A prominent Western Cape-based FMCG producer has become the first organisation in SA to implement Pro-2-Col, a world-class business software product from Bateleur Financial Solutions which helps companies reduce their days outstanding and boost their cash flows.
A spokesman for the company said the product came through its beta test with flying colours. "Pro-2-Col is ideal for our environment because it manages the proactive collection of debt, monitors the performance of debtors` clerks and escalates debt queries when necessary. In fact, Pro-2-Col would suit any business where the invoice-to-credit note ratios are high."
Steve Addison, a consultant at Bateleur Financial Solutions, says Pro-2-Col helps to increase a company`s operational profitability by improving cash flow via the debtors` book and the bottom line. Created specifically for environments where large quantities of invoice queries are generated, thereby delaying invoice settlement, Pro-2-Col proactively manages the collection of cash by examining workflow, identifying bottlenecks and highlighting customer problems. Debtors outstanding are quantified and credit notes and other key financial information are taken into account when deciding how to correct the situation.
The FMCG company spokesman said activities such as reconciliations, cash applications and printing reports were laborious in the current financial system. "Marking off paid transactions and adjusting transactions with claim amounts or overpayments is very time consuming," he said. "Pro-2-Col can export the detail per account to an Excel worksheet, so the reconciliation of a payment can be done in Excel. This way time spent on reconciliations and cash applications can be cut by two-thirds."
The company forecasts cash inflow and outflow on a monthly basis broken down into weeks and days. Due to Pro-2-Col`s ability to monitor by customer and credit portfolio manager, the FMCG producer is now able to more accurately report on variances of actuals against forecast and to hone in on problem areas.
The company`s customer claim ratio to invoices is very high. Pro-2-Col addresses this problem by enabling users to drill down to line items per invoice. This information can be attached to an e-mail with all the relevant information pertaining to the claim, and these e-mails are forwarded to the sales department for credit authorisation.
"This speeds up the authorisation process considerably, particularly as Pro-2-Col uses the systems date in the e-mails," the spokesman said. "Also, if the same reason keeps cropping up, we are able to query why the root cause has not been rectified."
According to Addison, Pro-2-Col combines the best of international practice with elements which have worked extremely well in SA to deliver a world-class hybrid of the two.
"Pro-2-Col takes concepts like customer care to the accounts receivable departments. Credit controllers are now equipped with tools that allow them to operate as customer financial services people - collecting funds, resolving disputes, and enhancing customer relationships," he said.
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