CASE STUDY

Improving the short-term cash position of a multinational company

Our client, an international player, was in the final stages of securing new financing, but faced a challenging interim period, necessitating proactive cash flow management.

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Strategic Context

Complex industry dynamics characterized by numerous partners engaging as both customers and suppliers within the business framework

Challenging economic conditions exacerbating margin pressures and affecting customer payment behaviour

Challenges

Limited visibility of Cash-in opportunities
Strong dependence on reporting of Factoring instance
Limited potential improvements in Accounts Payable, except for blanket payment delays
Strong interdependence with partners, leading to negative Accounts Receivable impact in case of Accounts Payable delays

Objectives

Our objective was to improve the cash position by addressing issues impacting Accounts Receivable, focusing on short term impact while putting in place structural solutions to the issues identified:

Set up Accounts Receivable reporting to keep the helicopter view
Improve processes to secure faster cash-in
Tackle critical ad-hoc issues to generate impact

Generate awareness for cash importance in the organization

Our approach

Build Accounts Receivable Control Tower within 1 day, continuously building on its intelligence to provide better insights on KPIs & required focus areas
Leverage Control Tower to push on key issues & identify areas of improvement
Set up of a cross-functional Taskforce to quickly identify & take actions
Rigorous follow-up of actions to drive progress
Focus on both short-term, ad-hoc improvements, as well as mid-term, structural process improvements

Examples of actions taken:

Setting up customer-specific dashboards, enabling conversations with customers on their payment behaviour, disputes,… empowering commercial teams to drive enhancements
Setting up of a late payment penalty invoicing process
Improving the dispute handling process to shorten lead-times
Time-to-Invoice monitoring & improvements
Settlement of key (legal) disputes to generate short-term cashflow

Results

Successfully managed cash position for over six months until securing new financing.
Implemented a Control Tower integrated into the client’s systems, enhancing structural oversight of Accounts Receivable.
Implemented structural enhancements across multiple processes, yielding significant and lasting improvements.