With Lerry, SMP Parts knows the numbers add up

From general answers to AI built for finance

SMP Parts develops and manufactures tiltrotators, buckets and control systems for excavators from its factory in Ilsbo, Hälsingland. With roots going back to 1919, the company supplies Volvo Construction Equipment and other leading machine manufacturers, with operations and partners in several countries. The finance department previously used AI much as many others do, to get general answers from ChatGPT or Claude, for example. Lerry became the company's first AI built specifically for finance, and SMP Parts was an early adopter: first out of curiosity, then out of conviction.

Errors are caught while they are still small

Christoffer Ewerth, Finance & Business Control Manager at SMP Parts, explains that with Lerry the bookkeeping is no longer reviewed only as the close approaches, but every day. At the very first review, SMP Parts received a long list of discrepancies and recommendations on what the finance department ought to look into. Since then the checking has happened automatically: Lerry goes through accounts and VAT continuously and flags in real time whatever needs looking at. In the group's largest company, the solution is integrated with the Monitor ERP system.

"Lerry helps us make sure the data is validated to a very high standard"

The biggest gain is not only the time, but the peace of mind. The finance department no longer has to wonder whether something has been missed, because discrepancies are caught before they have time to grow into problems.

Lerry learns the business

Not every discrepancy is an error. SMP Parts has its own production and sells internally between the group companies, and to a system such transactions can look unusual even though they are perfectly correct. When the finance department explains why something looks the way it does, Lerry learns it. Lerry recognises the pattern the next time round and flags only what genuinely needs review.

"When we did this big review we got a bit of: right, why do we do it that way? It does not have to mean it is wrong, but it makes you stop and think."

Lerry's first review therefore became more than a check of the numbers. It became an opportunity to look over and develop the ways of working themselves.

Closing on day five

The daily, automatic checking saves SMP Parts at least half an hour a day, and those minutes quickly add up to time that can be spent where it does some good. Because discrepancies are dealt with straight away instead of piling up, the team avoids the time-consuming surprises at month end.

"We did a big piece of work at the start, maybe ten hours, and structured everything. That meant we found a number of errors that we no longer have."

The real effect shows in the close. Closing the month on day five is something many finance departments strive for, and many need considerably longer than that. Since Lerry came in, SMP Parts closes the month on day five, every month. Today the team saves at least a full day of the close, and Christoffer estimates it is closer to two.

Support across the whole of finance

Lerry is used in different ways depending on the role. One colleague works with ledgers, VAT and account reconciliations, another with the accounting. For Christoffer the tool is above all a support when more complex tax questions come up, both through the chat and through Lerry's community.

"I always turn straight to Lerry when I get a complex tax question."

For SMP Parts, AI is not about replacing people, but about giving their finance function even better conditions to work in. Less time goes on hunting for errors, and more can go on analysis, improvements and business. And above all: the confidence of knowing the numbers add up.