Every manual action is recorded, which is the first step towards artificial intelligence, as it avoids having to perform the same action twice. In less than a month, the automatic matching rate jumped to 90%. The task has been spread across all the company managers, which means a few minutes each morning to deal with exceptions.
Introducing Dupont Restauration
Dupont Restauration is a contract catering company positioned in 4 areas: corporate, schools, healthcare/accommodation and catering/events.
In figures, it posted sales of €200 million in 2017, with over 2,450 employees, 400 restaurants, 8 central kitchens and delivers 500,000 meals/day in the kitchen or on site in France.
A wide range of issues linked to cash collection
Each of Dupont Restauration’s business units is confronted with a wide range of collection problems, from credit cards, cash and cheques to bank transfers and company-specific invoicing systems. The group benefits from a strong presence in Northern France and the Paris region, as well as in Eastern, Western and Southern France, reinforced by their latest external growth in Marseille, Reunion Island and Mayotte, and Belgium. The group has opted for a cash management tool in line with this growth, to ensure the financial and economic monitoring of each delivery point.
Before adopting CashOnTime in 2017, 9 companies made up the group, dealing with 7 different banks and managing some 30 bank accounts for 5,000 customers, representing around 30,000 credit transfers/year ranging from the monthly settlement of a family in a canteen to invoices of several thousand euros from groups of retirement homes.
The group needed to assign a payment point – of whatever kind – to each restaurant. The types of payment were multiple: Eftpos terminals, online portals for families to pay by CB, e-charge, cheque, direct debit, etc…
High standards
Money allocations are not easy to manage, and represented almost one FTE for invoice recovery, tallying, credit card collection, allocation to the right management, feeding suspense accounts, etc….
It’s tedious work with no added value, all the more so as the matching turnaround time was not always optimal, given the mass of assignments.
The main area for improvement was the industrialization of incoming payment volumes.
Automated flow management
CashOnTime Allocation allows you to manage an indefinite number of companies, banks and accounts, with the option of intervening flexibly to add an item independently. The tool features a self-learning engine.
In just a few days, the automatic matching rate has risen to 65% for invoice processing. The tool also analyzes account statement content (ordering party references, invoice references, association between bank numbers and account statement references, etc.).
Every manual action is recorded, and this is the first step towards artificial intelligence, as it avoids having to perform the same action twice. In less than a month, the automatic matching rate jumped by 90%.
The task has been spread across all the company managers, which means a few minutes each morning to deal with exceptions.
Bertrand Marat, IT Manager for the Accounting, Finance and HR departments.
Simplified cash management, particularly in the public sector
Bertrand Marat notes that town councils can generate a certain volume of invoices, for example for their leisure centers, schools, retirement homes, etc. “But all this is paid for by the same client. “But all this is paid for by the same client. It’s complicated to have one principal and “n” customers behind them. CashOnTime Allocation manages this very well, once the process has been set up at the end of a complete billing cycle. We know which treasury pays which customer, and then everything is managed automatically.
While matching is at the heart of the engine, all cash receipts – particularly for credit cards – are also processed. The allocation of analytical payments is done automatically: the bulk of the CB volume and part of the cash is processed in this way.
A fast, efficient and sustainable cash automation project
CashOnTime, fast project progress
The integration took three months, during which 4 people were involved at different stages (an IS project manager, an operational accountant, an accounting manager, plus a consultant on the DIMO Software side).
It was imperative to have a good vision of the data to be extracted, which was facilitated by the fact that the Group has a good command of banking files, in terms of formats, content and flows.
On the other hand, the integrator’s mastery of ERP for I/O interfaces is essential for importing information correctly. “The automatic matching rate exceeded our expectations from the very first month”, says Mr. Marat.
4 major benefits after 18 months
- Over 80% of matching done before accountants arrive
- Volume-independent industrial processing
- Matching, transfers and credit card accounting completed by 9:30 a.m. daily at the latest
- Collection can take over, based on real-time data
Outlook for the future
In the medium term, Bertrand Marat aims to maximize cash accounting for all types of cash receipts, and will proceed with the matching of supplier direct debits. “The tool will support our growth,” concludes Mr. Marat.
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