How Avizio secured its cash flow and said goodbye to survival mode
As a service company that commits to paying its experts right after their mission, Avizio faced major cash flow challenges. This is putting a strain on the company’s working capital. Avizio’s CEO, Henri, chose Upflow to solve this and help create a scalable business model.
Henri de Lorgeril
CEO
81%
Less time on cash collection*
50%
DSO reduction*
*after 6 months.
Before Upflow
Since Upflow
Strained operating budget
Working capital is no longer an issue
Multiple payments falling through the cracks
100% of cash collection time is focused on at-risk payers
Cash collection caused friction on customer relations
Cash collection enhances customer relations
Mission statement
Avizio, is an HR consulting group that accompanies the growth of companies with their HR and People challenges. Avizio offers a range of services: talent acquisition of middle to top managers, part-time HR missions, employer brand agency and mentoring and assessment.
FTEs
1-50
Industry
Human Resources and Consulting
HQ location
Paris, France
Stack integrated with Upflow:
Quickbooks Online
“Cash flow is key to our business model. Simply put, we can’t afford to let payment collection drag on”
Before using Upflow, Avizio’s working capital was a primary concern. Fast payment collection was essential to pay their network of advisors on time.
Even with nearly €1m in cash out at all times the company is serene and confident thanks to Upflow. “This is clearly significant, but we are now in control of our working capital, not the other way around”.
Thanks to their collaboration with Upflow and their finance manager Stéphanie, this is no longer an issue: she now has clear visibility on how much money is out, where it is, and when it will most likely be collected. Upflow allows her to properly forecast her cash collection and report this to her now zen C-level.
Upflow was exactly what we needed: I couldn’t handle cash collection anymore, and improving our cash flow had become vital for us.
5.3x less time spent on cash collection with nothing falling through the cracks anymore
Before Upflow, Avizio’s cofounders were in charge of cash collection. And, they quickly realized (1) how time-consuming it was and (2) that the process needed to be streamlined. Upflow successfully solved both of these issues.
Yet, they recruited Stéphanie so that she would handle cash collection. They decided to go back to spreadsheet mode: “It won’t be a problem”, it would only take some time.
But some time quickly became a lot of time: as the company grew, Stéphanie became overwhelmed: “My calendar was bursting with notifications”.
That’s when Upflow came back to the rescue, to Stéphanie’s relief. She now spends 1.5 hours a week on cash collection, when she would spend 8 hours with her previous process. “Not including, the mental load…”
I know everything I need at a glimpse about each client. That… is very cool!
Safeguarding customer relations throughout the payment process
Stéphanie had devised a process to avoid antagonizing the customers as much as possible. Yet, “when you don’t have time and your cash flow position gets too low, you can grow impatient”.
With Upflow, they easily reproduced this process for each business unit and even improved it. Since all of their customer contacts are very busy people, Upflow makes it easier for them with a wide range of communication channels.
And thanks to the real-time integration with Quickbooks, Stéphanie no longer runs the risk of asking for a payment that has already been made.
Stéphanie's take on AR
Prioritize: You can’t do it all by yourself. So focus your time on at-risk accounts and automate the rest
Don’t give up: Most clients have no problem paying. But for the others, you have to keep trying
Finance Teams
Say goodbye to Excel, revolutionise your collection processes. Get control of your cash flow.