Managing late payments in the construction industry: how CF Group put an end to unpaid invoices

Late payments from building firms putting pressure on your cash flow?

Construction industry suppliers often work with freelancers and sole traders, so managing late payments can be a real challenge. Alain Dierickx (CFO) and Handan Alhan (credit controller) at CF Group have experienced this issue first hand.

As a pool materials distributor, they have around 1,300 active clients, mainly freelance pool fitters, who are always on the road and rarely have much time for paperwork.

Drowning in paperwork…

Handan: “Before using Clearnox, I’d easily spend 70% of my day sending reminders for outstanding invoices one by one. In the construction industry, our clients are always on the move. The result? Invoices start stacking up and late payments become the norm. Everything had to be manually tracked, and invoices fell off the radar.”

… And weighed down by our ERP

Alain agrees: “Our ERP wasn’t helping. After three outstanding invoice reminders had been sent, we had to go manual. It was slow, impractical and prone to errors. Over time, payment terms lengthened and our cash flow floundered.”

Smooth strokes to improved cash flow

In light of these issues, CF Group sought a simple, intuitive, well integrated system to track invoices and reduce late payments.

Alain: “We could see the difference as soon as we connected Clearnox with our accountancy tool, Popsy. Clearnox’s support team helped us from start to finish: the transition was smooth and easy.”

Better cash flow and less stress with invoice reminder automation

Since CF Group has been using Clearnox, there’s been a visible increase in cash flow.

Alain: “Payments are made sooner, which means we can pay our suppliers quicker and benefit from welcome reductions.

Now I have a clear overview of open invoices and payments received daily. It makes our work flow much more smoothly.”

The customer is always right, even when they forget to pay…

Handan is particularly impressed by the customisable, automatic payment reminders: “With Clearnox we never forget to send a payment reminder. And we save so much time. I’ve even cut the time I spend tracking invoices by half. Now I have more time to spend on personal connection with my clients.”

“With all the data in one central place, there are no double ups or pointless reminders. It’s not just effective, it also improves our relationship with our clients.”

What if you could get paid faster too?

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