Biffa’s legacy ERP system hindered scalability, compliance, and operational efficiency, risking growth and increasing manual workload.
Biffa implemented Dynamics 365 Finance to automate financial processes, standardize procurement, and enable real-time data integration.
Dynamics 365 improved governance, auditability, and reporting, driving efficiency, compliance, and future-ready scalability for Biffa.
Biffa’s decision to implement a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system was not simply about achieving immediate operational efficiencies; it was essential for addressing fundamental issues around scalability and risk by centering long-term enablement. Its legacy system had become a significant barrier to growth. In a highly transactional and growing company, the need for a modern, scalable, and compliant solution that aligns internal operations with supplier expectations has never been more important. That’s why Biffa uses Dynamics 365 to digitize and automate its mission-critical, high volume financial processes to dramatically reduce manual intervention and business risk.
Founded in 1912, Biffa Group Ltd is a leading UK-based waste management company with a rich history of providing sustainable solutions for waste collection, recycling, surplus redistribution, and disposal. Biffa offers a wide range of services to commercial and residential customers, aiming to minimize the impact of waste on the environment while maximizing resource recovery.
Biffa’s commitment to innovation has positioned it as a trusted partner in the waste management industry. The company was the first waste management company in the UK to produce food-grade recycled plastics and has diverted millions of tons of plastic waste back into the circular economy. With a dedicated team of more than 12,000 professionals and a comprehensive network of facilities, the company continues to drive positive changes through its waste management solutions, contributing to a cleaner and more sustainable future for all.
In line with the company’s allegiance to sustainability, its transformation was less about quick wins, and more about building the right infrastructure for the future. To support this vision, Biffa partnered with Venture, to help shape a roadmap focused on long-term scalability, data integrity, and user experience. Biffa’s legacy ERP used an outdated interface dependent on a shrinking pool of people who understood how to operate it. So, the implementation of Dynamics 365 Finance serves as a foundational enabler for modernizing the user experience and processes like advanced budgeting and forecasting capabilities. This all relies on having clean, structured, and reliable data flowing from a single source. “Without Dynamics 365 as our foundation, there’s no point in trying to tackle the next layer of transformation,” says Eve Piirimaa, Head of Finance & Procurement Transformation at Biffa.
“Without Dynamics 365 as our foundation, there’s no point in trying to tackle the next layer of transformation.”
Eve Piirimaa, Head of Finance & Procurement Transformation, Biffa Group
Another foundational layer of the change was enhancing Biffa’s control environment. The legacy system was onerous. Take journal entry processing: there was no workflow or structured approval process. Today, Dynamics 365 journal workflows improve control and position the company for future audit efficiencies with a digital audit trail. With features like three-way matching, auditors will be able to rely on embedded controls, reducing the need for manual validation of approvals.
Biffa spends £450 million annually on buying goods and services from over 4,500 suppliers, but outdated legacy processes and systems were not effectively enabling Biffa to capitalize on its scale to achieve optimal pricing and maximize value realization. The legacy system didn’t utilize purchase requisitions, so there was no formal step to authorize spending prior to raising purchase orders (PO). But now that purchasing activity, requisitions, and POs are managed within Dynamics 365, Biffa has a standardized purchase requisition process before the PO is issued. Now, every individual’s approval authority is aligned to their role and job grade, with requisitions and POs flowing consistently through predefined organizational routes making the process unified, predictable, and compliant across the business. This change brings a critical level of financial governance and control that didn’t exist before.
Historically, management accounting relied heavily on manual processes and Excel, with much of the work done outside the legacy finance system and later uploaded through journal entries. With Dynamics 365, that manual effort will be substantially reduced, allowing for more time focused on analyzing results and delivering actionable insights to profit and loss owners and operational managers. “The result is a noticeable uplift in efficiency and insight, particularly in how we approach monthly reporting and financial decision making,” says Greg Fuller, Group Projects Director at Biffa.
“The result is a noticeable uplift in efficiency and insight, particularly in how we approach monthly reporting and financial decision making.”
Greg Fuller, Group Projects Director, Biffa Group
Biffa leverages Microsoft Azure Integration Services as corporate middleware, enabling real-time, high-volume data exchange between the legacy platform and Dynamics 365, enabling operational continuity, centralization of accounts payable and ledger processes, and scalability without disrupting frontline services.
While billing originates in the legacy system, accounts receivable data is integrated with Dynamics 365 Finance, where it is pushed into the general ledger. Dynamics 365 handles financial reporting and accounting. This integration ensures that field activity flows seamlessly from operational execution all the way through to financial recognition, enabling near real-time visibility into revenue, improving billing accuracy, and reducing administrative overhead.
A similar process is applied to disposal costs, which represent Biffa’s largest operational expense. Each waste disposal transaction is initiated when a vehicle is weighed at the receiving site. The resulting financial activity—including supplier costs and provisions—is captured in the legacy system and pushed into Dynamics 365. This allows for accurate tracking, matching, and reporting of purchase orders and line-level transactions for hundreds of thousands of daily activities.
Biffa processes roughly 200,000 to 250,000 invoice lines per month and with Dynamics 365 is driving toward "zero-touch" invoice automation. This approach ensures scalability of accounts payable without increasing headcount, improved invoice accuracy and processing speed, and enhanced visibility and control across procurement and finance functions.
As a highly acquisitive organization, new entities are being brought into the Biffa Group at a steady pace. But even without full system integration, real value is unlocked through Power BI, which sits on top of Dynamics 365 and enables group-wide reporting which delivers a consolidated financial view.
This hybrid model enables standardized reporting, improved visibility, and streamlined monthly group reporting cycles, all while continuing to onboard new acquisitions. For acquisitions that are still operating on separate systems, Biffa receives monthly trial balance files, which are loaded into their respective legal entities within Dynamics 365 aligning the financial data of the company’s 100 legal entities into a common structure.
As a waste management business, Biffa manages everything from property to waste vehicles including its fleet of 3,000 trucks and plant equipment amounting to over 80,000 leased assets. Previously, lease data was tracked and managed manually, and it was difficult to ensure consistency across departments. Given that Biffa is an asset-intensive business, with over 3,500 leases—and growing—the financial exposure associated with inaccuracies in lease records or calculations was significant.
Asset leasing in Dynamics 365 meets the complexity and scale of Biffa’s business. Now, the entire leasing process—from the point of purchase requisition, through funding decisions, to lease creation—is systematized and transparent. The decision point between issuing a purchase order for a cash purchase versus initiating a lease is now embedded in a controlled workflow. The benefits are particularly evident in high-value asset categories, like fleet procurement. When purchasing trucks at the cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds each, it’s critical that the right lease treatment and financial reporting are applied from the outset. Dynamics 365 creates greater visibility, governance, and auditability at every step.
Asset leasing has provided a solid foundation for enhancing financial integrity through the segregation of decision making for lease versus buy decisions. “Lease management is no longer a hidden risk—it’s now a centralized, controlled, and automated process that better reflects the scale and financial complexity of our operations,” says Piirimaa.
At Biffa, supplier compliance is a top priority and vetting suppliers thoroughly before integrating them into its supply chain is essential to maintaining the company’s high standards. Core to Biffa’s procurement policy is that its suppliers meet the highest standards of responsible sourcing, sustainability, and human rights. Its commitment to ethical work practices, reducing accidents, and supporting its communities hinges on supplier partnerships. As such, the procurement process requires rigorous vetting, adding time and complex scenarios.
To support this process, Venture developed a Supplier and Contract Management portal built on Microsoft Power Pages. The portal serves as a single point of entry for all new suppliers, enabling secure and efficient onboarding. Suppliers can submit registration details and compliance documentation, while behind the scenes, automated workflows guide each submission through internal validation steps, including bank account verification, contract uploads, and regulatory checks. The system also tracks expiration dates and sends timely reminders when renewals are due, ensuring ongoing compliance and operational efficiency.
The portal integrates with third-party tools to assess the credibility and risk profile of potential suppliers. Once all validation steps are successfully completed the portal triggers an integration with Dynamics 365 where the supplier is formally created as a record and becomes eligible for transactions.
The portal is more than just an onboarding tool; it is purpose built to strengthen supplier relationships. From onboarding to payment, every interaction is designed to be efficient, transparent, and connected. Once onboarded, suppliers can track their invoices, view payment statuses and due dates, and receive updates on any issues flagged. The result is a streamlined, secure, and fully auditable process that not only improves operational efficiency but also strengthens compliance and supplier relationships.
In the early days of its transition, Biffa is focused on process control and decision making but expects to see cost optimization down the road. For now, the company is using its expertise in collecting, reducing, and recycling to streamline its own operations with Dynamics 365 while leading the way in changing the way people think about waste.
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