When a 6-minute dispute freezes a €180,000 invoice, standard ERPs can’t help
Credit management in professional services
In professional services, credit management is not a collections problem. It is a relationship problem, a systems problem, and an internal escalation problem, all at once. The client disputes 6 minutes of billed time on a €180,000 invoice. The credit manager needs to find the right partner, get them to act, and wait. Your ERP cannot route any of this. Onguard can.
In a nutshell
The invoice is in SAP. The dispute is about 6 minutes. And the credit manager is not allowed to call the client.
Onguard is a dedicated credit management platform for staffing bureaus, consultancies, legal firms, IT companies, and construction groups in the Netherlands and Belgium. In professional services, the ERP records only a financial total. The invoice context, which partner, which project, which six disputed minutes, sits in billing systems like Deltek, Synergy, Timebax, or AutoCAD. Onguard bridges all of it: routing disputes to the right partner automatically, consolidating 50 entity invoices into one holding communication, and splitting G-account amounts on a single dunning notice. The same credit team manages a portfolio that scales through acquisitions. Founded in 1992, with an average client relationship exceeding ten years.
Your choice is the same as theirs
Your ERP sees €180,000 outstanding. It has no idea who billed it, why, or who to call.
Why professional services credit management gets stuck
A client disputes 6 minutes of charged time on a €180,000 invoice. The ERP registers the total as outstanding and wants to send a reminder.
Your credit manager cannot contact the client directly: the engagement partner owns that relationship. So an internal email goes out. The partner is travelling. Three days pass. The invoice ages.
Your ERP knows one thing: €180,000 outstanding. It has no idea which project, which phase, which partner, or which six minutes are in dispute. That context lives in Deltek, Synergy, or Timebax. The ERP received a journal entry: a bare financial total, nothing more.
In professional services, the credit manager is less a collector and more an internal coordinator, navigating partner hierarchies and fragmented systems while the invoice sits unpaid.
The sector changes. The internal escalation problem does not.
Staffing, consultancy, legal, it and construction: the same internal complexity
Fleet leasing, private lease, and multi-entity lease portfolios each carry their own complexity. The underlying gap is the same across all three.
- Staffing and HR bureaus: invoice 50 Albert Heijn locations separately, but the decision to pay sits at the Ahold holding. Each invoice needs to reach the holding as one consolidated action. G-account splitting adds another layer: every dunning notice must automatically show the correct split between the Belastingdienst G-account and the regular account.
- Management consultancies and legal firms: every disputed invoice is a relationship management decision. The credit manager cannot act without the engagement partner. Partner approval workflows are not a feature any ERP supports.
- IT services companies: project-based invoicing means disputes are about deliverables, not hours. Did the sprint meet the acceptance criteria? That conversation happens between the client and the project manager — not the credit manager, and not the ERP.
- Construction groups: project BVs (joint ventures like "A9 BV") create sub-administrative entities that need intercompany reconciliation and separate financial management. Standard ERP systems do not support this without expensive customisation.
Across all four: the credit manager's job is to coordinate internally, navigate stakeholder complexity, and consolidate communication outward, none of which a flat ERP was designed to do.
The intelligent third layer. Above ERP. Above billing. In one cockpit.
What Onguard does for professional services credit teams
Onguard connects ERP financial data and billing system project detail in one workspace, adding the stakeholder layer and communication intelligence that neither system provides.
- Internal dispute routing: straight to the right partner
When a client dispute arrives, Onguard routes it automatically to the responsible partner or project manager based on the invoice data — without the credit manager needing to search, email, or chase. The right person gets the right case. The credit manager tracks progress from one screen. - Entity consolidation: 50 invoices, one communication
A staffing bureau invoicing 50 Albert Heijn locations can consolidate all outstanding items into one bundled communication toward the Ahold holding — without touching the underlying ERP administration. The holding receives a single, clear overview. The credit manager sends one action instead of fifty. - G-account splitting: automatic, on one dunning notice
For HR and staffing companies, every dunning notice must split the outstanding amount correctly between the Belastingdienst G-account and the regular account. Onguard calculates and displays this split automatically on the notice itself. No manual calculation, no separate communication, no compliance risk. - Sub-administration for construction and project BVs
Construction groups working with joint ventures and project BVs (intercompany structures) need sub-administrative entities that match their operational reality. Onguard manages these structures natively, handling intercompany reconciliation and project-level financial management without requiring a consultant for every configuration change.
30% shorter DSO. 15-30% lower collection costs. Same team.
Measurableresults in professional services portfolios
Onguard customers in professional services report concrete improvements to their credit management operations.
The ROI case here is not headcount reduction. It is portfolio scalability. When a staffing group acquires a new bureau, or a consultancy wins a major new account, the credit operation scales with the business. Same team. More control. No proportional growth in cost.
30%
shorter DSO: releasing working capital across a portfolio that grows through acquisitions and new client wins.
15–30%
savings on cost of collections: driven by automated internal routing, eliminated Excel reconciliation work, and consolidated entity communication.
13%
increase in sales revenue: because faster dispute resolution protects the partner-client relationship instead of straining it.
Savings
Licence cost savings, often immediate: Onguard holds 80-90% of the daily client information a credit manager needs, eliminating the expensive ERP and CRM view licences that were previously required just to see the data.
Don't just take our word for it
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Onguard, SAP, and your billing system. All three, better together.
How Onguard works with your ERP and billing systems
Your ERP stays exactly where it is. So does your billing system.
SAP, Exact, or AFAS continues to record financial totals. Deltek, Synergy, Timebax, or AutoCAD continues to manage project and billing detail. Onguard connects to all three, draws the relevant data from each, and builds the credit management layer above them: stakeholder routing, entity consolidation, G-account splitting, and real-time dashboards your ERP was never designed to generate.
The combination works because Onguard understands what each system is for. The ERP knows the amount. The billing system knows the project. Onguard knows what to do with both.
What you gain by combining both:
| What your ERP and billing system manager | What Onguard adds above them |
|---|---|
| Financial totals and project billing detail | Routes disputes to the right partner automatically |
| Invoices per legal entity or location | Consolidates 50 entity invoices into one holding communication |
| Payment amounts per debtor | Calculates and displays G-account splits on each dunning notice |
| No awareness of internal stakeholder hierarchy | Maps partners, project managers, and approval workflows |
| Requires IT or consultant for workflow changes | Configured directly by your credit team |
30 minutes, your portfolio, no slides
See it in practice
A demo takes 30 minutes. In that time, we show you how Onguard connects to your ERP and billing systems, how internal dispute routing works in practice, and what changes when your credit team stops coordinating by email and starts working from one screen.
Built around the specific complexity of professional services credit management.
Frequently Asked Questions - Credit management for professional services companies
Our credit managers are not allowed to contact clients directly because the engagement partner owns the relationship. How does Onguard handle this?
This is one of the most common pain points in professional services credit management, and Onguard addresses it directly. When a dispute arrives, Onguard routes it automatically to the responsible partner or project manager based on the invoice data — without the credit manager needing to know who that is or chase them via email. The credit manager sets the routing rules once, and Onguard handles the internal escalation from there. The partner receives the relevant case. The credit manager tracks progress. The client relationship stays protected.
Our clients dispute specific billed hours or project deliverables, not the total invoice amount. Does Onguard handle this level of dispute detail?
Yes. Onguard is built to manage disputes at the line-item and project level, not just at invoice total level. When a client disputes six minutes of billed time or a specific project phase, Onguard logs the dispute against the relevant line, routes it to the responsible internal owner, and tracks it through to resolution. The rest of the invoice continues through the normal collections flow. Your credit team has a complete audit trail of every dispute, including the internal communications that resolved it.
We invoice dozens of separate client entities that all ultimately belong to one holding. Can Onguard consolidate these into one communication?
Yes. This is one of Onguard's most-used capabilities in staffing and professional services. You can configure Onguard to group invoices across separate legal entities and consolidate them into a single communication toward the holding or parent company. The individual entity invoices remain intact in the ERP. The client receives one clear, consolidated overview. This works for both the outbound communication and the internal reporting, without requiring any changes to your ERP structure.
We are a staffing or HR company and need to split dunning amounts between the G-account and the regular account. Can Onguard do this automatically?
Yes, and this is a capability built specifically for the HR and staffing sector. Onguard calculates the correct split between the Belastingdienst G-account and the regular account automatically and displays both amounts on a single dunning notice. Your credit team does not calculate this manually. Your clients receive one clear communication showing exactly what goes where. The compliance requirement is met without a separate process or additional system.
We use SAP (or Exact, or AFAS) for finance and a billing system like Deltek or Synergy for projects. Do we need to replace either to use Onguard?
No. Onguard sits above both systems as the credit management layer, connecting to each via integration. Your ERP continues to record financial totals. Your billing system continues to manage project and hours detail. Onguard pulls from both and gives your credit team a single workspace where the financial position and the project context sit side by side. The credit manager stops switching between systems and stops maintaining a parallel Excel file to bridge the gap.
Our group has grown through acquisitions and we now manage multiple brands, labels, and legal entities. How does Onguard handle this complexity?
Yes. Onguard is designed for multi-entity environments with complex structures. You configure separate templates, dunning logic, and collection workflows per entity from one central cockpit. When a new entity is added after an acquisition, your credit team configures it directly, no consultant and no IT project required. This is a significant operational benefit for staffing groups and professional services firms that grow through M&A, where the credit management complexity multiplies with every acquisition.
Our credit team currently pays for ERP and CRM view licences just to access client data they need for collections. Does Onguard change this
This is a concrete and often immediate cost saving. Onguard holds 80-90% of the daily client information a credit manager needs in its own cockpit, pulling it from ERP and billing systems automatically. Once Onguard is live, credit managers typically no longer need the expensive view or read licences for the underlying ERP or CRM systems — because the data they needed those licences for is now available directly in Onguard. The licence cost saving alone often contributes meaningfully to the business case.
What does Onguard do that SAP, Exact, or AFAS cannot handle natively in a professional services context?
ERP systems in professional services hold only a financial journal entry: a total amount, a debtor, a due date. They have no awareness of which partner owns the client relationship, which project the invoice relates to, or how to route an internal dispute to the right person. They cannot consolidate invoices across 50 entity locations into one holding communication, cannot split G-account amounts on a dunning notice, and cannot manage sub-administrative project BV structures without expensive customisation. Onguard adds the layer that makes all of this possible, sitting above the ERP and billing systems combined, and giving your credit team a single workspace to manage the full complexity of professional services collections.