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With around 30 branches across France, Serpe is a key player in pruning, felling and landscaping. A LeanPay customer since December 2023, Serpe has reshaped its receivables management to improve cash flow and profitability. We spoke with Alan Thomas, Head of accounting, treasury & collections, to understand LeanPay’s impact.
Before LeanPay
80 days of DSO
Manual dunning process
Time spent on chasing: one full week per month, three people for one entity
Inadequate and inefficient processes
With LeanPay
56 days of DSO
Automated reminders
Time spent on chasing: one day per month, four people for four entities
Fully optimised order-to-cash process
Alan Thomas provides context on Serpe’s situation before LeanPay.
In just four years, the company grew rapidly, from 25 M€ to 100 M€ turnover, thanks to acquisitions. However, this expansion halted profitability, mainly due to excessive debt and an oversized outstanding amount compared to the company’s size. On top of that, existing processes were no longer suited to a business of this scale.
Serpe works with four categories of customers, each with different contractual payment terms:
Based on this mix, Alan Thomas estimates their DSO should be around 45 days. Yet at the time, it reached 80 days.
Before LeanPay, managing late payments was cumbersome. Once a month, the collections team (three people) extracted an aging balance in PDF format from the accounting tool. Each member handled part of it and chased customers individually.
"We had to go through the entire account history and send reminders manually. It was really archaic and complex," recalls Alan Thomas.
This task tied up each of them for an entire week.
With the growth of outstanding amounts, Serpe decided to overhaul its processes. This led to the creation of a dedicated credit management department in charge of risk management, collections and customer accounting. To equip this new function, several solutions were compared and LeanPay stood out.
"We were won over by the solution, the company and its values. What made the difference was having a tool that evolves quickly and being able to contribute to its improvement. This isn’t just a customer/supplier relationship: it’s a genuine collaboration!" adds Alan Thomas.
Serpe’s former CFO had also recommended LeanPay.
Serpe switched ERP from Sage 100 to Sage X3. In both cases, the integration was seamless thanks to a connector, ensuring real-time data in LeanPay.
The team set up customised dunning scenarios adapted to each customer type (individuals, key accounts, public sector and private sector). Chorus Pro integration also allows them to track public receivables status with precision.
They established escalation levels according to delay and communication channel. “For the first reminders, it’s by email. Then comes a phoning stage, and finally a letter for formal notice,” explains Alan Thomas.
If payment still hasn’t been made, they have two options:
Serpe was even involved in developing the Allianz Trade connector. “We have a credit insurance policy with Allianz Trade and wanted an integration between the two solutions,” says Alan Thomas.
Finally, the collections reporting is widely used, both by operational staff (Alan Thomas and the credit managers) and by executive users such as the CEO and CFO. With several entities in the group, the dashboard is analysed both per entity and consolidated at group level.
Serpe’s team is determined to fully leverage LeanPay to structure and optimise receivables management. The tool has highlighted improvement areas across the entire order-to-cash process. As Alan Thomas puts it: “LeanPay helped us by providing a clear picture of the financial situation. It turns out there are dysfunctions throughout the receivables lifecycle. The whole chain needs reviewing.”
The first issue identified was the lack of essential payment information. “We’re not always aware of specific payment terms or that a customer requires invoices to be sent to a platform or a particular email. Sometimes we only realise once the invoice is overdue,” says Thomas.
To solve this, the team created a customer invoice record to centralise all data, ensuring more accurate monitoring and better anticipation of reminders.
The second key point concerns reminder efficiency. Previously manual and irregular, reminders are now systematic and personalised through LeanPay’s dunning scenarios.
"Our reminders are far more frequent. We’ve realised that the more often you chase a customer, the higher you climb on their payment list," notes Alan Thomas.
It’s also a massive time saver: the team has nearly divided by four the time spent chasing customers. “It used to take one week per person, three people, only for Serpe. Now it takes one day per person, four people, for four entities!”
Thanks to restructured processes and more proactive reminders, DSO dropped by 24 days, from 80 to 56.
A remarkable result that Serpe intends to improve further, aiming for the 45-day target and strengthening cash flow. This transformation was essential for the group’s survival, as Thomas admits: “If we hadn’t implemented LeanPay and restructured all processes, honestly, we wouldn’t be able to continue operating. It would have put an end to everything Serpe had built.”
The next challenge for Serpe is to instil a lasting cash culture at all levels. As Alan Thomas points out: “We’ve started this change. It takes time and isn’t as straightforward as we’d like. We need to change the mindset of around a hundred people [local branch staff], and that’s no easy task!”
LeanPay provides finance teams with an accounts receivable software to eliminate late payments and collect 100% of their revenue.
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