Building a Reliable E-invoicing Process for NTM Baltic

When recurring e-invoice failures forced manual processing across the group, NTM Baltic needed a fast and reliable fix. With Telema, the company restored stable invoice data exchange, eliminated manual corrections, and saved approximately 33 hours per month in accounting effort, both locally and at the parent company level.

Key outcomes:

• 50% reduction in manual invoice handling
• 33 hours saved monthly with a working solution
• Reliable transfer of purchase order data

NTM Baltic

As a key subsidiary of the Finnish group Ab Närpes Trä & Metall, NTM Baltic OÜ manufactures metal structures for trucks and various waste management vehicles produced by the group. With 60 employees and a 2025 revenue of €10.5 million, the company operates within the logic of mechanical precision.

However, beneath the surface of daily operations, there was a subtle misalignment in the framework connecting production to accounting. Much like a gear that turns but does not fully catch, the digital documents moving between systems encountered a recurring fault that unsettled the steady order of work across the group.

A System That Didn’t Deliver

To understand the problem at NTM Baltic, one must look at the processing path of an invoice. In an international industrial group, an invoice moves through a sequence of digital checkpoints, where it must meet the defined validation requirements of the parent company’s software, before it can be processed.

For NTM Baltic, which generates 350 to 400 invoices every month, the most critical validation requirement is the customer’s purchase order (PO) number. This small string of digits is the key that allows the Finnish parent company’s system to automatically match and process the document. Yet periodically, the system would malfunction, and this essential data field would fail to arrive.

“Problems arose regularly, when the necessary information, the customer’s purchase order (PO) number, no longer reached the customer’s or our parent company’s software.”
– Ave Matlep, NTM accountant

The paradox was that, from the perspective of the previous service provider, nothing was wrong, as their dashboard showed successful transmissions. But in reality, the automation chain was broken. The parent company was forced into a grueling manual ritual: opening, checking, and editing 400 invoices by hand. When a tool that is supposed to save time ends up demanding more of it, the organizational morale begins to fray. The people of NTM Baltic lost an estimated 66 hours to monthly labour, despite having implemented an automatic solution. 

Photo: Ab Närpes Trä & Metall

A Month of Digital Silence

In any professional partnership, clear communication is essential. When the previous operator’s service stopped working, the impact was not limited to the technical system.

“It was difficult to communicate with the operator’s customer support; you could only write to them, and finding solutions took a very long time,” the accountant recalls. That one-directional exchange, conducted solely through written messages, received no immediate confirmation of return. During the last instance, the invoicing service remained inactive for more than a month.

For a manufacturing company, a month of administrative paralysis is a lifetime. The need shifted from “troubleshooting” to a search for a partner who valued the same thing NTM did: reliability. NTM Balitc contacted Telema after finding us through our certified partner, Excellent Books (Standard Books).

Restoring the Connection

In the midst of operational disruption, NTM did not require elaborate explanations or promotional assurance; they needed timely communication and a clear indication that the matter was being actively addressed.

“Telema was the first one I contacted. Since I received a reply very quickly, communication was pleasant, and all the conditions seemed suitable, I didn’t even consider other options.”
– Ave Matlep, NTM accountant

The implementation process moved with the same industrial efficiency NTM applies to its trailers. Telema assigned a dedicated project manager who served as the main point of contact throughout the entire transition. Because responsibility was clearly defined, questions were answered quickly and issues were resolved without unnecessary delay.

The launch arrived exactly on schedule, a feat that felt significant to a team used to digital delays.

“The entire process was organized professionally, quickly, and clearly… things usually take longer than initially planned.”
– Ave Matlep, NTM accountant

Photo: Ab Närpes Trä & Metall

Automatic as Intended

Today, the 400 monthly invoices flow from Estonia to Finland without a hitch, operating under a 99.9% uptime agreement. The PO numbers are transmitted correctly, and the automation systems at the Finnish headquarters process the documents as intended.

The impact of this change is best observed in a consistent, error-free performance, causing less frustration and freeing up time previously spent on manual checks.

“There is a benefit from a group perspective, as the parent company does not have to manually process the invoices we send, so it is a big time saver for them,” the accountant notes. For her, the change has meant a return to her actual work, rather than acting as a bridge for broken data. “It is also a time saver for me, as the service works in such a way that it does not need to be constantly monitored.”

With the help of Telema’s E-invoicing, NTM Baltic was able to reduce the invoice processing time by 50%, and remarkably improve their data accuracy of monthly reporting. 

Trust as an Industrial Asset

The cooperation with Telema did not introduce a new way of working so much as remove the need to compensate for recurring errors. Invoice data now reaches its destination in complete form, and the accounting routine no longer includes checking whether essential fields have disappeared along the way. What had become a cycle of monitoring and correcting has been replaced by a process that proceeds without intervention.

“For us, it was a very positive experience and the service has worked very well so far. I would definitely recommend them and would dare to undertake new projects myself.”
– Ave Matlep, NTM accountant

In the world of manufacturing, a good tool is one you don’t have to think about. By replacing a faulty service with Telema’s stable infrastructure, NTM Baltic has ensured that their financial operations are now as durable as the steel vehicles they help to produce.

Before you begin your e-invoicing journey, we recommend reading Telema’s article “Top 5 E-Invoicing Mistakes: Lessons for Smarter Digital Transformation” to help you move forward with confidence.

Do you want to upgrade to an e-invoicing process you don’t have to think about? Get in touch: