BG Freight Line

The core activity of BG Freight Line B.V. is short sea shipping and feedering, or regional transport and transit of containers for deep sea transport. BG Freight Line’s ambition was to optimise the collection process and to work in a more structured and proactive manner. Further, they had the aim of reducing the outstanding balance and the DSO.

BG Freight Line generally has 6000 to 6500 outstanding invoices from an average of 500 debtors. Margins are minimal, which is why there is an intensive focus on cost management and cash flow. Our financial management pays specific attention to realising the best possible timing between outstanding and received payments. We use professional and structured credit management to keep the procedure up until payment of invoice as short as possible.’

“We use circa 15 profiles to deal with different clients in an effective manner. The profiles make it possible to automatically address debtors in a structured and appropriate manner. Customers are familiar with the regularity of our reminders and we notice that this adds structure to the payments. Thanks to Visma | Onguard, corresponding in different languages and currencies does not demand extra time. The time saved on a variety of fronts provides ‘quality time’ that we can invest in (long-term) relationships with customers.”

Another factor that demonstrates Visma | Onguard’s success is that BG Freight Line has not sent a single reminder in paper format since Visma | Onguard was introduced. ‘Via meetings with the Visma | Onguard User Group I became aware that digital reminders are a long way from being standard practice everywhere else’, states Ouwerling. ‘This surprises me because reminders via e-mail help to cut costs, are more direct and a lot faster.’

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