Photo of Kirti Talwar, Senior Director, Finance Shared Services.

Collections challenge at CDK solved by GETPAID solution

The challenge

CDK issues around 27,000 invoices a month. However, the company did not have an automation workflow tool for managing credit and collections activities. Instead, a standalone ticketing system was used to manage activities such as disputes and sending reminders to call customers.

This system handled an average of 64,000 tickets a year, with no way of knowing which of those were disputes, or how quickly customer disputes were being resolved. Other challenges included the inability to enforce a collections strategy, as accounts receivable (AR) associates were tracking their activities in an inconsistent way using spreadsheets.

Inefficiencies also arose because approximately 50 AR team members were in the habit of sending communications using their individual email accounts. Communication records were not centralised, and there was a risk that communications could be lost. In addition, the processes used to send communications to customers were both time-consuming and disparate.

Meanwhile, CDK was also in the process of setting up a shared service centre in India to include the credit and collections process. It was clear that a new solution was needed to optimise the dispute resolution process as part of this transition.

The solution

CDK implemented the FIS GETPAID solution to take advantage of a user-friendly collections management and dispute resolution workflow that could improve collections activities, enforce a collections strategy, optimise the dispute resolution process and standardise and streamline communication with customers.

Initially, CDK investigated several options including in-house solutions but it quickly became apparent that GETPAID would offer a straightforward user experience, was readily customisable and provided standard reports that would be invaluable in achieving the company’s goals.

Best practice and innovation

Corporate treasury often lacks a focus on the customer experience in the context of collections, but this is an area that CDK has successfully tackled through the adoption of GETPAID. In addition, CDK has successfully harnessed data to benefit the company as a whole.

The company has successfully replaced inefficient and time-consuming processes with a streamlined customer billing dispute resolution workflow and standardised customer communications. This ambitious project has resulted in numerous qualitative and quantitative benefits, from reducing open disputes by 60% to gaining more insight into AR collections and customer billing dispute management.

“The new solution has also helped the collections team adapt to remote working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic and has achieved impressive results despite the disruption,” explains Kirti Talwar, Senior Director, Finance Shared Services.

Looking forward, the company is currently exploring the adoption of GETPAID’s cash application module to drive further improvements.

Key benefits

Since implementing GETPAID, CDK has seen a significant improvement in accounts receivable metrics, with the number of disputes reduced from 512 in February 2020 to 140 in August 2020.

• Centralised email management.
• Collection strategy enabled.
• Dispute management improved.
• Better reporting and customer experience.
• Standardised communications.
• Accountability improved.
• Central data retention.

“Furthermore, the use of GETPAID has enabled the collections team to continue operating remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, which would have been impossible to achieve before adopting the solution. And despite the disruption brought by the crisis, the team has succeeded in collecting 98% of its projected collections for the fiscal year ending in June 2020 – an outcome that was met with considerable appreciation by the leadership team. For the 2021 fiscal year, the team is currently ahead of the treasury forecast,” concludes Talwar.

The Adam Smith Awards is the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. The 2021 Awards attracted a record-breaking 309 nominations spanning 40 countries. To find out more please visit: https://treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards.