How The National Trust improved Unit4 Web using Web Screen Configurator
Driving Efficiency and Adoption Through the Web Screen Configurator
The National Trust is one of the UK’s largest and most
complex charities, stewarding 250,000 hectares of land, nearly 900 miles of
coastline and more than 5 million members. Its scale is matched by operational
complexity: retail, food and beverage, property lettings, membership and
charitable activity all feed into a highly integrated finance ecosystem
anchored by Unit4. Over 30 interfaces, APIs and data flows are managed by a
lean five-person Financial Systems team.
In line with its ten-year strategy, People and Nature
Thriving, the organisation embarked on a move towards cloud-based systems.
Central to this was the webification of finance processes, a necessary step for
future resilience, but one that risked significant disruption to day-to-day
operations, particularly within Accounts Payable.
Why National Trust chose Web Screen Configurator
The Accounts Payable team processes approximately 15,000 invoices per month with just eight clerks. Under the legacy desktop environment, processes were fast, intuitive and optimised for high-volume throughput. The shift to Unit4’s web interface introduced friction with some missing fields, multi-purpose screens and reduced visibility made rapid invoice processing more difficult and increased frustration among users.
“We currently process around 15K invoices per month with a team of around 8 clerks. They found web isn’t as user friendly for fast processing due to missing fields and the registration screen combining purchase, contract and supplier invoicing in one multi-use package. We therefore had to find ways to convince the team to accept the new way forward and configurator helped us navigate our way.”
-Lisa Laycock, Financial Systems Development Lead at The National Trust
Working with Arribatec, the National Trust deployed the Web Screen Configurator, our tool that enables targeted customisation of Unit4 web screens without altering core code.
Rather than forcing users to adapt wholesale to the new interface, the configurator allowed the Financial Systems team to adapt the interface to users. By selectively exposing relevant fields, adding contextual information and simplifying workflows, the web experience was brought closer to the speed and clarity of the desktop environment.
A clear example was Document Maintenance. Previously, when multiple invoices sat in the maintenance queue, clerks had to open each document individually to identify ownership or understand issues. Using the configurator, the team surfaced the user ID and maintenance comments directly in the document list view, dramatically reducing time spent searching and duplicating effort.
“One of the best investments that we have made”
More advanced use cases followed, including reconfiguring the registration of incoming invoices to better reflect how the AP team actually works, completely separating logic, clarifying fields and removing unnecessary cognitive load.
The configurator required technical understanding but crucially empowered the in-house team. Using Arribatec’s Excelerator reports, the team identified screen sections and fields, then applied changes via A1TOPGEN attributes. This meant improvements could be delivered quickly, iteratively and without dependency on major system upgrades or external development cycles.
“National Trust have a very knowledgeable Unit4 ERP team. They implemented Web Screen Configurator themselves just from the instruction manual. I was able to assist with some WSC best practices to help them get the most out of it and learn some handy tricks they can use in the future.”
James Wright, Principal Solution Consultant at Arribatec
Importantly, the approach was pragmatic rather than indulgent. Governance was applied to ensure configurator changes solved real problems rather than creating unnecessary complexity — a discipline that protected long-term maintainability.
The impact was immediate and tangible. Productivity was preserved, with the AP team successfully able to maintain high invoice throughput despite the move to web-based processing, the Trust avoided additional Citrix licensing and the need to recruit more clerks, resistance to webification was significantly reduced, smoothing the broader cloud transition, and the finance processes became future-ready while remaining fit for purpose today.
‘Webscreen Configurator has enabled us to create user‑friendly screens for all our users, from approvers through to data inputters. We have transformed the Web screens for AP Invoicing, speeding up data entry and pre‑populating information to reduce errors. Our buying process has also been improved by updating the requisition screen to show only the information that is needed and by pre‑populating fields to make it much easier for ad‑hoc Unit4 users to make purchases. Approvers now benefit from more user‑friendly, clearly formatted approval screens that are easier to read.
It is one of the best investments that we have made in Unit4 for our users and has been well received by longstanding users of the system who have recently moved from desktop to Web, making that transition process both easier and achievable.”
