Clario Customer Story

CHALLENGES

When Clario Director of Accounts Receivable (AR) Michael Piercy first started at the company, his top priority was to reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and make their processes less tedious and cumbersome. When looking at Clario’s DSO at the time, it was obvious that things were not working and their current process was broken.

The company’s collections process was primarily done via spreadsheets, requiring a staff member to run an aging report and manually copy over the notes from the previous report.

Aging reports were created once per week, and without any real-time tracking of payment application, it often led to time wasted on looking up invoices and potentially contacting customers for payment who had already paid their invoices.

Just to keep their heads above water, the AR team’s main focus at the time was collecting payments greater than 90 days past due. It was a process that required hand-keying invoices into the portal and took up a majority of the collectors’ time.

SOLUTION

To achieve the company’s goal of improved DSO and process efficiency, Michael began searching for an AI-driven solution to address Clario’s biggest AR challenges. Ultimately, Esker’s I2C solution suite checked all the boxes: ERP agnostic, intuitive interface, real-time reporting tools, automated workflows with full audit trails, and much more.

One of the key features the AR team has found most valuable is automated payment reminders. Automatic reminders ensure that collections calls are made sooner, and staff doesn’t have to stress about who needs to be called when. Esker’s AI-driven workflows make resolving issues easy, simplify the day-to-day of AR staff, and allow managers to better track employee and process performance.

From an invoice delivery standpoint, the customizable features and preferences made delivering invoices straightforward and streamlined. Additionally, reporting on email delivery allows Clario’s AR team to identify exactly when an invoice is opened, helping to hold customers accountable for paying on time.

I wanted something that was easy, simple, not too cumbersome, and that would promote acceptance from the people that were doing the work.
Michael Piercy | Director of Accounts Receivable, Clario

RESULTS

After implementing Esker’s I2C solution suite across their cash collection process, Clario was able to achieve all their initial automation goals, and then some. By automating invoice submission to portals such as Ariba, Tungsten, Taulia, Transcepta, Jaggaer and customer portals, Clario has been able to cut down on the time manually spent submitting invoices by 80%, which has allowed their staff to become more efficient in their day-to-day tasks.

Clario has also seen an immediate return on investment within the first year of implementing their I2C solution. In the first year alone, the overall value of invoices that were greater than 30 days past due has been decreased by 71%, and the value of invoices greater than 90 days past due has also seen a decrease of 81%.

But reducing the overall value of past due invoices is not the only way Clario is saving money with Esker. Previously, AR staff would have to build in a 10- to 15-day buffer for customers to take advantage of their rebate program, as there was no way to know when a customer received or opened their electronic invoice. Now, with the added visibility that Esker provides, Clario has been able to eliminate that buffer and more effectively issue rebates. “If I would have calculated this year’s rebates the way we used to — without the precise dates provided by Esker — we would have given away several thousand more dollars in rebates this year,” said Piercy

Internal customers are raving fans of Esker. Using the customer self-service portal, they can monitor projects on a daily basis, identify which invoices are outstanding, get copies of invoices instantly, and access other various documents at their convenience — all things they couldn’t do before.

The future is bright for the partnership between Clario and Esker. In the coming months, Clario is looking at adding on additional ERPs to their Collections Management solution, as well as potentially exploring Esker’s Cash Application solution for their business’s needs.

If a customer comes to me and says, ‘We never received that invoice,’ I can go back into Invoice Delivery and confirm the exact person and date associated to the opening of that invoice email. We often get payment shortly afterward whenever that happens.
Michael Piercy | Director of Accounts Receivable, Clario