Founded in 1985, Marseille Gyptis International (MGI) developed software that digitalises and simplifies cargo transit operations. The company works directly with port communities in mainland France and overseas territories.

Béatrice Brun, CFO of MGI, explains their former Excel-based accounts receivable process, the implementation of LeanPay and the impact the tool has had on their collections.

Before LeanPay

Only a few overdue customers were followed up

Inefficient and seldom updated tracking

Limited information sharing

With LeanPay

All overdue customers systematically followed up

Efficient processes and tracking

A collaborative tool enabling smoother teamwork

Manual tracking of payments and reminders

Regarding invoicing, Béatrice Brun explains their model: customers are billed monthly with a fixed subscription component and a variable part linked to activity.

There are two customer categories:

• A small portion of customers pay by direct debit with a 45-day payment term.
• The majority have a 30-day payment term. At the due date, they pay either by bank transfer or cheque. This is the segment where MGI observes many late payments, though not unpaid invoices.

One team member handles customer monitoring exclusively, covering both invoicing and collections. Before LeanPay, the entire accounts receivable process relied on a manual Excel file. A structure not suited to a company issuing between 300 and 400 invoices per month.

Béatrice Brun describes a double issue: lack of visibility on overdue customers and limited information sharing.

“We didn’t have a clear view of payment tracking and follow-ups. Since the Excel file was not always kept up to date, it was difficult to navigate. We didn’t identify all customers with overdue payments and missed some follow-ups. On top of that, reminder emails were sent from my colleague’s mailbox, which I couldn’t access.”

Due to the lack of easily accessible and shareable information, Béatrice Brun and her colleague had to hold regular meetings to track reminder progress.

“We spent more time talking about where the reminders stood than actually sending them. Our tracking was really not efficient,” she notes.

This also took significant time: she estimates spending 4 hours per month on collections monitoring, while her colleague dedicated around 50 % of her time to accounts receivable management.

When Socrate Tellier, co-founder and CEO of LeanPay, contacted Béatrice Brun, she was not actively looking for a tool.

“I didn’t even know this type of solution existed, but when he showed me the product, it convinced me to change our method.”

A tool that evolved with MGI’s needs

From the very first demo, Béatrice Brun found LeanPay “easy to use, visually pleasant and very intuitive”. She was able to test LeanPay for several weeks with no commitment:

“It’s rare to be offered that, and it’s a huge advantage of LeanPay. If they had told me I needed to commit for a year, I wouldn’t have done it because I wasn’t looking for a tool. And since I wasn’t the main user, my colleague also needed to try it and approve it. She’s not very comfortable with office tools, and yet she didn’t need any training. LeanPay is really easy to use. I quickly saw how valuable it could be for us,” she explains.

MGI uses Quadratus as its invoicing system. To retrieve invoice and payment data, they opted for accounting synchronisation. Regarding setup, “it was quick and Socrate was very present.”

Béatrice Brun also appreciates that her feedback and suggestions were taken into account as the tool evolved:

“The application is continuously improved based on our needs. For example, I wanted to export the dashboard aging balance to Excel. I also asked for a filter in the customer ledger to exclude ‘doubtful’ customers we don’t want to follow up. The option to send reminders as registered letters was also added. It’s really useful to send them via LeanPay because our entire dunning process is centralised in one place.”

“We’ve been LeanPay customers for over a year. The service has really improved, the experience is very positive and that’s why we remain loyal.”

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Better visibility for more efficient follow-ups

Béatrice Brun is very satisfied with LeanPay’s impact on MGI’s collections process:

“There has been an impact across the board: better visibility on overdue payments, a more structured dunning process, and shorter payment delays.”

Every customer with an overdue invoice is now easily identified. The time gained on identification is reinvested in sending reminders. All overdue customers are now followed up, which wasn’t the case before.

A structured reminder workflow has also been implemented:

“We now frame each reminder and even worked with the legal team for the wording of the final demand letter for payment,” explains Béatrice Brun.

She and her colleague use LeanPay differently:

“I look mainly at the aging balance to see which customers are more than 120 days overdue. That’s usually what interests me,” says Béatrice Brun.

“My colleague handles the reminders. She sends the pre-due date reminder to everyone. LeanPay tells her who needs to be followed up and which reminder to send. She just has to validate. It’s very fast. We no longer need our regular check-in because I now have access to all the information instantly. I go directly to the customer record and see whether they have been followed up, and why not if needed.”

“It’s a much more efficient system,” she concludes.

And icing on the cake: MGI has also seen an improvement in payment delays, which have decreased by 5 days.