So technically we didn't need Telleroo, but I think it's really slick and works very well for us, so we continued to use it."

A modern payment solution for a complex business

Today, the workflow is simple. An accounts assistant inputs all the purchase ledger data into Xero and reconciles the aged payables.

Every Friday, Sara logs into Telleroo to process the supplier payments. Instead of manually typing in bank details, she simply selects the invoices she wants to pay, creates a batch and approves the pay run, clearing a massive backlog of invoices with just a few clicks.

"I just find Telleroo very modern, really easy," Sara explains. "Telleroo is literally like an assistant who does everything for me."

Stopping supplier invoice fraud in its tracks

Recently, Telleroo's security features proved their worth. Sara received a sophisticated phishing email, seemingly from the company founder, asking her to update a supplier's bank details. The request looked entirely genuine, and the details were updated in Xero.

"I only grew suspicious the next week, when there was a follow-up message from our founder asking me to confirm if I'd changed the bank details. That's not like him, he knows when he tells me to do something, I'll get it done. So I double checked the invoices. I made sure everything looked kosher. I just thought he must be having a funny day."

However, when the pay run was created, Telleroo's system flagged the payment because the new details didn't match the bank account. This caught the scam before a single penny left the account.

"I've been an accountant for decades, and that's the first one that I had ever fallen for," Sara recalls. "Thank goodness Telleroo stopped it."

Beyond security, the quality of support has also been a standout feature. "I'm also really impressed with the help desk. You can ring, and you get somebody really nice and really responsive. I think that is the cherry on top of the cake."

A godsend for a busy finance team

For Sara and the team, managing the finances for hundreds of events could easily become overwhelming. Telleroo provides a clean, modern, and highly secure way to process high volumes of supplier invoices without the stress and risk of manual bank transfers.

When asked about her favourite thing about Telleroo, Sara is enthusiastic:

"It just makes payments really fast and really accurate. I think it's a godsend."

‍🚀 Sign up to Telleroo today to start sending supplier payments quickly, easily and securely 🚀