Case Study: NEW Cooperative Inc. achieves streamlined accounts payable, on-time payments and 40% growth with M-Files

Case Study: New Coop

NEW Cooperative, a farmer-owned agricultural cooperative with 25 locations across Iowa, faced a manual, paper-based accounts payable process: invoices were coded locally, sent in intercompany envelopes to corporate by route truck, often missed early-payment discounts, and were hard for locations to track or retrieve. Scaling the business and improving timeliness and visibility became critical as the cooperative grew.

Partnering with Marco, NEW implemented M-Files to scan, code and workflow invoices, enabling automated approvals, searchable comments and metadata-driven document search. The move eliminated filing cabinets, ensured bills are paid on time, and allowed the team to process about 30,000 invoices per year without adding AP staff; six months after implementation the cooperative expanded business volume by 40%. Usage grew from 25 to 100 licenses (roughly 50% of employees use M-Files daily), the shared drive was migrated, auditor access and information security improved with controlled permissions and an HR vault, and the system now supports agronomy dispatch maps and planned integrations like DocuSign and QR workflows.

NEW Cooperative Inc.

Jeff Wittkopf

IT team leader